Hamilton’s Josiah Natzke is not quite at his best, but, even at 80% fitness, this motocross ace was too good for most of his rivals at the weekend.

The Yamaha rider injured himself back in September when he “came up short on a jump” while he was training.

“I broke my left tibia and fibula and was sidelined for about two months. My bones healed a bit faster than expected actually,” said Natzke, who will be a year 10 student at Hamilton Boys’ High School in the New Year.

None of those injuries seemed to hold him back at the big annual Whakatane Summercross event at the weekend, with Natzke taking his Yamaha YZ85 to the top step of the podium in the junior 12-13 years’ 85cc class and then riding his YZ125 to a close runner-up spot in the junior 12-15 years’ 125cc class as well.

“My fitness is not good at the moment. I need more time on the bike,” he said.

“When I regain full fitness I will last a lot longer and not fade near the end of the races. My tactics at the weekend were just to get out front early and then go hard and create a gap.

“This would enable me to cruise a bit at the end if I wanted to.

“I won the first 125cc race of the day but I had a small problem with the throttle cable in the next race. I pulled over and stopped to fix it and lost 20 or 30 seconds in the process. But I still managed to finish second in that race.

“I was getting tired near the end of the day and finished runner-up again in the last 125cc race.”

In the end, Natzke fell only five points short of winning the 125cc class, with Taupo’s Cohen Chase (KTM) taking the overall win instead. Next best was another Yamaha rider, Hawera’s Nick Hornby, who finished third in all three races, while Tuakau’s Ethan Watkins took his Yamaha YZ85 to fourth overall and Ngatea’s Benjamin Broad (KTM) rounded out the top five.

Natzke was unbeaten in the 85cc class, a perfect way to finish as he announced at the end of the day that this was also his farewell to the small bike category.

“It was a nice way to sign off on the YZ85. I’m just starting to outgrow it a bit now and I’ll only be on the 125 from here onward.

“I reckon I’ll be 100% fit again by the time of the big Woodville Motocross (on January 26-27) and only do that one class, so I’m feeling confident I’ll do okay.”

Natzke is supported by Yamaha New Zealand, CNC Profile Cutting Services, Fox, Scott, ProShield, Pirelli, SockMasters, Supersprox, Tsubaki and Arai.

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