Junior speedway riders in form for Burt Munro Challenge

Tuesday, 6 February 2018

Speedway riders Hayden Brookland, left, and Cormac Buchanan will compete at Oreti Park's biggest meeting of the season on Saturday.

Hayden Brookland and Cormac Buchanan are the best of mates on and off the speedway track.

Their friendship shone at an Oreti Park race meeting recently when Hayden shared his bike with Cormac to allow him to compete.

Cormac had ridden his 125cc bike at the Youth Gold Cup in Auckland the week before but it didn't arrived back in Invercargill in time.

Hayden competes in the 200cc grade mostly and his 125cc bike is always available to Cormac.

'If his bike breaks down, I'll give him my spare 125. But with both our main bikes still in transit from Auckland, we had to share it this time and were swapping riders right there on the track,' Hayden said.

The Invercargill pair did extremely well in Auckland, with Hayden, 13, winning the 200cc section, and Cormac, 11, finishing second in the 125cc division.

It was the third time Hayden had won at the Youth Gold Cup.

Cormac won his grade at the Canterbury Championships at Moore Park in Christchurch on Saturday.

He and Hayden will this weekend be out to defend their titles at the Burt Munro Challenge Speedway Spectacular at Oreti Park on Saturday. If Hayden can win the 200cc event, for 12 to 15-year-olds, it will be his fourth Challenge title.

Both boys say speedway racing is 'fun' but they are committed to putting in the effort to stay amongst the best in their grade.

'We have some of the strongest junior riders in the country down here so you really have to keep working hard to compete against them. We really push each other,' Cormac said.

Hayden said confidence and skill were important factors in being a speedway rider.

Meanwhile, other Oreti Park riders featured at the Canterbury Championships on Saturday. Dakota Crengle and Mason Coulthard finished second and third, respectively, behind Cormac, while 6-year-old Sam Coulthard won the PeeWee division two title.

Success continued in the senior ranks with Jake Gillespie earning second overall, adding to the second place he secured at the New Zealand Under-21 Solo Championship staged at Rosebank in Auckland.

In the sidecar division, the 24i combination of Bradley Sharp and Lance Jefcoate finished second overall at the Sidecar Super Cup at Moore Park on Saturday, with James Douglas and Harley Biddle third and Aidan Thwaites and Shane Twiss fourth.