Jake Whitaker – NZ & Australian Moto Trials Champion

Hay everyone,

Just arrived home after our 3 day New Zealand Championship over labour weekend. This year it was held down in the south Island in Alexandra, one of my most favorite places to ride with all sections being set on big slabs of rock with endless traction. I made it 6 titles in a row this year winning the expert class with a clean three days, which meant I was able to ride faultless the entire competition, something I haven’t been able to do since I was riding in the junior class but never a three day event!!

The event was set on the easier side to the usual standard of sections here in NZ, the top few riders were loosing very few points which made it a tough event mentally, a laps in concentration could have resulted in a very different outcome, even the riders in the bottom end of the grade had very low scores for a championship level event. After handing in 4 lap cards of zero on Saturday I new it was going to be possible to ride the rest of the two days clean as well, the sections down there don’t change a lot and the conditions were good although on Sunday there were some high gusts of wind come through which made things interesting on top of some of the higher rocks.

Monday there were a couple of slightly tougher sections which took some points off the other riders, it was a awesome feeling coming out of the last section on Monday with another clean lap card, although it was an easy event it was a huge relive to accomplish such a perfect win.

A massive thanks to my minder Nick, Wellington Ixion club and everyone who helped me in making it all come together once again,

My sponsors, couldn’t have accomplished what I have done this season without you all!!!

Interislander
Spectro oils
Michelin
TCX
Kapiti beta motorcycles
Hynds pipes
The gadget guys ( Bluetooth communication system)

Thanks again,

Jake

Gidday guys,

I’m over in Western Australia at the moment getting ready for this years Australian Championship this coming weekend. We arrived on Thursday and I rode in the WA state Championship on Sunday.
It was an extremely easy event which made it a very difficult in an Irish kind of a way, one very small mistake can cost you the win and that’s exactly what happened. With sections no harder than our A grade back home it is impossible to come back from an unlucky call on one section when you have two riders riding at a similar level. I finished 2nd for the day on 6 points. 

Congratulations to Neil Price for taking out the win, top ride for a bludy top bloke!! 

Looking forward now to the weekend ahead with some training during the week 
In sunny Perth!!

Cheers,

Jake

Hey guys,

Great weekend at rounds 5&6 of the North Island Champs, was nice to ride a local event with it being the Wellington Ixion clubs turn to host a round. Had a good ride all weekend feeling confident on the slippery conditions that our local Wellington venues offer.

After spending the last few weekends on the KTM Enduro bike I was feeling a little rusty on the trials bike coming in to the weekend, however it didn’t take long to get in to the swing of it again. Saturday I found the sections set a bit on the easier side for a North Island Championship, but Sunday I found the sections level about bang on. In the last couple of years I have noticed the level of sections being backed off from what I remember it being in the earlier days of riding in this top level of this sport here in New Zealand, it would be awesome to have more of this level of riding back in the Expert class in the near future.

Overall another good weekend on the bike and now I have my sights set on the Australian Championship in early September.

A big thanks to everyone for there support over the weekend, family and friends great to have you all out there.

My Sponsors,

Spectro oils,

Interislander,

Gadget guys,

Hynds,

Michelin,

TCX boots,

Renthal,

Kapiti beta motorcycles,

Cheers

Jake

29/05/2012

Hey Guys,

Well we arrived back home early hours of this morning after a full on couple of weeks over in Australia, at rounds 3&4 of the World Championship this weekend just been.
My minder Nick and I flew into Sydney on the 17th , so we had plenty of time to run in the new factory 300 supplied by team KAOS. We headed out to the famous pacific park to train on the rocks there for the weekend, we got the bike running sweet after a few minor adjustments.

On Monday and Tuesday we were busy preparing the bikes and loading the van at the teams head quarters, thanks to Darryl and Estelle Boorer for putting us up and taking care of absolutely everything!
Wednesday we had an early start on the road through to Melbourne, just a quick 9 hour drive.

Thursday we had a practice at the venue along with all the over European riders that had made the trip over, followed by another practice Friday and walking of the sections in the afternoon. All 15 sections looked really good all full of big steeps and rock walls with a man made log section to finish up on 15.

Saturday morning it was really wet as the rain had set in over night, I had a good start time with a few of the top riders in front to be able to watch the lines they were using which was helpful.

My first lap was a bit shakey and i wasn’t feeling the best on the bike, things started going much better going into the second lap, improved on a few of the harder sections. I finished the day in 7th place equaling my best finish in the WTC last year, but I wasn’t happy with my consistency in my riding and was a little disappointed in the result.

Sunday morning the sections had dried out a lot and again I had a good start time amongst the top five European riders, was feeling really good on the bike and was cleaning some of the sections I wasnt getting through on Saturday,

My scores were much lower over the day and I was much more competitive with the top riders in the class.
After another big day of riding some really big sections I finally got my first top five finish in the World Championship, I was happy to have finished 5th but was frustrating to see how close second place was!!!
A massive thanks to all the hundreds of Kiwis who made the trip over and for shouting words of encouragement along the way, Darryl and Estelle Boorer, my minder Nick for all his efforts and support along with his family, Mum and Dad and my partner Georgina.

