Collin Matiza Sports Editor
ACE Zimbabwean junior motocross rider Emmanuel Bako will have his hands full when he returns to South Africa next week to compete in Round Four of that country’s tough seven-round National Championship series.

Round Four of the 2018 South African National Motocross Championship series is scheduled for July 7 at Terra Topia in Johannesburg and it will be held simultaneously with the fourth round of this year’s Northern Regions Championship series (NRMX).

Both motorcycling events have been scheduled to be staged on the same day at the same venue at Terra Topia and will bring together all the top junior and senior motocross riders from across South Africa who will be joined by a number of bikers from Zimbabwe, including Bako and the country’s former champion rider Ashley Thixton.

According to the official website of the South African Motocross Nationals, Bako has already been entered to race in the 65cc and 85cc (Juniors) classes where he will be joined by Thixton who is expected to compete in the MX2 Class.

Five more top Zimbabwean junior and senior riders — Jayden Ashwell (MX1 Class), Regan Wasmuth, Davin Cocker, Tristan Grainger (all 125cc High School Class) and Emile Croisette (50cc Class) — are all expected to forward their names for the event before the pre-entries close on July 4 at 6pm.

In fact, Bako (12) has this year entered to race in both the South African Nationals and the Northern Regions Championship (NRMX) series in which he is competing in the 65cc and 85cc (Juniors) classes.

A Grade Six pupil at Heritage School in Harare, Bako will next week be heading back to South Africa where he will be “fighting on two fronts” as he will be battling for the top honours in the 65cc and 85cc (Juniors) classes in the combined competitions of South African Nationals and Northern Regions Championship series at Terra Topia track which is situated in the Northern Farms of the Diepsloot area of Johannesburg.

This looks like a heavy schedule for Bako but the talented young Zimbabwean rider is already relishing the opportunity of taking on his peers from South Africa at this “combined event” in Johannesburg next weekend.

Bako is now a member of South Africa’s Team Vision Racing Team and last weekend he joined his teammates in Cape Town where they held their training sessions in preparation for the July 7 event at Terra Topia.

And according to Bako’s father and manager, Brighton, his son is raring to go as he wants to close the gap between himself and the points leader Lucca Mynhardt of South Africa in the 65cc Class Standings of the South African Nationals.

Emmanuel is only four points behind Mynhardt who is leading the way in the South African Nationals 65cc Class Standings with 137 points after the first three rounds of the tough seven-round series which ends in October.

And if the Zimbabwean rider manages to take the first step on the podium at the end of business at Terra Topia on July 7, he will find himself sitting at the top of the 65cc Class Standings going into Round Five of the South African Nationals which is scheduled for August 11 at Zone 7 in Cape Town.

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