Moto-X national champs on

Harare.
Most top Zimbabwean riders were last seen in action during the 2012 Summer Series event, which took place at Donnybrook during the second weekend of December, and after competing in this four-day event, they all went away for the off-season break.

Although the Bogwheelers Club, who run the sport of motocross in this country, held their first club event of the year on February 3 at Donnybrook, that meet was not attended by some of the country’s top riders as they were still enjoying their off-season break at home and outside the country.

And now all is set for the staging of the first round of the 2013 national championships at Donnybrook on Sunday where all the country’s top riders are expected to meet as they fight to pick their first points of the new season in different classes.

Gary Grainger, chairman of the Bogwheelers Club, said yesterday that they were looking forward to an exciting new season and were also expecting a number of new riders to take part in both the club and national championship series, starting from this Sunday.

“Our 2013 season officially gets underway on Sunday with the staging of the first round of the national championships where we are hoping to see all our top motocross riders in action.

“They are going to compete in all the classes from the Pee Wee to the MX1 Class. In fact, we’ve introduced a new format which we hope will encourage new riders to come in and compete in both the club and national championship series this year.

“For the first time this year, we are going to have the Pee Wee 50B and 50A classes, 65B and 65A classes and we’ve split the 85A and 85B classes. We’ve also reintroduced the 125 class and then we will have the Senior B, MX1 and MX2 classes.

“The staging of all these classes will depend on the number of riders that we will be having at each meet but we are confident that we will have a full house at all our race meetings as we are expecting a number of new riders to register with us this year.

“The only notable absentee on Sunday will be talented rider Jayden Ashwell who left the country two weeks ago for a six-month training and riding stint in the United States,” Grainger said.

The Bogwheelers Club chairman said this year will see them staging a total of 12 race meetings comprising of six club events and an equal number of national championship races.

“In fact, the standard format is that we should stage six nationals and six club events to make it a total of 12 race meetings per year and this excludes the year-end Zimbabwe Summer Series event.

“We are also hoping to introduce three local Supercross (night racing) meetings to our calendar of events for this season and I think this will bring more excitement to the sport,” Grainger said.

Meanwhile, three of the country’s top riders – Gavin Cocker, Tristan Grainger and Daiyaan Manuel – recently took part in the opening round of the South African national championships in Durban where they made their presence felt.

Gary Grainger said Cocker was the most outstanding Zimbabwean rider in Durban where he came third in the 65cc Class while Tristan Grainger, who recently moved up from 50cc to 65cc Class, came fourth in this section. Manual competed in the 50cc Class and was placed third.

Gary Grainger said Cocker, Tristan Grainger and Manuel are all expected to return to South Africa on March 31 for the second round of the South African national championships.

“We are also hoping to include one of our top young riders, Big ‘BJ’ Chitima (Junior), in our team for this meet in Johannesburg but we are still waiting for the official confirmation of the event’s date from Motorsport South Africa but it’s most likely to be held on March 31,” Gary Grainger said.

Plans are also underway for young female rider Tanya Muzinda to compete in some of the South African national championship races this year.

Muzinda’s father, Tawanda, said yesterday that he would also like to see his nine-year-old daughter taking part in the South African national championships this year “and plans are afoot to take her there”.

“We have, in fact, approached several sponsors and it’s our desire to see Tanya becoming the first female motocross rider from Zimbabwe to compete in the South African national championships… We are determined to see her riding in South Africa this year,” Tawanda Muzinda said.

Tanya, a Grade Four pupil at Eaglesvale School in Harare, has graduated to ride in the 65cc B Class this year after having spent the last two years competing in the Pee Wee Class for riders under the age of nine.