TAREE Motorcycle Club's Hayden Nelson now leads Australian Supermoto Championship in the junior lites class following the opening round at Port Macquarie.
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Former Taree resident Damian Cudlin is the promoter of the Australian Supermoto Championship and Australian Junior Road Racing Championship.
Motorcycling Australia describes Supermoto racing as combining the “high-speed grace of road racing with the action-packed drama of motocross-style dirt track racing”.
Hayden competed in the first round of the Supermoto championship at Pacific Park in Port Macquarie.
Junior lites class is for under 13 riders on 85cc bikes.
The Port Macquarie track is 1.1 kms long, around 75 per cent bitumen and 25 per cent dirt, with jumps and berms.
This was Hayden's first time riding this discipline and his first time riding his dirt bike on a sealed surface.
His father, Craig, said experience riding on Taree Motorcycle Club’s oil track helped Hayden adjust to the tar quickly, because both surfaces provide a high level of grip.
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The Supermoto event consisted of a 15 minute practice session, followed by 15 minutes of qualifying and then three, eight-lap races.
Hayden qualified on pole position.
He won race one by a narrow gap after taking the race lead in the dirt section on the seventh lap.
Race two was held in wet conditions and Hayden had a good lead before falling on the second lap, remounting and finishing fifth.
The track had dried for the final race and Hayden took the lead on the third lap and maintained a small gap through to the finish - winning by 0.1 of a second.
He now leads the class by five points. Round two will be at The Bend in South Australia in April.
Meanwhile five Taree Motorcycle Club members contested the NSW Senior Track Championships at Gunnedah.
While the event was a senior championship, juniors competed in the support classes. Rain ruled out racing on Satruday, with the program held on the Sunday.
All five Taree riders achieved podium finishes.
In the seniors Kye Andrews was third in the Pro 250cc class and second in the under 19s. He made the final in the Pro 450cc class but his brakes failed during the race.
Dale Austin finished second in the women’s class.
Will Bisley won the 85cc mods in the juniors while he was second in the 85cc 9-12 years and third in the 65cc 9-13s class.
Thoren Openshaw finished second in the 65cc 9-13s class and third in the 85cc 9-12 years.
Mitch Bisley won the 85cc 12-16 years and gained a second place in the junior 250cc class.
