KR's Callan May in ActionIt was a stunning Yamaha 1-2 as the popular Dirt Guide Cross-Country Championships hit the halfway point near Atiamuri.
Freshly-crowned national enduro champion Rory Mead (Yamaha YZ250) made his first appearance in the series a winning one when he led fellow Yamaha rider Adrian Smith (Yamaha WRF250), of Mokau, to the top of the podium.
Hokianga's Damon Nield took third spot at this second round of four in the competition but, because none of these three podium finishers had tackled the series opener in April and that means therefore they do not feature at the top of the series standings -- those honours instead belong to Tauranga's Reece Burgess, Whangamata's Jason Davis and Auckland's Callan May.
"It was a good weekend all around, actually," said Mead, who followed up his winning performance at Atiamuri on Saturday by also winning the inaugural Red Bull City Scramble in downtown Auckland city the following day. Mead's prize for winning in Auckland was tickets and race entry to the famous Erzberg extreme enduro in Austria.
Mead now finds himself in very high demand.
The 22-year-old builder from Whitby recently won his class at the Australian Four-Day Enduro Championships before wrapping up the experts class overall, as well as his individual class, at the Yamaha New Zealand Enduro Championships.
He remains a contender to win the Yamaha Top Rail Rider Cross-Country Championships (central region) after three of five rounds, but his bid to win the parallel New Zealand Cross- country Championships has had to be abandoned after a clash of dates has now arisen with the Erzberg event.
When he returns from Austria, Mead will no doubt be keen to re-engage with his Kiwi rivals in the Dirt Guide Cross-country Championships.
The fourth and final round is near Tokoroa on July 18.
Jointly sponsored by Dirt Guide, Yamaha and Kiwi Rider magazine, this year's four-round series uses some of the same terrain that was raced over by the word's best when the region hosted the International Six Day Enduro in 2006.
Yamaha