Online Reporter
Collin Matiza-Zimpapers Sports Hub
IT’s back!
After having temporarily disappeared from the local motorsport radar, the country’s premier motorcycling event — the Zimbabwe Summer Series — is making a welcome return to the motocross calendar in December this year.
The Zimbabwe Summer Series is a premier, season-ending annual motorcycling and motocross event traditionally held over three days in December at Donnybrook Park Raceway in Harare.
It typically opens with two days of Supercross (night racing) followed by a full day of high-octane motocross action on its final day.
Run by the Bogwheelers Club under Motorsport Zimbabwe, this thrilling event is returning this year after it was shelved last year after its dates clashed with the staging of the fifth and final round of the 2025 World Supercross Championship, which was held in Cape Town, South Africa.
And the Zimbabwe Summer Series is set to make a sensational return at Donnybrook Park Raceway on December 9, 11 and 13 this year.
Carla Campbell, club secretary of the Bogwheelers Club, confirmed the dates of this year’s event to Zimpapers Sports Hub yesterday.
“Yes, it’s back. The Zimbabwe Summer Series event is taking place on the 9th, 11th, and 13th December.
“It’s our biggest event of the year, with international riders from all over coming (we are yet to have the names of them all coming).
“We will be doing two Supercross events on the 9th and 11th of December and motocross on the 13th.
“It’s going to be bigger and better than before with some amazing sponsorship coming through to make our event possible,” Campbell said.
The event’s return comes as some sweet music into the ears of a number of top local junior and senior motocross riders who missed it last year.
These riders include exciting young bikers O’Neill Shamuyarira, Victor Nyamupfukudza and Riley Rocher; and veteran Doug Mellor, who raised the Zimbabwean flag high during this year’s FIM Africa Motocross of African Nations Championship in Windhoek, Namibia, towards the end of August.
The quartet helped Team Zimbabwe to finish fourth overall behind South Africa, hosts Namibia and Uganda in the two-day event.
This year’s FIM Africa Motocross of African Nations Championship attracted a good turnout of more than 350 junior and senior riders from 11 countries — South Africa, Namibia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Madagascar, Eswatini, Angola and Mozambique.
In Windhoek, two of Team Zimbabwe’s senior riders, Rocher and Mellor, claimed the top individual prizes in the MX2 and Veterans classes.
Sixteen-year-old Rocher was in a league of his own in the MX2 Class in which he claimed the top step on the podium at the business end of the competition.
He was emulated by seasoned campaigner and “old-warhorse” Mellor who emerged as the top dog in the Veterans category.
Two of Zimbabwe’s talented young riders, Shamuyarira (8) and Nyamupfukudza (11), also came out of the competition with their heads held high after coming fourth overall in the juniors 50cc and 85cc classes.
Both Shamuyarira, who is popularly known as “Wawie” in the local motocross circles, and Nyamupfukudza missed podium by a whisker as they were in 3rd place for a few laps but later lost it.
And after raising the country’s flag high during this year’s African Championship, these riders are now itching to compete in the Zimbabwe Summer Series in December.
Shamuyarira’s elder brother, Elroy, is also looking forward to competing in the Zimbabwe Summer Series where he will be fighting for the top step on the podium with Nyamupfukudza in the 85cc Class.
Apart from the local riders, the Zimbabwe Summer Series also attracts top riders from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini and Zambia.
