JULY 20, 2020: It has been quite a season for Waikato dirt bike racer Dylan Yearbury.
In a campaign disrupted by the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, it would be understandable if his focus was slightly
blurred and his motivation at a low ebb, but the 25-year-old builder from Cambridge has been exhibiting none of those
shortcomings.
In fact, Yearbury took his new Husqvarna TE300i to finish runner-up in the opening round of the always-popular Dirt
Guide cross-country series, just after virus lock-down restrictions were eased in June, and backed that up by also
finishing overall runner-up in the just-completed New Zealand Enduro Championships, that series abbreviated to four days
of racing over two weekends.
With the second of three rounds in the Dirt Guide series being run at Ohakuri, south of Tokoroa, on Saturday, Yearbury
was determined to take it up a notch.
And that's just what he did, the Husqvarna star winning the gruelling two-hour race by a solid 46 seconds over
Helensville KTM rider Tom Buxton, with Yamaha-mounted Manawatu man Paul Whibley claiming third spot on the podium.
It wasn't a straight-forward win, with Yearbury in strife early on, but he dug deep and battled through the traffic to
record victory on Saturday, his win also earning him the series lead outright from round-one winner Whibley.
"I got off to a great start and was in third position (out of 129 starters) as we headed into turn one," Yearbury
explained.
"But then I tried to make a pass on a rider at the end of a fast gravel road section and crashed at high speed. It was
very slippery and I came into the corner way too hot.
"I was okay and uninjured, but this dropped me back to about 10th.
"I then just concentrated on working my way back towards the front. I passed Tommy (Buxton) for the lead on lap five of
the six and then managed to pull a bit of a gap on him.
"My aim is to win the Dirt Guide series this year. It would be a first for me.
"It follows on nicely from my enduro nationals campaign, where I was leading the points but not quite able to seal the
deal (by winning the title). I finished that series runner-up to 2019 world champion Hamish Macdonald (of Christchurch),
so I have to be happy with that."
The third and final round of the Dirt Guide series is set for the same venue at Ohakuri, in forestry near Atiamuri,
about halfway between Tokoroa and Taupo, on August 15.
Credit: Words by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com