Avis rides off with opening day honours

riders Wyatt Avis who emerged as the top dog in the main MX1 Class at Donnybrook on Wednesday night.
Avis delivered a thrilling performance to eclipse six fellow superstars of motocross, who included Briton Sam Simmons, to win the MX1 Class on an action packed night of Supercross competition at the home of local motorsport – Donnybrook.

The South African rider was just in a class of his own as he amassed a total of 57 points to emerge triumphant on the first day of the four-day 2011 Summer Series event ahead of local champion Ashley Thixton.
Thixton came second in the opening three rounds of the MX1 Class with 50 points, which were good enough for him to relegate Briton Simmons (47 points) into third place on Wednesday night.

Fourth place went to Zimbabwe’s Jayden Ashwell (41 points) while fifth and sixth places went to Graham Lionnet of Zambia (32 points) and Zimbabwean Cole Bond (11 points).
Top honours in the MXII Class went to Zimbabwe’s Ricky Jardin who topped the class with 57 points, five ahead of fellow Zimbabwean Thixton.
Thixton’s young brother Cameron also did well on Wednesday night, taking a credible third place finish in the MXII Class with 40 points while Zambia Dale Holliday (37 points) settled for fourth place.

The last six places in this class went to Cam Peterson of South Africa (33 points), Zambia’s Bradley Lionnet (32 points), Dima Firks of Zambia (31 points), Zimbabwe’s Stephanus van der Linde (26 points), Francois Swann, also of Zimbabwe, 22 points and Kitso Malebo of Botswana (18 points).
The first podium place in the MX Master Class went to Holliday of Zambia, who amassed 60 points while veteran Zimbabwean motocross rider Blaize Thomas came second with 49 points.

Third place in the MX Master Class went to another Zimbabwean rider Lofty Verfeld who finished the day’s proceedings with 37 points.
Peet Pienaar of South Africa came out tops in the Senior B Class with 60 points, taking pole position in this section ahead of Zimbabwe’s Costa Dobropoulos (47 points) and Damin da Sousa of Botswana (45 points).

Three promising young Zimbabwean motocross riders Regan Wasmuth, Hayden Slick and Willie Swann took the first three places in the MX85 Class. Wasmuth scored a double on Wednesday as he also went on to win the MX65 Class, beating Zambian Davin Cocker and Brady Armstrong of Botswana into second and third places.
There was also some exciting racing in the MX50 Class, which was won by Zambia’s Cocker ahead of two Zimbabwean riders, Tristan Grainger and Reagan Bond.

Young Mudiwa Chigumba was in dominant form in the Junior B Class in which he emerged triumphant with 57 points, 16 ahead of fellow Zimbabwean Nico Dobropoulos while another local rider Thomas Web came third with 34 points.

Promising young local motocross rider Big Chitima (Junior), son of one of the country’s top motor rally drivers, Big “Bigs” Chitima, won the PeeWee Class with 60 points. Second and third places in this class for children under the age of nine went to Luke Hobbs (49 points) and Daiyaan Manuel (47points), both of Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, today will see the staging of another Supercross (night racing) meeting of the 2011 Summer Series at Donnybrook, starting at 6pm.
The 2011 Summer Series will then close two motocross events at Marondera, some 68km outside Harare, tomorrow and at Donnybrook on Sunday.
Both events will start at 9am.