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Collin Matiza Sports Editor
ONE of Zimbabwe’s top junior motocross riders, Emmanuel Bako, once again came out with all guns blazing when he rode his brand new 2020 KTM to victory on Friday night in the opening round of the Smoking Pistons Supercross Night Racing series in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Bako (12), who is now a household name in the South African motocross circuit, was taking part in his first Supercross (night racing) race meeting of the year and he became one of the first winners of this series when he cruised to victory in the 85cc Class.

Coming up against a number of South Africa’s top junior riders, Bako was fired-up as he won all the three heats in the 85cc Class to claim the first step on the podium and walked away R3 000 richer for his efforts.

According to reports from Johannesburg, Bako did extremely well on Friday night considering that he is mainly used to race during the day in motocross races and the only time he competes in Supercross is during the year-end Zimbabwe Summer Series which is held annually in December at Donnybrook in Harare.

In fact, on Friday night, Bako was taking part in a Supercross event in South Africa for the first time in his career but he surprised all and sundry at the famous Smoking Pistons Dirt Bike Race Track in Johannesburg where he assumed the lead from the get-go in Heat One and refused to relinquish it en-route to a dominating ride.

“The last half (of the race) was effortless,” Bako told The Herald after Friday night’s race meeting. “I just got the flow and that’s so important at this track. It just started coming to me and as they say, the rest was history.

“Winning a Supercross event for the first time in my career in South Africa is so cool, especially at Smoking Pistons which is one of my favourite tracks in this  country.”

The next three rounds of the four-round Supercross Night Racing Series are scheduled for July 26, August 23 and October 4 at Smoking Pistons.

Friday night’s event spilled into the early hours of Saturday morning but Bako was back practicing hard at his favourite track a few hours later with his trainer Stanley Mugiyo, preparing for round four of the 2019 South African National Motocross Championship series which is scheduled for this coming Saturday at Dirt Bronco Raceway in Krugersdorp. At Dirt Bronco, Bako will be looking for another solid performance after he dominated the proceedings in the 85cc (Junior) Class during round three of the South African Nationals at BORC in Bloemfontein on May 25.

At BORC, Bako absorbed a lot of pressure from eight other young riders to emerge triumphant in the 85cc (Junior) Class and he is a safe bet to take the first step on the podium in round four of the South African Nationals at Dirt Bronco on Saturday where he is expected to take on a number of top South African junior riders such as Deegan Bloomfield, Joshua Fletcher, James Thompson, Seth Young, Timo Maximo Toepfer, Nathan Verster, Seth Whittington and Liam Botha.

Meanwhile, another top Zimbabwean junior motocross racer Jordan Dewdney showed that he was not only good at motocross racing when he was voted as the Most Outstanding Player after the Lilfordia School Field Hockey Festival in Harare on Saturday.

In fact, 11-year-old Dewdney is a “jack of all trades” as he is also good in athletics’ track and field events. Lilfordia will send their boys and and girls field hockey first teams for a week-long tour of Durban, South Africa, in August and Dewdney is expected to be part of the travelling squad before he returns home to join Team Zimbabwe for this year’s FIM Africa Motocross of African Nations Championships to be held at Donnybrook on August 31 and September 1.