Brothers make impact on national bike scene
Relevant offers
St Peter's College students Harrick and Kagan Simons left their marks on the New Zealand motorbike racing championships this year.
The brothers finished fourth (Harrick) and seventh (Kagan) in the championships's development class. Races were held in Invercargill, Timaru and Christchurch in January and in Auckland and Taupo in March.
Harrick, 15, started riding motorbikes in October after becoming interested in the sport through publicity on television, magazines and promotional material.
After watching his brother having fun on motorbikes, Kagan, 14, took up the sport. The brothers fit training and competitions around study at St Peter's College in Gore.
They live at Clinton and travel by bus to and from the college. Their father, Grant Simons, bought them motorbikes, with Harrick owning a Suzuki RG 150 and Kagan owning a Kawasaki KR150. They both have spare motorbikes and mechanical repairs are done by their father, who spends some leisure time on his dirt bike.
"Kagan's doing well (in motorbike racing). He's not as good as me, but I've been doing it longer," Harrick said.
Training includes trips to Invercargill's Teretonga Park, which can be hired out at $50 a day.
"It's cheaper than in Auckland, where it's $250 [a day]," Harrick said.
He added a set of competition safety gear, including boots, leather jacket and trousers, helmet and gloves, totalling about $1500.
"Safety first," he stressed.
Kagan has had no motorbike injury, unlike Harrick, who broke a thumb in the New Zealand motorbike racing championship at Taupo in March.
"I fell off and bent my thumb backwards."
- © Fairfax NZ News
No comments:
Post a Comment