JUNIOR SHOWDOWN | Bikesportnz

The world awaits the crowning of New Zealand junior motocross champions this coming weekend.

Perhaps inspired by Kiwi riders such as Craig Coleman, Ivan Miller, Bryan Patterson, Darryl Atkins, Josh Coppins, Ben Townley, Katherine Prumm, Courtney Duncan and brothers Darryll, Shayne and Damien King, to name just a few – riders who have in the past stamped their authority on the international stage – the latest new wave of motocross talent from New Zealand is set to stand up and be counted.

The annual New Zealand Junior Motocross Championships are scheduled for Te Kuiti this Saturday and Sunday, with hundreds of young riders from all over the country expected to flood into the small King Country town for a weekend of fierce fighting.

And while big international contracts are not yet on the table for this weekend’s winners, a positive result at Te Kuiti could surely be the first step down that road to international stardom.

This event, co-sponsored by JT Racing, Otorohonda and King Country Honda, will feature the cream of motocross talent aged between eight and 16 years and the elder riders, in particular, will be keen to clinch a national title before they are obliged to join the senior ranks, where racing and winning gets that much tougher.

Several mouth-watering showdowns are anticipated.

Local favourite Aaron King will go head-to-head with Thames Valley’s just-crowned senior 125cc No.3 Ben Broad in two separate classes.

Otorohanga’s King and Ngatea’s Broad are the only riders who will race in both the 15-16 years’ 125cc and 14-16 years’ 250cc classes and both riders rate among the favourites.

In the 15-16 years’ 125cc class, the pair should be sternly tested by riders such as Taupo’s Wyatt Chase, Hawera’s Kieran Baker, Feilding’s Tony Cvitanovich, Ohaupo’s Aaron Baker, Whangarei’s Hayden Clements and Pokeno’s Jayden Turnwald, while, in the 14-16 years’ 250cc class, they will find tough opposition in the form of Cambridge’s Trent Collins, Alexandra’s Bryn Gilbert, Te Puke’s Tyler Steiner, Te Puke’s Jovhann Phillips, Muriwai cross-country ace Luke Mobberley and Nelson’s Reece Walker.

With five wins from five starts, South Islander Walker certainly sent a clear message to his rivals at the junior nationals last season, easily winning the 12-14 years’ 125cc class title, and it is highly likely he could repeat that feat in the 250cc four-stroke class this time around.

Te Kuiti’s Sean Kelly, who finished an impressive eighth overall in the recent senior 125cc nationals, should also rate among the favourites in the 15-16 years’ 125cc class, especially racing on home turf.

In the younger 125cc class, for riders aged 12-14 years, expect Reefton’s Bailey Banks, Te Awamutu’s Daniel White, Christchurch’s Trent Garland, Sanson’s Max Hefferen and Kotemaori cross-country racing hero Reece Lister, among others, to be battling near the front.

Another much-anticipated match-up will be the clash in the 13-16 years’ 85cc class between Mangakino’s Maximus Purvis and Oparau’s James Scott.

With racing expected to be tight right through the grades, it’s a tough championships to predict and it is unlikely anything will be wrapped up until late on Sunday afternoon.

An international racing career will be the dream of many riders this weekend and they will have seen how recent junior champion Josiah Natzke turned his successes in New Zealand into a factory contract.

Still aged only 16, Hamilton’s Natzke left for Europe last month to take up a contract racing for the KTM factory in the EMX125 European Motocross Championships.

The New Zealand senior 125cc champion in 2014 and again this season, Natzke’s international campaign kicks off at Trentino in Italy on April 19 and concludes in Assen, in the Netherlands, at the end of August.

Could Broad, King, Cvitanovich, Chase, Kelly, Walker, Turnwald, Collins or Steiner, for example, possibly join him there next season or perhaps the year after that?

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