Mangakino’s Kayne Lamont turned quite a few heads when he launched his Australian Motocross Championships campaign by finishing round one in overall runner-up position in the tightly-fought under-19 class on Sunday.

The 18-year-old BikesportNZ.com racer competes for Suzuki in New Zealand but could not turn down the splendid did offer that had had been made by the New Zealand-based CMR Red Bull KTM Team for him to race the Australian nationals and the combination seemed to work perfectly for both parties at the weekend.

Lamont finished 2-1-10 in his three races on Sunday, finishing the day 14 points behind the eventual round-one winner, Dylan Long (1-2-1).

Lamont gave this run-down of his weekend …

“We arrived at the track around 10.30am on Saturday, just as (fellow Kiwis) Ben Townley (of Honda) and my New Zealand team-mate Micah McGoldrick were walking the track, so I joined them.

“The track looked super fast with a lot of grass sections and a lot of step-ups with one huge jump in the middle section that I don’t think anyone would be able to land.

“After the track walk we meet up Steve Cachia who we were pitting with, we unloaded my bike and went to work on fitting Bridgestones, CMR graphics and an FMF pipe. We headed back to Nambor to the motel and get ready for the next day’s racing.

“The next day we arrived at the track around 7am … another brilliant, hot Aussie day, and set up the pits and fired up my bike for the first time. I made a couple of suspension changes to soften it up a little, ready for practice and qualifying.

“I had no chance to run the bike in before practice so would have to take it easy on the first couple of laps then put in some fast laps in qualifying.

“There were problems with the lap timing and we were unsure where I was sitting but I knew I had put in some quick laps. Once the timing had been sorted out I had qualified fifth, within a couple on seconds of the top qualifier.

“In race one, I got the holeshot and led to the off camber turn where I went to the outside but marred it badly and Dylan Long and Jay Wilson got past. The three of us pulled clear of the rest of the field and it took until the final lap for me to get past Jay to finish second.

“Race I was third around holeshot corner then passed into second before the drop off, then took the lead around the outside of a swampy grass section and pulled a comfortable lead to take the win.

For race three I had a bad start and got forced out into a soft berm and went down, with other bikes crashing into me. I got away in 38th place and worked hard to finish in 11th place. This gave me second overall for the day.

“Overall I was very happy with my first outing for CMR Red Bull KTM, the bike went well straight out of the crate. I would like to give huge thanks to CMR’s Cannon Smith and Martin Collins, for giving me the opportunity, and also special thanks to Steve and Tracy Cachia for carting my bike around and letting me pit with them and Jordy for assembling my bike on Tuesday.

“I would also like to thank Graeme and Kate Rowe for the accommodation the few days leading up to the event and the mean round of golf.”

Lamont’s Kiwi team-mate McGoldrick, the national 125cc champion, meanwhile finished 13th overall in the U19 class, while another New Zealander, Atiamuri’s Dion Picard finished 8th overall.

New Zealand riders were to the fore in other divisions too with Tauranga’s Ben Townley scoring a hat-trick of wins in the open class, finishing the day on top of the podium and ahead of Motueka’s Josh Coppins, making in an impressive Kiwi 1-2 across the Tasman. Mount Maunganui’s Cody Cooper finished the day 8th overall, while New Zealand MX2 champion Darryll King was 18th overall in the open class and Rotorua’s Mike Phillips experienced a luckless day and scored no points.

Christchurch’s Justin McDonald finished 6th overall in the MX2 class with New Zealand MX2 No.2 Scotty Columb back down in 15th place.

The next round of the series is set for Coonabarabran, New South Wales, on 14-15 April.