Revs are building ahead of the 62nd running of the iconic Honda New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville in just over a week’s time.
All ages and levels of ability are catered for at the Honda Woodville GP event – the 2025 edition set for the weekend of January 25-26 – so it’s not hard to see why it commands such a lofty position in the Kiwi motocross firmament.
Racing over the two days always attracts thousands of spectators to the Tararua region, filling motel rooms and camping grounds to the point of overflowing, the popularity of this two-day Honda-sponsored spectacle knowing no bounds.
While plenty of international visitors have won the event in the past, it is worth noting that Kiwi riders are world class too and it is this home-grown talent that has tended to dominate at Woodville over the years.
Host Manawatu-Orion Motorcycle Club president Brad Ritchie said “everything is looking splendid” ahead of this year’s event.
“The talent on offer here in New Zealand at the moment is possibly at a level we have never seen before.
“It’s the biggest event on the New Zealand motocross calendar, so we have no trouble at all getting full fields. We expect many hundreds to show up again to race at Woodville and thousands coming to watch them.
“We have juniors racing on Saturday and seniors on Sunday and, of course, that iconic river race that is always a crowd favourite.”
Things you ought to know: This year (2025) marks 64 years since the inaugural Woodville event in 1961; the event skipped two years (in 2022 due to the pandemic and then it was rained out in 2023); this year’s event will be the 62nd time it has run.
There have been 33 different overall winners at Woodville over the past six decades or so.
Only 13 riders have won there more than once since the inaugural event in 1961 and only six riders have won the main trophy at Woodville three times or more in the event’s fabled history.
Here is a list of the multiple (two or more) winners – Taranaki’s Shayne King (an incredible 9-time Woodville winner), his elder brother Darryll King (5-time winner), Motueka’s Josh Coppins (5-time winner), Pahiatua’s Ken Cleghorn (3), Tauranga’s Peter Ploen (3), Papamoa’s Cody Cooper (3), Palmerston North’s Tim Gibbes (2), Whanganui’s Craig Coleman (2), Rotorua’s Bryan Patterson (2), Hawera’s Daryl Hurley (2), Australian Dean Ferris (2), Tauranga’s Ben Townley (2) and Auckland’s Hamish Harwood (2).
Only two of these multi-time champions are expected to line up to race again in 2025, Cooper and Harwood.
© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com
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