DIRT NEWS
BALL WINS NZ THREE DAY TRIALS CHAMPS 2020
Words : Dylan Ball
T he 2020 edition of the New Zealand Three Day Moto Trials Championship was held over Labour Weekend around the Little River area of Christchurch and also doubled as the seventh round of the South Island championship . I went into the event with little time on the bike , only about five hours since the Hawkes Bay champs , due to studying and other commitments getting in the way of seat time . So with that in mind I was well chuffed to become NZ expert champ for the second year in a row winning all three days and also winning Junior and the last two rounds of the South Island championship , which were held at the same time . The event ran in a similar format over the three days . Each day had 12 sections to be ridden three times per day and you only get five hours to complete the course so time is tight . Most of the sections were in a small creek which was very slippery , so if you got through for a three you were doing well . Comfortably winning day one and two , dad [ Nick Ball ] told me to take it easy on the final day as the championship was pretty much in the bag , but it wasn ’ t all smooth sailing had a big crash ,
dad missed the catch , I broke the clutch lever which my mechanic ( dad , again ) had to swap out mid race . That involved him riding back to the pits grabbing all the gear before heading back to me to swap and bleed the clutch in the bush too - legend !. I then rode the next five sections with only a very weak front brake due to front brake issues , and as I was running tight on time we couldn ’ t sort the brake out . But I still managed to get the win over fellow Beta ace Warren . I found out after the race that when I crashed my bike I knocked the calliper and got brake fluid on the pads which was the source of my braking issues for the remainder of the day . Thankfully Beta NZ had all the appropriate parts in stock , so rectifying the damage wasn ’ t a problem . On the topic of the bike , I was super stoked with how my 2020 Beta 300 Evo performed . This is my first season on the weapon and it ran faultlessly . There are a few people I ’ ve got to say a big thank you to for their help in locking in the 2020 NZ Championship , those being ; Beta Motorcycles NZ , Forbes and Davies , Mots Racing , Forma boots and Domino Racing .
18 KIWI RIDER