The battle lines have been drawn and now it’ s‘ game on’ for the remaining rounds of New Zealand’ s ultimate off-road motorcycling competition after the fifth round of seven took place near Wellington over the weekend of September 27-28. The latest two-day segment in this year’ s New Zealand Hard Enduro Nationals was held at Moonshine, in the Akatarewa Forest near Pauatahanui, north-east of Porirua, and again it was New Zealand’ s crop of elite off-road motorcycle racers, each with outstanding reputations and insane riding skills, who shone out, although even for these hardy souls, most were relieved when the engines were finally shut off on Sunday afternoon. The final two rounds of this Yamahasponsored series in November – in the Canterbury and then Wellington regions respectively – should be truly torrid affairs with everything still to ride for. Pre-event favourite and winner of the corresponding series last season, Wainuiomata’ s Jake Whitaker( KTM 300EXC), finished an unaccustomed fifth overall on the Saturday, although it was still significant that his nearest rival after the previous rounds, Auckland’ s Mitchell Gallagher( Beta RR300), was a no-show and therefore handed a welcome points advantage to Whitaker. Rotorua’ s Bradley Lauder( GASGAS EC300) won Saturday’ s race ahead of Tokoroa’ s Jake Wightman( KTM 300EXC) and Whitecliffs rider Luke Doerner-Corson( KTM 300EXC), with Amberley’ s Archer Pascoe( Husqvarna TE300) and Whitaker rounding out the top five. Day two on Sunday was something of a mystery, with a scoring glitch forcing the organisers to award identical( maximum) points to all finishers, meaning the results from Saturday also became the overall rankings for the weekend. There have been four different winners in the series so far and the multi-talented Whitaker is the only rider to win outright more than once this season, making it two victories in a row after winning round three in Canterbury back in May and then round four in Northland in July.
2025 Hard Enduro Nationals Calendar Round 6: Canterbury, November 15-16 Round 7: Wellington, November 30
Taranaki pair, Luke Thompson( Vertigo Nitro 280) and Sam Parker( Husqvarna TE300), battled to an incredibly close first and second overall respectively in the premier Gold Grade over the two days at round one of the series in Taranaki back in March, with round two in Central Otago in April featuring Doerner- Corson at the top, but it’ s Whitaker who holds the ascendancy as the series now speeds towards a conclusion. Whitaker leads both Doerner-Corson and Wightman, who share the No. 2 position, by a meagre eight points at the top of the Gold Grade standings as the riders look ahead to resuming racing in the South Island on November 15-16.“ My fifth placing on Saturday was possibly as good as I could have expected on the fast and not-so-technical course, but I at least retain the series lead, which is really all that matters,” said Whitaker, a 33-year-old father-of-two.“ The conditions were dry on Saturday, but still quite slippery over the clay and rocks, and it was quite fast. Sunday was deeper in the forest and tricky after it had rained overnight. There were plenty of deep mud bogs and it was pretty challenging.“ I’ m looking forward to the two remaining rounds and hopefully I can achieve a couple of decent results to finish off.” Only six of the seven rounds will be counted, with riders expected to discard points from their worst result.“ Wellington( the final round) is home turf for me, so that should suit me well,” said Whitaker, a three-time former winner of this arduous competition.
Photo page 33: Lower Hutt’ s Jake Whitaker( KTM 300 EXC) still leading the way in the series after round five of seven near Wellington.
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