Crankworx Summer Series New Zealand – Queenstown Pump Track

Two weeks of epic summer racing has wrapped, and it could not have been a better end to this mountain bike roadie with a crowd of cheering fans and extremely tight racing at the Kerry Drive Pump Track.

Red Bull rider Harriet Burbidge-Smith, a seasoned veteran on the pump track, takes the W for the elite female category. | Photographer: Clint Trahan

Tuhoto-Ariki Pene and Harriet Burbidge-Smith both take home gold medals for the elite male and female categories, respectively.

“It’s good to have a pump track win,” Haz said of beating Shania Rawson in the gold-medal match-up. “I haven’t won a pump track event since the [Crankworx] Summer Series at SilverStar in 2022. It’s good to know that it’s there, and hopefully we can take it to Roto.”

While Shania Rawson qualified first, Haz really turned up the heat in finals, leaving Rawson with a second place finish for the elite female category. The bronze-medal match-up was between Jenna Hastings and Louise Ferguson, and Hastings had her beat by 0.881 of a second in the end.

Pivot Factory Racing Team rider, Jenna Hastings fighting through the consolation round and taking home a bronze medal. | Photographer: Clint Trahan

The elite men’s category was tight between the 1st place qualifier, Dan Butterworth and 2nd place qualifier, Tuhoto-Ariki Pene up against each other in the gold-medal match-up. Pene was able to defend his Queenstown Pump Track position for the second year in a row, taking home the gold medal, 0.147 ahead of Butterworth. Bailey Meares came up through the ranks of CWNEXT pump track races over the years to land himself on the podium for his first elite male category Crankworx pump track event.

Queenstown Pump Track champs from left: Dan Butterworth, Shania Rawson, Tuhoto-Ariki Pene, Harriet Burbidge-Smith, Jenna Hastings, Bailey Meares. | Photographer: Clint Trahan

A full recap of the Queenstown Pump Track event will play live via a Crankworx YouTube Watch party, hosted by Charlie Murray and Tom Bradshaw this Thursday, March 14th, 7:00 pm NZDT. Charlie Murray and Tom Bradshaw will live commentate their way through the Ultimate Mountain Biking Road Trip that is Crankworx Summer Series New Zealand, so join us for a bit of banter and a lot of epic riding!

Tune in for the full recap via this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlLIJ8TCQ_s

Crankworx Summer Series New Zealand – Overall Series Leaders

With this ultimate Southern Lakes Region roadie coming to a close, the Crankworx Summer Series New Zealand overall leaders were awarded with prize money for the Elite categories and heaps of great prizing for the CWNEXT and Open categories. Tuhoto-Ariki Pene takes the overall for the elite male category, followed closely by Sam Gale and Baxter Maiwald. Louise Ferguson took home the overall for the elite female category with Jess Blewitt and Jenna Hastings taking second and third place respectively.

“I was stoked for winning the overall,” Pene said taking home both a Pump Track and Series Overall win today. “It’s been full-on two weeks of racing and to now walk away with the overall is good! This has also been a good little warm-up for Rotorua, to see where I’m at, see how it goes, so I’m pretty keen for Rotorua. Probably most excited for the downhill event. Downhill is always a nice one and now we’re in the redwoods so I’m pretty keen on that one.”

Crankworx Summer Series New Zealand Elite Male and Female Overall Series Leaders from left: Sam Gale, Jess Blewitt, Tuhoto-Ariki Pene, Louise Ferguson, Jenna Hastings, Baxter Maiwald. Photographer: Clint Trahan

“I wasn’t really expecting it because of the downhill result, when I crashed my race run,” the Scottish rider said of her series overall win. “I thought I had thrown it away, but I’m really happy to take the overall. Especially as I was third in the 2021 Summer Series [New Zealand], and so I really wasn’t expecting it especially with Pump Track. I just feel like I’ve proven so much since 2021 but I’ve still got a lot to learn.”

It’s been a blast these past two weeks cruising around the Southern Lakes Region of New Zealand full of good times on and off the bikes. Check out the

Crankworx Summer Series New Zealand – Queenstown Pump Track Results:

Elite Category:

  1. Harriet Burbidge-Smith (AUS) // Tuhoto-Ariki Pene (NZL)
  2. Shania Rawson (NZL) // Dan Butterworth (NZL)
  3. Jenna Hastings (NZL) // Bailey Meares (AUS)

CWNEXT U19 Category:

  1. Vanesa Petrovska (SVK) // Seth Stylie (NZL)
  2. Hayley Harris (NZL) // Tyler Muirhead (NZL)
  3. Morgan Antone (NZL) // Thomas Benson (NZL)

CWNEXT U17 Category:

  1. Saul Saunders (NZL)
  2. Flynn Robertson (NZL)
  3. Arnaud Mackenzie (NZL)

Full results: https://www.crankworx.com/results/

Crankworx Summer Series New Zealand Leader Boards