Wilkie buries rivals in dirt for double

Masterton rider Mason Wilkie was unstoppable as he successfully defended his MX1 open title at the New Zealand motocycle TT championships held at Kuratau, near Turangi, last weekend.

TT racing is very much like superbike racing apart from the fact it is staged on soil rather than tarmac and Wilkie was simply too quick for his rivals, providing one of three big wins for Yamaha on the day.

The distinctive blue and white brand also took out the MX2 class through Waitakere's Ethan Martens and the 125cc title through Te Puke's Logan Blackburn.

The 22-year-old Wilkie was dominant in his division. He had five starts on the mainly flat track and won the lot of them. It was not, however, all one-way traffic with Martens, former national TT champion Brad Goombridge of Taupo and Jesse Donnelly of Paraparaumu being hot on his heels.

Wilkie said winning the MXI open title for the second successive year was more satisfying than the junior and MX2 national titles he had won in the past. "It is the big boy's class," he said.

His latest success certainly came in more comfortable circumstances than his victory last year, when he trailed Cameron Dillon of Taupo after three of the five races were completed and then won the next two to snatch the major spoils.

Wilkie recalled having crashed in the first race and then working his way through the field to finish third, which meant he was playing catch-up from that point.

The focus for Wilkie leading into last weekend's meet was on enhancing his starting technique and maintaining a high cornering speed and his results proved the value of his hard work.

Martens was similarly dominant to Wilkie in the MX2 class although an uncharacteristic crash did mean he was beaten once, by Featherston rider Callum Moore, also on a Yamaha. Moore finished third overall.