My sponsors,

Team Kaos,
Kapiti beta,
Spectro oil,
Renthal,
TCX,
Interislander,
Michelin,
Hynds,
Gadget Guys

Cheers,

Jake

Hey Guys,

Well Jake left yesterday for Sydney, where he will be training up until the World Round.
We all wish him the best of luck with his endeavors in this round!!!

Im sure Jake will fill you in as soon as he can about the weekend of the event and include some photos, so watch this space.

For all of you who don’t know, we have entered a video of Jake in the Hitachi Heat Pump competition in hope of winning the grand prize of $10,000 to go towards his 2012 trials season. Your votes would be greatly appreciated!!

To vote CLICK HERE

Cheers,

Georgina

Hay guys,

Well the first two rounds up in Taranaki (North Island Championship) kicked off with a good result to start the year, winning both days comfortably.

After finishing runner up in the NO WAY IN HELL extream enduro a few weeks ago on the Honda Montesa 4tr, I have been back into training full on with the Beta 300 2 stroke, my choice of weapon once again for the 2012 trials season along with my Minder Nick Ball, who will again be assisting me throughout the year in a coaching role as well as full time at events.

On Saturday it was a great chance to put all the techniques into play that we have been working hard on, although the sections were set on the easier side to accommodate some of the newer riders into the grade it was still a good chance to use these techniques in an actual event.

Most of the sections were on rocks however Sundays event was completely different with slippery rivers and tree covered sections, good to have a bit of variety and again came out on top with a nice lead over the day which can be difficult at times with a very low scoring event.

I’m happy with where I’m at with the level of riding and feel I’m pushing in the right direction for the World championship round held inAustraliain May. At this stage all my focus is going into this event, I’m really looking forward to riding in a WTC so close to home along with many New Zealanders that are going to watch.

Big thanks to my sponsors;

Spectro Oils,
DID,
The Gadget guys,
Mitchelin,
TCX,
Renthal,
Kapiti Beta motorcycles,
Team Kaos.
Hutt boyz choppers,
Hynds.

Kind regards,

Jake Whitaker

“Photo courtesy Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com”

Hay guys,
A few weeks ago I decided to have a crack at something different, I enterd into the no way in hell extreme enduro.

I hadn’t done anything like this before so I had no idea what to expect, we camped on site and arrived Friday evening in time to watch a round of the new Zealand enduro series on Saturday which me and Georgina both really enjoyed watching.

Sunday was the prologue to decide the starting order of the main event on Monday, it was a short lap with a few tight technical bits in it and a few river crossings. It was my first experience of riding a trials bike full noise for half an hour straight, a lot of fun but also a completely different type of fitness to the normal stop and start trials Routine. I actually manage to win this part of the event much to my surprise, I had know idea that most of the riders I was passing I was laping.
So after winning Sundays prologue this meant I was the first rider away on the first loop of approx 30km, the lap was well marked with arrows however it wasn’t long before a couple of the enduro boys caught up on the open farm land hills, I couldn’t match the two guys in front on the first lap as it was really open and the trials bike was at a real disadvantage, however after a short break and a fuel stop soon into the second lap things started to toughen up, this is where the trials bike came out to play and I was able to gain some time on the bigger bikes. I came in right behind the leader of the event Mitchell Nield and we set off together on the last lap knowing that the laps were getting progressively harder and that this one was going to be the hardest, I stuck with Mitchell for the first 15 mins or so before he pulled away on the open terrain, about an hour into the lap I arrived to amassive down hill that made any trials section here in nz look like a walk in the park, I it was so step in one part I just had to let the bike go and hope it stopped at the tree I was aiming it for, after about a 30 minute decent I still had about 20 minutes to go to the finish, near the finish I coaught up to Mitchell on a steep down hill on loose gravel and was right on his wheel however once at the bottom the course opened right up along a river and the trials bike was no match for the gas gas 300 enduro bike. I finished my first ever extreme enduro in second place covered in mud and very sore and tired but I had a lot of fun along the way and look forward to another event like this.

Jake

17/12/2011

Hi All,

Well I have had a full on past week or two and a lot of fun along the way. At this point in time i’m in Beijing China after Just breaking my World record again (fastest time over 21 oil drums ). My orginal record stood at 11.37 seconds and yesterday I got it down to 10.993, However the conditions were extreamly testing as the weather here at the moment is extreamly cold sitting at minus 9 degrees most days. On top of not being able to feel my fingers infact the majority of my body the steel drums were quit slippery with being so cold so this made it very difficult.

A few weeks ago I was called by a big Tv Company over here, They are currently running a Guiness world record show and wanted me over here to attempt my own record again so the next day after returning from holiday in Fiji we were on our way here, going from 35 degrees to minus 9 degrees is a big shock to the system. We have a couple more days left here to have a look around Beijing then back home in time for Christmas. I will add photos as soon as i get home.

Cheers,

Jake