DIRT NEWS
MULTI-TALENTED RIDER STILL HAS THAT ONE
SPECIAL RACE
A
motorcycle rider as enormously skilled as
Bay of Plenty’s Brad Groombridge can be
a hard man to slow down, pin down and
categorise. Not unless the category is “multitalented
motorcycling magician”.
The 29-year-old Taupo locksmith has done
it all over the past few seasons, winning races
and national titles in a variety of different
bike codes and in varied circumstances too,
mostly campaigning his favoured Kea Trailerssponsored
Suzuki RM-Z450 model dirt bike.
He even dabbled with superbike road-racing
during the 2018-19 season, taking a Suzuki
GSX-R1000 to score impressive results there
too, although he has since re-focussed to
concentrate solely on the dirt bike scene.
Groombridge was one of just two individuals
to tackle more than one class at the 2020 NZ
MX Champs that wrapped up in March and it
didn’t seem to fatigue him at all.
In fact, despite being entered in twice as
many races as any other rider in the premier
MX1 class, Groombridge still managed a
magnificent top-six result at the end of the
four-round series.
Perhaps a glutton for punishment or simply
a dirt-biking workaholic, Groombridge also
raced his Suzuki RM-Z250 model bike in the MX2
(250cc) class this year, settling this time for 10th
overall in what would arguably have been the
toughest MX2 championship class in many years.
Groombridge was also twice the New Zealand
enduro champion, in 2016 and again in 2018,
and he also won the New Zealand Cross-country
Championships three-times consecutively
(in 2016, 2017 and 2018), so he is obviously
a versatile and multi-talented rider with
remarkable credentials.
But this says a great deal about his bikes too.
Groombridge has raced exactly the same
16 KIWI RIDER