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
![Jolivet_Wade_Young](https://images.caxton.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2023/04/jolivet_wade_young-780x470.jpg)
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.
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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.
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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