Motorsport: Insatiable Mead set on two titles

Rory Mead is one race away from reclaiming the national crown, taken from him last year. Photo / File

The job is almost done and Taupo's Rory Mead can ease back and relax ... although he's unlikely to do anything of the sort.

The 2011 Yamaha New Zealand Enduro Championships outright win is virtually in the bag for Mead after he won the penultimate round in the Riverhead Forest, near Auckland, last weekend, and just a moderate performance at the series finale near Taupo on July 23 will win him back the national crown he last held in 2009.

But Mead not only wants the outright title, he wants the class win as well.

Mead is now within just a few points of taking over the lead in the over-300cc four-stroke class, the advantage there currently held by Tauranga's Reece Burgess (Husaberg FE450).

Perhaps the only reason Mead does not already lead the separate battle-within-a-battle for bike class glory is that he changed bikes during the season.

Mead rode a smaller Yamaha YZ250F to win the under-300cc four-stroke class at round one of the series in January, before switching to the bigger 450cc Yamaha and starting a win streak with that bike.

Just back from a tour of duty racing cross-country events in the United States, Mead was too slick for his rivals at Riverhead.

The 24-year-old builder took his Yamaha YZ450F to the front of the talent-packed field, using his trials riding skills to great effect in the slippery conditions, traversing the greasy tree roots and bogs to win the day ahead of fellow Kiwi international Chris Birch (KTM EXC300).

Expatriate Birch, now living in South Africa and himself only back in New Zealand for a short spell as he visits family and friends, finished just a shade over 90 seconds behind Mead at the end of a difficult day in treacherous conditions in the damp forest.

It was an even more remarkable performance from Birch, considering the fact he had stopped to assist a fallen rider in the forest - fellow Kiwi international and 2010 national enduro champion Jason Davis (KTM 150SX), of Whangamata - helping him some distance back to the pit area before rejoining the race.

Third overall at Riverhead was Taranaki rider Adrian Smith, the man from Mokau taking his 250cc four-stroke Yamaha YZ250F to finish just ahead of Auckland teenager Callan May (Yamaha YZ125) and Hokianga's Mitchell Nield (Gas Gas EC125).

So gruelling was the event that only 17 of the 25 expert grade riders who started the event survived to see the finish.

Tokoroa's Sean Clarke (Yamaha WR250) was one of those ironmen who did finish, crossing the line in eighth place overall, and that was enough for him to wrap up the battle-within-a-battle for veterans' (over-40) honours with a round to spare.

In was a similar story for Auckland's Karl Power (expert under-300cc four-stroke class), Hokianga's Mitchell Nield (expert under-200cc two-stroke class) and Auckland's Michael Skinner (expert over-200cc two-stroke class), with these riders also wrapping up their respective class titles at Riverhead.

The other separate categories will be decided at the sixth and final round of the series, in Taupo next month.