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Collin Matiza

Sports Editor

ZIMBABWE’S junior motocross champion rider, Emmanuel Bako, blasted to a maximum points score in the 85cc ProMini Class, to maintain his winning run in the 2021 Mayfair Gearbox Inland Championship series at Terra Topia, just outside Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday.

Bako (14) was simply brilliant, strolling to victory in moto one and moto two, to see off two promising young South African riders, Nathan Kuhn and Joshua Williams, to record his second straight victory in this regional championship series.

He opened his campaign with a fine win at Dirt Bronco in Krugersdorp on January 30.

According to reports from Terra Topia, Bako had two holeshots on Saturday and never looked back as he did a 2.20 best lap time faster than most 125’s, with an 85cc bike and credited his victory to the training sessions he did, throughout the whole of last week, with his South African trainer Tyron Juul.

He was just unstoppable, as he displayed great composure after grabbing the holeshot in Heat One of the ProMini Class, which had a strong field of 22 riders.

He did a 1-1 in both heats, enough to earn a richly deserved podium, thanks to Obert Bako, his uncle who is supporting him in all his races every week in South Africa.

Claiming the first step on the podium on Saturday, came as a huge relief for Bako, after a disappointing outing in the opening round of the 2021 South African National Championship series, in which he finished third overall, in the ProMini Class at the same track at Terra Topia the previous weekend.

The talented Zimbabwean dirt bike rider has now tightened his grip at the top of the ProMini Class Standings in the Inland Championship series after having initially picked up another maximum points in the opening round of this regional competition in South Africa at Dirt Bronco on January 30. Bako shifted his base from Zimbabwe to South Africa towards the end of January following the latest lockdown restrictions which saw almost all the sporting activities, including motorsport, being frozen in this country due to the Covid-19 pandemic.