dyton mupawaenda
Collin Matiza-Sports Editor
THE stage is now finally set for the biggest international sporting event to be held in the country this year.
The organisers of this year’s Better Brands Petroleum Zimbabwe Summer Series at the weekend finally released the names of over 20 international foreign motocross riders who are going to descend on Donnybrook Park Raceway in Harare this week for this big international event.
This year’s Zimbabwe Summer Series is set to explode into life this coming Wednesday night with the first of its two Supercross (night racing) events which will be followed by another Supercross race meeting on Friday, December 8.
The three-day Zimbabwe Summer Series will then close with some high octane of motocross racing on Sunday, December 10, at the same venue.
And the Bogwheelers Club, the organisers of the Zimbabwe Summer Series, through their main title sponsors, Better Brands Petroleum, have managed to bring in more than 20 professional riders from overseas for this year’s event.
The foreign riders are flying in from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Australia and Germany, making the 2023 Zimbabwe Summer Series the biggest international sporting event to be hosted by this country this year.
About 14 top riders from South Africa are also coming in to spice-up this year’s Zimbabwe Summer Series at Donnybrook Park.
A number of riders from Zambia and Botswana are also expected to compete in this event. This cast of foreign riders is being led by French champions Thomas Ramette and Anthony Bourdon, Italian Lorenzo Camporese and Andrea Bonifacio.
According to the Bogwheelers Club, Ramette is arguably the best European Supercross rider of all time.
In 2020, he came second in the SX1 European Championship and third in the 2021 French Elite SX1 Championship.
Before that, Ramette was the 2016 “King” of Supercross in Stockholm and in Poland.
He was also the European Supercross champion in 2015. Ramette’s fellow countryman Bourdon is also a monster on the track.
He is the 2020 French motocross champion and was ranked among the top 10 in the 2022 World Supercross Championship.
Italian Camporese also has a good CV under his belt.
He was the FMI Italian Supercross Champion in 2019, 2021 and in 2020 where he was also crowned the Italian motocross Champion.
They will be joined on the track at Donnybrook by other top international motocross riders who include Ryan Surratt, Austin Black and Andrea Bonifacio, the 2018 Dutch 125cc Supercross Champion and 2020 French 250cc Supercross Champion. And these top foreign dirt bike riders and local bikers are set to battle it out for a share of US$$40 000 prizepool which has been dangled in front of them for the first time by this year’s Zimbabwe Summer Series main title sponsors — Better Brands Petroleum. The petroleum company is owned by prominent Harare businessman Scott Sakupwanya.
With riders being able to compete in both the Supercross competition on December 6 and 8 and the motocross competition on December 10, it provides three chances to take home some serious cash.
According to Jamie Kerwin and Dougie Mellor of the Bogwheelers Club, the organisers of the Zimbabwe Summer Series, the breakdown will see the overall winner of each class taking home US$5 000 with first and second runners-up getting about US$3 000 and US$1 500 respectively. With this considerable breakdown to all the senior classes, it means all riders can get excited.
“The US$40 000 prize money is for the Senior A riders who will be competing in the main MX1 and MX2 classes.
“I think there’s also a cash incentive for the 125cc riders with the overall winner getting US$5 000, the first runner-up US$3 000 and the third-placed rider getting US$1 500 something along those lines but it doesn’t apply to kids and to us the Veterans.
“It (the US$40 00 prize money) has been mainly put there to lure the professional foreign riders to come for this event . . . and even for them to come back next year,” Mellor told Zimpapers Sports at the weekend.
With the US$40 000 cash incentive in place, most local senior motocross riders are also expected to come out in their numbers to compete in what promises to be the most exciting Zimbabwe Summer Series in its history. If that’s not enough, Seven-Seven Sports of South Africa will be performing a half-time Freestyle show during the three days of competition at Donnybrook. Supercross racing on Wednesday and Friday starts at 4pm while motocross action revs off at 9am on Sunday.
Entry fee for spectators has been pegged at US$5 per person for adults while children under the age of 12 will get in for free.
There will be full bar and catering facilities during the three days of action at Donnybrook.
Online Reporter