The Dragon Energy Northern Interprovincial Championship Prize Giving Ceremony took place on the 13th of November 2021 at Emperors Palace. After a 6 round championship taking place monthly at various tracks, the final top 3 were awarded for their outstanding performance.
Yamaha Distributors South Africa extends our congratulations to Linex Yamaha Lynwood’s very own Justin Boniface for grabbing the third-place position at the NIMXC. Yamaha Distributors further takes our hats off to the overall winner of the championship Chad Tyler and second-place runner up Nico van der Linden in the MX3 Vets category.
We caught up with Justin Boniface to give us his thoughts on the race:
- What were your experiences during the final and the entire championship?
Coming into the final race at Smoking Pistons, I was in 3rd place in the championship by a very close 4 points. My two rivals throughout the year tied for 4th place just behind me and I knew I had to train hard in the gym in the two weeks leading up to the final race. This was to make sure that I was in peak condition for a bar-to-bar battle and that’s exactly what happened.
Lining up at the gate for heat 1, I had already decided that this is it, where all the battles throughout the season had lead me to. I had to beat my rival, currently in 4th place in the championship, and thankfully I did. But he did not make it easy on me, I took 3rd place in heat 1.
During heat 2, I started well right out of the gate and started to pass other riders quickly until lap 3, when I went into the back of a slower rider. The rider came to an abrupt stop as I was attempting to pass him which made me tip over and allowed my competitor to get past me. I got up as fast as I could and pushed very hard to catch up but I ran out of time. I finished 4th in heat 2 which then put myself and my competitor in a tie for 3rd on the day. Thankfully I had 4 points coming into this final round which was all I needed to secure my 3rd place for the MX3 Vets Championship
- Do you have any other future planned races?
Thankfully no other racing is planned for this year, but I plan on training hard throughout December in order to come in hot for the start of the 2022 season in January on board my new Yamaha YZ450F. Yes, that’s correct I’ve gone the four-stroke route for 2022.
- Which Yamaha model were you racing in at the NIMX competition?
This year I raced the 2020 Yamaha YZ250 two-stroke which was an absolute blast and my favourite bike of all time. Light, reliable, quick to maintain and fast!
- Do you have any special words to close off the season with?
2021 has been an interesting year for me, changing job roles, studying, and training in the gym almost every day with 211 Training Solutions. Dylan from 211 Training Solutions got me into serious shape for this season. He also got my head in the right championship thinking space.
It does take a team to make all of this happen and I really could not have done this without the support from my friends, family, colleagues, sponsors and my super supportive fiancé Bianca.
