There was simply no stopping Taranaki's Daryl Hurley at the weekend's 48th annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville.
The 32-year-old Suzuki rider from Hawera was in superb form, winning three races from three starts in the premier MX1 class and then winning the all-important Invitation Feature race as well, as he totally dominated
It was a classy performance from the many-time national champion, who has surprisingly only once before won the main title at Woodville, back in 2005.
“My stated aim before the weekend was to come here and win ... I did that but I can’t say enough about my team. They all dug deep to make sure I could achieve this today,” said the modest Hurley.
“I wasn’t nearly fit enough at the nationals (that wrapped up in November). With my new business interests, I just didn’t have the time to get into shape. I was disappointed with how I rode at the nationals … although I did win the MX2 crown,” he shrugged.
“But I trained hard over Christmas to rectify that and I’m a lot closer to fully fit now.
"It is awesome to win Woodville. I was runner-up to (world championship factory rider) Josh Coppins last year and there wasn't much in that. It's a nice feeling to come here and win all my races this time around."
Runner-up to Hurley in the MX1 class was Hurley's former Suzuki team-mate, Luke Burkhart.
And it could almost have been double glory for Suzuki in the premier classes with Queenstown's Scotty Columb taking his RM-Z250 to a convincing win in the day's first MX2 race, eventually finishing nearly three seconds ahead of Rotorua's Michael Phillips.
But Phillips fought back to claim the win in race two, setting the afternoon up for a classic winner-takes-all final race.
Unfortunately, Columb crashed on lap four while leading the race, gifting the class win to his rival.
"I think some twine from one of the trackside hay bales got caught in my brake lever and I went down," said Columb. "I got up pretty quickly but boiling water was squirting from the radiator. I carried on for a bit but then decided to withdraw rather than risk cooking the bike.
"It's pretty frustrating for me and for Suzuki too. I was clearly the fastest rider out there in the MX2 class ... the lap times showed that ... but it wasn't my day in the end."
There was, however, another bright spot for the Suzuki camp with Atiamuri's Dion Picard finishing runner-up in the junior 85-150cc Champion of Champions race, the RM85 rider just being edged out by the 150cc bike of Otago's Campbell King.
Wanganui's Tom Managh also impressed, finishing an equal third on the podium in the 15-16 years 125cc, while Ngaruawahia's Daniel Parry also won a podium spot, third overall in the 12-14 years' 125cc class
…ends…
