It has been a massive year for New Zealand teenager Cole Davies, with his 2024 season in the United States promising even greater things to come.
The 17-year-old from Waitoki, who started the season racing for GASGAS and then signed up for the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team, added to his already impressive resume when he dominated the 250 World All-Stars category at the Las Vegas SuperMotocross Championships (SMX) Final in September.
Davies hit the ground running in Las Vegas, topping the timing sheets in the 250 World All-Stars class, a category which showcases the top amateur riders at the SMX World Championship Finals.
In the main event, a single 10-minute plus one lap race, he got a great start in second and quickly claimed the lead. From there, the New Zealander set a blistering pace to build a comfortable gap up front and take the win by a 5.8-second margin.
Davies earned the series win ahead of Minnesota’s Avery Long and Florida’s Alexander Fedortsov.
This was just the latest milestone in his season of successes across the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
“I made some huge gains this year and have a great team behind me. Only up from here,” said Davies.
“From the first race (of the series) at RedBud (in Michigan), that was not great. I crashed four times in one race … but then (at the Las Vegas race) I got off to a pretty good start there, made a pretty quick pass on Landen [Gordon] and just tried to ride it home from there. I had a few sketchy moments and stuff like that, but yeah, we got it done.”
Meanwhile, in the battle for the premier class for the 2024 SuperMotocross World Championships, it came down to one final moto where two Australian brothers, also Honda team-mates, battled for the sport’s premier championship and the US$1 million payday that went with it.
Team Honda HRC Progressive’s Jett Lawrence emerged with the championship crown for the second year, ahead of elder brother Hunter Lawrence, after Jett had also won the inaugural title last year.
Colorado’s Eli Tomac completed the series podium in the SMX450 class.
Haiden Deegan won the 250SMX title for 2024, ahead of Frenchman Tom Vialle and Utah’s Pierce Brown.
The SuperMotocross World Championship event wrapped up nine incredible months of racing.
The 31-round SMX World Championships – paying out on combined points from both the supercross series and the outdoor motocross series in the US – crossed and re-crossed the US to challenge some of the best mostly-American supercross and motocross racers inside the top sports stadiums and at world-famous motocross venues.
The series’ successful second year already has racers, teams and fans alike looking forward to the 2025 race season.
© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
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