Hamilton's Darryll King (Yamaha), a hard man to stop
Date: 
15 Feb 2010

Yamaha riders Darryll King (Hamilton), Damien King (Cambridge) and Darren Capill (Whakatane) took the lion's share of prizes at the annual Valley Motocross Championships at Patetonga, near Morrinsville, at the weekend. Despite their status as "elder statesmen" in the sport these days, it was still virtually impossible to stop the trio as they dominated Sunday's senior programme.

Darryll King (Subway Yamaha YZ450F and YZ250) had to settle for runner-up spot behind Gisborne's Shaun Fogarty in the MX1 (open) class but it was a close battle.

"I had borrowed Damien's 2010-model YZ450F for the day and it took a few laps to gel with the new machine," said King afterwards.

"Shaun and I had won a race each, and it was winner-takes-all in the third and final race.

"The final MX1 race was a nail-bitter. I really tried everything to beat him and he never made a mistake around the rutted track. He deserved to win," said the 41-year-old former Grand Prix star.

But then Darryll King went out and humbled the country's elite 250cc bike riders as he took two wins and a third in the fiercely-contested MX2 class, winning the title by five points from Waitakere youngster Ethan Martens.

"Winning the MX 2 class for the second time in three major race events was pretty cool," said King. "I easily won the first two races and then cruised for third in race three to win the overall.

"The 250cc two-stroke Yamaha did it again against the younger riders on 250cc four-stroke machines.

"Things are going well now as I head towards racing the World Veterans' Motocross Championships (that kick off in Italy on April 11). I have had some great races here and I'm not trying to overdo things in the New Zealand races."

King's young brother Damien, the current national 125cc champion, showed he was still the man to beat on the small bikes, winning all three races from Te Awamutu's Luke Richmond.

Meanwhile, in the veterans' class, Capill was similarly convincing, winning all three races on his YZ450F.

Credit: Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com