It was an extremely emotional moment when Canterbury’s Seth Devereux captured his second national motorcycling title at the weekend.

The 20-year-old from Christchurch had only an outside chance of clinching the 125GP class title at the fifth and final round of the New Zealand Superbike Championships at Taupo on Sunday, but when his main rival for the title, Aucklander Daniel Mettam, crashed early in the final 125cc race of the weekend, Devereux was suddenly the man of the moment.

He won the final race and took the title by two points.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he took his Kawasaki KRZ125 across the finish line and he immediately dedicated his victory to his close friend Cameron Jones, the fellow Christchurch rider who tragically died following an accident earlier this season.

Jones was national 125GP champion in 2008, at age 15 the youngest rider ever to win the title.

Devereux was sensational all weekend, winning all three 125GP class races to steal away with the crown and also scoring a hat-trick of wins in the Prolite 250cc class, although that wasn’t quite enough for him to successfully defend that title, a title he won for the first time last season.

“I’ve been pretty unlucky with crashes this season … so unlucky that, if I had a pet fish, it would probably drown. Luck certainly wasn’t with me early in the championship and I was going to give up after the South Island rounds. But I carried on because of Cam. I wanted to do this for him.”

As did many riders who wanted to pay their respects to the departed Jones, Devereux carried small replica stickers of Jones’ No.26 on the fairings of both of his bikes.

Even with luck seemingly against him, Devereux’s unbeaten run at the weekend meant he also managed to finish runner-up in the Prolite 250 class, ending the series just four points behind fellow Kawasaki ace Sam Croft, of Paraparaumu.

“Everything just clicked for me today,” said Devereux. “I have a reputation for crashing and I either go ridiculously fast or launch the bike over a bank. I just went fast today.

“Sam Croft deserved to win the Prolites title. He has gone well all season and all credit to him.”

© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com