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Race Nation Honda's Dirkie Baard is the 2009 SA National Quad MX Champion of the Pro 450 Class. Baard has won the title at the final round of the 2009 championship held on 12 September at Wild Thing Raceway outside Johannesburg in Gauteng after winning both of the 15 minute heats.
Baard, who has not raced at this track before, was leading the Pro 450 Class championship before the event on the TRX450 and after winning both of the 15 minute heats, he has walked away with the title. And even though he won both heats with a few seconds in hand, it was not easy victories as the track was extremely dusty as power supply problems resulted in the water pumps on the track not functioning properly.
It is the first year that the likeable Namibian competes in the South African championship after competing for two years in the Namibian motocross quad championships. He races with the support of Race Nation Honda and Pupkewitz Honda (Namibia) as well as product and technical support from Quad Revolution.
Except for the two victories Baard claimed six more podium positions of the possible ten and he took the lead of the championship after the fourth round.
A tight three-way battle ensued between himself, Brett van Rooyen, who was the early leader, and his team-mate, Juan Coetzee, who was the leader after the second and third rounds with only two points separating him and Van Rooyen before the final race.
Van Rooyen could only manage a second and third place respectively and had to settle for second place in the championship.
Unofficial results see the ever consistent Coetzee, who also claimed his share of four podium positions, finishing third in the Pro 450 Class championship for the season.
"We did not expect to win the championship this year," an overjoyed Baard said afterwards, "but we are very happy. The competition in the Pro 450 Class is extremely fierce and riders like Brian Baragwanath, Eric Williams, Brett van Rooyen and Juan is very fast. This made for exciting racing," he continued. "We are used to sandy tracks in Namibia and it was quite difficult to adapt to the hard-packed tracks in South Africa. But I really enjoyed it," he concluded.
Baard is also leading the overall standings and the Pro 450 Class championship of the 2009 SA National Off-road Quad Championship and Coetzee and himself is now preparing for the penultimate round of the season, the Caledon 400 that will take place in the Dewetsdorp area in the Free State on 25 and 26 September.
| Author: PR Honda South Africa |
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