Briggs styles it up.
Report T Sutherland.
With a strong field of motarders again taking
to the streets at the annual 'Cemetery Circuit' meeting,
it looked early on to again be a match up between last years
champ Craig Flood (Honda) and crowd favorite Stephen Briggs
(KTM).
Flood, swapping between his XR650 hybrid and
a CRF450 came out strong in the first race, with Briggs managing
a win over Flood for the first time in over a year.
Although Flood left the meeting leading a class it wasn't
to be the Supermotard class as a horde of competitive KTM
pilots and the firey demise of Floods number one bike
saw him miss the last Supermotard race and him leave the
meeting
in that
class
in 7th position.
Briggs, who said that although he wasn't as
yet feeling comfortable on the all new factory KTM 660, (he'd
been using
the tricked
out and lighter KTM525SMR for
some months before taking delivery of his new machine) the
machine was definatly faster than the bike he rode last year.
Any threat to the dominate KTM's was thwarted
as Husaberg Motosport Champion, Paul Brown (Honda CRF450)
found
the pure
road race
enviroment a quite different proposition and local Jayden
Carrick (CRF450) seemed to be entwined in calamities of one
form or another all day. In fact the first non KTM in the
field was Gisborne's Yamaha mounted Adrian Frair.
So Briggs, to the crowds delight, pitched the big KTM around
the circuit
and
left
with maximum
points in the supermotard class.
Briggs is also running third in the Bears class
with fellow motarders running fourth, sixth, seventh and
,eighth in the top ten. That class is lead by Johnny Hepburn
on an
Aprilia
RSV1000.
Flood leads the F3 class with fellow motarder
Craig Sergent running in third. Flood's bike caught fire
after crashing while dicing in the leading group, the race
was
declared
from the
previous lap. Briggs did not contest the F3 class.
Battle of Streets standings after round 1
SsangYong
Cemetery Circuit 2004.
Supermotard class
days standings. (top 10 of 25)
| Position overall |
Rider |
Home Town |
Points (after 1 round) |
Bike |
Race reults |
| 1st |
Stephen Briggs |
Papakura |
75 |
KTM660 |
1 / 1 / 1 |
| 2nd |
Brendon Stephenson |
Dannevirke |
62 |
KTM 610 SMR |
3 / 3 / 2 |
| 3rd |
Nigel Healey |
Kimbolton |
56 |
KTM |
5 / 2 / 4 |
| 4th |
Brendon Coad |
Auckland |
49 |
KTM 525 SMR |
8 / 5 / 3 |
| 5th |
Adrian Frair |
Gisborne |
45 |
Yamaha YZ450F |
7 / 6 /5 |
| 6th |
Jayden Carrick |
Wanganui |
44 |
Honda CRF450 |
6 / 7 / 6 |
| 7th |
Craig Flood |
New Plymouth |
40 |
Honda XR650 |
2 / 4 / DNS |
| 8th |
Craig Scott |
Wanganui |
37 |
Honda CRF450 |
10 / 8 / 8 |
| 9th |
Gareth Mair |
Wellington |
33 |
KTM640 |
12 / 11 / 7 |
| 10th |
Anthony Bradford |
Dannevirke |
31 |
Kawasaki KX500 |
14 / 9 / 9 |
Best Supermotard lap of the day. Flood 53.822 secs.Honda
XR650.
The next round of the 'Battle of the Streets'
is at Paeroa on the 20th
of Febuary 2005.
Photos. Check it out.
Heaps of Motards on this photo page.
See Mylaps for full
results.
Check out all
the top racers who have been doing a bit of Supermoto.
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