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Collin Matiza Sports Editor
THE dates of this year’s Zimbabwe Summer Series — the country’s premier competition in the motorcycling sport of motocross — have been set.According to the updated calendar of events for the 2013 season, which was recently released by the secretary of the Zimbabwe Motorsport Federation, Rose Rushforth, this year’s Summer Series, which attracts top international riders from Africa and overseas, will once again be held over four days during the second week of December.
This exciting motorcycling championship will once again consist of two Supercross (night racing) and two motocross races with the first race meeting, a motocross event, slated for December 7 at the home of Zimbabwean motorsport — Donnybrook.
In fact, all the four 2013 Zimbabwe Summer Series events will be staged at Donnybrook and the first Supercross meet will be held there on the night of December 11 with the second one pencilled in for December 13.
The 2013 Summer Series will conclude on December 15 with a motocross event which will be followed by a prize-giving ceremony on the same day.
The Zimbabwe Summer Series has over the past years been attracting top motocross riders from the United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Botswana and Zambia, and this year’s competition will be no exception as several foreign competitors have already indicated that they would be coming down to Harare to compete in this event in December.
Some of the top motocross riders from South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia, who took part in the 2013 FIM Africa Motocross of African Nations at Muldersdrift just outside Johannesburg, South Africa, three weeks ago, confirmed on the sidelines of this big event that they would be coming to Harare in December to take part in the Zimbabwe Summer Series at Donnybrook.
Gary Grainger, the chairman of the Bogwheelers Club who run the motorcycling sport of motocross in Zimbabwe, also said during the FIM Africa Motocross of African Nations at Muldersdrift that apart from these African competitors, he was expecting to have more foreign entries for this year’s Summer Series from top overseas riders who will come from the UK and the United States.
Last year’s Summer Series attracted more than 20 international riders from the United States, England, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Botswana, and they included two Americans — Dare DeMartile and Cole Barbieri — who competed in the 85cc Class and 125cc Class respectively.
Meanwhile, most of Zimbabwe’s top junior and senior motocross riders will step up their preparations for this year’s Summer Series when they take part in a national championship event at Donnybrook this coming Sunday.
This year’s national championship is being sponsored by NetOne and has been seeing all top junior and senior riders jostling for the top places in the standings of different classes, and they are all expected to be at Donnybrook on Sunday for the latest round of this event.
Big Chitima (Senior), a member of the Bogwheelers Club, said yesterday that they were, in fact, going to stage three motocross events on the trot at Donnybrook, starting with the national championship event on Sunday.
“We are going to have three weekends of motocross racing in a row. This Sunday we are first going to have our next round of the national championship and then next weekend we will have a club event which will be followed by another national championship meet on October 6.
“We have been forced to have three race meetings in a row because we lost a lot of race time during the run-up to the July 31 harmonised elections,” Chitima (Snr) said.
He said all these three race meetings will be sponsored by NetOne, who became the official sponsors of Zimbabwean motocross at the beginning of the year.
And this Sunday will see all the top Zimbabwean motocross riders converging on Donnybrook for the latest round of the NetOne national championship series and among them will be Jayden Ashwell who helped Zimbabwe to finish second overall at the 2013 FIM Africa Motocross of African Nations in South Africa three weeks ago.
Ashley Thixton, Daiyaan Manuel, Davin Cocker, Ryan Masimo, Kuda Mhene (Jnr), Big “BJ” Chitima (Jnr), Mudiwa Chigumba, Wade Ashwell and exciting young female rider Tanya Muzinda, who were all part of Team Zimbabwe in South Africa, are all expected to take part in this Sunday’s national championship at Donnybrook.
Meanwhile, the DragPro Club, who run the motor racing sport of drag racing in this country, said yesterday that they have made a change to the dates of the two remaining events of the 2013 Telecel Drag Racing Series at Donnybrook.
They said the next event will be staged on Saturday, October 12 and not on November 3, and the final race meeting of the series will be held on November 23.
Online Reporter