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ENDURO CHAMP FOR SUZUKI SUPERMOTO:
A week after clinching the Suzuki-backed North Island Enduro Championship in the 400cc four-stroke class, Mark Whyte is taking a crack at an entirely different form of motorsport, Suzuki Supermoto.
The two forms of motorcycle racing could hardly be more different.
Motorcycle Enduro is an off-road discipline somewhat akin to car rallying, but without the luxury of pre-riding the course, or indeed, course notes.
In a motorcycle Enduro, riders leave checkpoints in pairs and ride against the clock, both in trail (transport) sections, and much more tightly timed Terrain Tests.
A typical motorcycle Enduro event can take up to eight hours.
Contrast that with a typical Suzuki Supermoto race, which may be over in eight minutes!.
In Suzuki Supermoto, the riders face a mass start on a combination tarmac and dirt course. The action is fast and frenetic, with riders banging handlebars as they jostle for position in virtually every corner..
And that's what's on the menu at Taupo's Centennial Park Raceway this Sunday when Suzuki Supermoto returns to town.
In addition to his North Island Enduro Championship winning Suzuki DR-Z400, Paeroa Suzuki dealer Mark Whyte will have the use of the special 430cc DR-Z developed for motocross ace Daryl Hurley.
Hurley has used the modified Suzuki to score runner-up spot in the New Zealand Four-Stroke Motocross Championships and he's also been in the thick of the action in the first two rounds of the N.Z. Motocross champs.
Whyte is no stranger to Suzuki Supermoto. At the inaugural event at Taupo on April 27, he was fastest qualifier and scored an upset with a pair of third place finishes on his stock DR-Z400 beaten only by 1996 World 500 Motocross Champion Shayne King and GP rider Stephen Briggs.
Immediately after his first Supermoto event, Whyte re-fitted the standard knobbly enduro tyres, drove to Pahiatua and finished second in class in the Suzuki North Island Enduro Championship.
"That's the great thing with Supermoto," enthuses event organiser Todd Sutherland. "You can simply take a competition dirt bike, fit road tyres and you've got a whole new world at your feet."
Catch the Suzuki Supermoto action at Taupo's Centennial Park Raceway this Sunday, August 4, with racing from 11 a.m.
