The bikes are primed and ready to go and the track at Taupo is groomed for action … all that’s left now is for the riders to take their places on the start line.  

This Labour Weekend’s big annual Motocross Extravaganza at Taupo’s Digger McEwen Motorcycle Park will be especially important for the Altherm JCR Yamaha Racing team.

It will be “the first big shake-down” for national MX2 champion Scotty Columb and his Altherm JCR Yamaha team-mates as they prepare to defend their New Zealand Motocross Championship titles in 2014.

It won’t be easy for the Yamaha men either because it will be champion versus champion and team-mate versus team-mate in this first outing of the season.

Queenstown’s MX2 No.1 Columb and national 125cc No.1 Cameron Vaughan, of Rotorua, will go head-to-head in the popular MX2 (250cc) class, Columb on a YZ250 two-stroke and Vaughan (pictured above) on an Altherm JCR Yamaha YZ250F four-stroke machine.

Other top riders in the MX2 class this weekend include Motocross of Nations team riders Rhys Carter (Suzuki), of Mount Maunganui, and Kayne Lamont (BikesportNZ.com KTM) of Mangakino, Amberley’s Micah McGoldrick (Honda), Dunedin’s Campbell King (Honda), Taupo’s Nick Saunders (Kawasaki), Rotorua’s BikesportNZ.com Kawasaki rider Scotty Canham, Auckland’s Shaun Fogarty (Kawasaki) and Elsthorpe’s Kieran Scheele (Kawasaki), Titirangi’s Callan May (BikesportNZ.com Yamaha) and Whakatane’s Damon Rees (Honda).

Fresh from winning the Under-19 Development class title in Australia, Takaka’s Hamish Harwood (KTM) will also be worth watching in the MX2 battles.

Meanwhile, with MX1 regular Billy MacKenzie on duty overseas, Waitakere’s Ethan Martens will step in at Taupo to keep the seat warm in the big bike class on the Altherm JCR Yamaha team’s YZ450F.

For multi-time former national champion Martens it will also be a step up.

He is a former national 125cc champion and last year raced in the MX2 category but the future for him now is on the 450cc bike.

“We have brought Ethan in because, although Billy is from overseas (Scotland), the team’s goal is to support and develop the Kiwis,” said team manager Josh Coppins, who has just returned from a stint managing Team New Zealand at the Motocross of Nations in Germany.

“I think Ethan has been riding the MX1 bike really well.”

Martens will be up against local MX1 hero Brad Groombridge (Suzuki), as well as Hamilton’s Jesse Wiki (Honda), Palmerston North’s Tom Hughes (Suzuki), Ohaupo’s Campbell Bailey (Yamaha), Paraparaumu’s Jesse Donnelly (Kawasaki), Atiamuri’s Dion Picard (Kawasaki), Ngatea’s Luke Temple (Kawasaki), Tauranga’s Roydon White (KTM) and former junior frontrunner Nathan Henderson (Kawasaki KX450F).

In addition to Columb, Vaughan and Martens, Tauranga’s Logan Blackburn will be on board an Altherm JCR Yamaha YZ125 at Taupo this weekend.

“We really wanted to cover all the classes. This is part of our programme to develop riders. At the end of November the riders will all gather down here (at the team’s training facility in Motueka) to do testing and training, but this Taupo event is the team’s first big shake-down.

“Our goal this season is to win all three classes and I believe we have the riders to do that.

“We will have two main team riders, Scotty Columb and Billy MacKenzie, and support riders too – Ethan Martens, Cameron Vaughan and Logan Blackburn. It is a tiered system and we still have Otago’s Courtney Duncan to come into the mix.”

The Altherm JCR Yamaha Racing team is supported by Yamaha Motor New Zealand, CRC, Fox, Holland’s Collision Centre, Star Moving, GYTR, Yamalube, Pro Circuit, Alpinestars, Matrix, DID, NGK, Renthal, Pirelli, Etnies, Workshop Graphics, POD, Atlas, Motomuck, Uni, Giltrap Prestige and Racetech.

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