This season’s New Zealand Motocross Championships have reached the halfway stage and likely winners have emphatically revealed themselves.

Tauranga’s Ben Townley (MX1, 450cc class), Hamilton’s Darryll King (MX2, 250cc) and Amberley’s Micah McGoldrick (125cc and under-21) have the points advantage in their respective categories but they will each be keeping a nervous watch over their shoulders as the series heads to Harrisville, near Pukekohe, for the third round of four this Sunday.

They each know they can take nothing for granted with two rounds of racing still to come and anything possible in this most brutal and unforgiving of sports.

Former world champion Townley will be wary of the constant threat posed by long-time friend and rival Josh Coppins, the man from Motueka who has twice finished runner-up in the world championships. Defending MX1 champion Cody Cooper, of Mount Maunganui, is also starting to build momentum, as are Rotorua’s Michael Phillips and Auckland’s Hamish Dobbyn.

King snatched the lead in the MX2 class at round two last weekend but he’ll feel the heat from round-one winner Scotty Columb on Sunday, the Queenstown rider determined to re-claim the No.1 spot in the title chase, while many-time former champion Daryl Hurley, of Hawera, continues to loiter with intent, in third place overall.

In the 125cc class, McGoldrick is coming under intense pressure from Bay of Plenty trio Cameron Vaughan, of Rotorua, Tauranga’s Logan Blackburn (pictured right, bike No.10) and Rotorua’s Cameron Negus (pictured right, bike No.4), and he’ll need to be at his best on Sunday to fend off the challengers.

These riders will also be well aware of the threat posed by riders flying just under the radar, men such as Tauranga’s Peter Broxholme (pictured above), Mount Maunganui’s Rhys Carter, Waitakere’s Ethan Martens, Wellington’s Jayden Jessup, Auckland’s Eli Manson, Nelson’s Nathan Clare, Auckland’s Callan May and Te Awamutu’s Ryan Thompson.

There will also be racing this weekend for the MX3 riders, a support class for non-qualifiers.

The circuit at Harrisville has recently undergone a major revamp with expatriate Kiwi Greg Atkins – the man who directs the motocross world championship organisers on track design in Europe – at home for a ‘holiday’, spending many hours with a bulldozer in recent weeks to sculpture the Pukekohe turf.

After Pukekohe this weekend, the series heads to Taupo in a fortnight (March 18) for a thrilling final-round climax.

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