Waitakere truck driver, Ethan Martens journey to Timaru on Queens Birthday Weekend, paid off handsomely
The 24-year-old member of the Motueka-based Altherm JCR Yamaha Racing Team, raced at the annual Michael Godfrey Memorial Motocross returning home with the MX2 class trophy.
Martens took his Yamaha YZ250 two-stroke to win three out of five races over the two days, finishing comfortably ahead of local favourite and fellow national championship frontrunner Micah McGoldrick (Honda CRF250), from Rangiora, and fellow Yamaha star Cohen Chase, from Taupo.
“I won the first three races on Saturday and so, even though I was leading the two races on Sunday too, I knew I could afford to back it off and relax a bit. All I needed was a couple of thirds on Sunday to wrap it up,” says Martens.
McGoldrick and Chase are sharing wins on Sunday.
Winning the all-capacities feature final was the next aim for Martens, but that’s when tragedy struck for the Yamaha man.
“I crashed twice in the feature race … I got shunted off the track by a lapped rider early on, and then I crashed again while fighting back through the pack then,” says Martens.
“I wasn’t injured at all, so that was the main thing.”
Chase took his Yamaha YZ250F to win the feature race, finishing ahead of MX1 class winner Scotty Columb (Kawasaki KX450F), from Queenstown, and then McGoldrick, with Martens claiming fourth place.
Columb had earlier been unbeaten in dominating the MX1 class, finishing the weekend ahead of Leithfield’s Dylan Miles (Yamaha YZ450F), who was runner-up each time.
