The 2025 New Zealand Motocross Championships featured a flurry of fresh winners at the third round of four at Harrisville, near Pukekohe, yesterday.
Each of the championship leaders suffered setbacks at some stage during a frantic day of racing at the popular hilly circuit at Harrisville, just south of Pukekohe, and everything is now on the line for the final round near Rotorua in just seven days’ time.
Mangakino’s Maximus Purvis (MX1 class), Tauranga’s Madoc Dixon (MX2, 250cc class), Tauranga’s Levi Townley (125cc class) and Australian visitor Taylah McCutcheon (women’s class) had held the lead in their respective bike classes on Saturday morning, but, by the time the dust settled later in the afternoon, two of these four riders had been knocked off their lofty perches.
Townley was never going to be able to keep his lead in the 125cc class as international commitments took him to France immediately after the previous round of the series last month and he was therefore a no-show at Harrisville.
This perhaps inspired Karaka’s Hayden Draper (pictured here) to step up and take over the class lead, a solid hat-trick of wins in the 125cc class at Harrisville a huge signal of his intent to claim the silverware for 2025.
McCutcheon finished runner-up to Raetihi’s Karaitiana Horne in both the early women’s class races at Harrisville, but she then dropped out of the picture completely with a non-finish in race three and so lost her series lead to the rising teenage star from the Central Plateau town.
With a dominant performance, Horne won all three women’s class races on Saturday.
Even though both Purvis and Dixon were able to maintain their position on the top of their respective MX1 and MX2 (250cc) classes, these young men were able to celebrate winning just once each out of their three starts, with their main title challengers coming on strong at Harrisville.
Mount Maunganui’s Josiah Natzke and West Auckland’s defending national MX1 champion Hamish Harwood won the other two MX1 races on Saturday.
The top three positions in the standings remain unchanged – Purvis on top, with Natzke 13 points behind in second and Harwood just seven points further back in third overall – but points have now tightened up and this class will go down to the wire at the final round.
Dixon finished 26-1-2 in his three MX2 outings and he remains on top of the standings, but only just, with Tauranga’s Cobie Bourke (with a 1-4-10 score-card at Harrisville) and Taihape’s former national Hayden Smith (3-3-6) now closing in.
Just four points now separate Dixon from Bourke. There had been 11 points between them at the start of the day.
Opotiki’s multi-time former national MX1, MX2 and 125cc champion Cody Cooper won the day overall in the MX2 class at Harrisville with his 2-2-5 score-card, while Pukehina teenager Flynn Watts celebrated his first race win at this level when he ran away with the third MX2 race of the day, but a lack of consistency has thus far proved costly for these two individuals in the overall analysis.
Meanwhile, Watts continues to lead the MX2 battle-within-a-battle for glory in the under-19 sub-category.
There’s a one-week break now before the series wraps up with round four, a second visit to Rotorua, on March 15.
The national series attracts riders from the length and breadth of the country and this year has again drawn international competitors – several from Australia and Japan – with eventual winners, or runners-up in the various classes regularly going on to represent professional teams, or their country, in overseas competitions.
2025 New Zealand Senior Motocross Championships
Round 1, Saturday, Feb 15, 2025, Tauranga Motorcycle Club;
Round 2, Saturday Feb 22, 2025, Rotorua Motorcycle Club;
Round 3, Saturday, March 8, 2025, Pukekohe Motorcycle Club;
Round 4, Saturday, March 15, 2025, Rotorua Motorcycle Club.
© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
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