The annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville has commanded pride of place on the Kiwi dirt biking calendar for more than 60 years.
It was created in 1961 by a legend, Manawatu man Tim Gibbes (in conjunction with his brother-in-law Ken Cleghorn), and the event itself continues to this day to hold legendary status in New Zealand.
Cleghorn and Gibbes were actually the first two riders to become overall winners at Woodville, champions there in 1961 and 1962 respectively. Gibbes won the title again in 1964 and Cleghorn won the main Woodville trophy twice more, in 1965 and 1966.
When young Australian Hunter Lawrence (pictured here) came to race at Woodville in 2012, he was at that time perhaps considered just one of many rising stars in the sport.
He won the junior 11-12 years’ 85cc class at Woodville that year and most people probably didn’t think too much about that – perhaps just ‘oh, yeah, there goes another fast Aussie kid’.
But now, 12 years later, we know of him as an extremely fast 24-year-old senior rider of international repute. He is the 2023 national 250cc supercross champion in the United States and is running among the leaders in the 450cc class early on in this year’s AMA Supercross Championships.
Woodville has hosted many British, American, Japanese and Australian national and world champions over the years – and more than a few world class Kiwis too, including Taranaki’s 1996 500cc motocross world champion Shayne King – and it can list in its record books such motocross luminaries as British motocross world champion Jeff Smith, United States motocross and supercross champion Chad Reed, from Australia, New Zealand’s four-time (and current) women’s motocross world champion Courtney Duncan, plus other overseas notables such as Perry Leask, Greg Hanson, Jake Nicholls, Willie Surratt, Ivan Miller and Craig Dack, among many others.
So, it might pay to look carefully over the event programme this weekend to see if you can identify who might be the next big thing in the sport … Woodville is certainly one place where this calibre of rider could pop up on their career pathway to the top.
Meanwhile, below we have reproduced the two-day race programme for the 2024 edition of the iconic event.
© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com
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