Wade Young shines at cross-country championship in Natal
Non-stop action, a bush fire and fierce competition were all in a day’s work for these cross-country competitors
Enduro legend Wade Young, riding a factory Sherco, took a national cross-country win at the weekend’s Trademore South African Cross Country Championship in Jolivet.
He was followed by Bradley Cox on a KTM and Honda rider Michael Pentecost.
A bushfire forced the organisers to stop the race and reduce it to four laps instead of five.
Young ultimately dominated overall and OR1 on his Sherco. He left the second-placed Cox to take the spiritual cross-country OR1 class win aboard his Brother Leader Tread KTM, ahead of Pentecost’s third-placed Franchise Co Tork Craft Honda.
Davin Cocker took a comfortable second 350cc OR2 to win in two races on his factory Husqvarna.
A delighted Jolivet home hero, Haydn Cole, took advantage of his local knowledge to ride his Franchise Co Tork Craft Honda to a dominant maiden national 250cc OR3 victory.
Kerim FitzGerald had a second seniors win on the trot on his Red Bull KTM.
It was far closer in the masters. Pieter Holl’s Kawasaki beat Greg Nairn’s KTM by 300ths of a second after three and a half hours of hard riding!
Tenth overall, Luke Walker rode his KTM to an emphatic 15-minute high school 125cc win over Thomas Scales’s similar machine.
The junior action saw Murray Smith take the national 85cc’s honours on his Husqvarna.
The Trademore South African Cross Country Motorcycle Championship now takes a break until a completely different challenge at the midwinter semi-desert Vryburg double-header on June 16 and 17.
Source: MotorsportMedia / Photos: Michaela Ramseyer
