It was a case of contrasting extremes at the 63rd annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Himatangi at the weekend.
With rain and mud testing the junior grade riders on Saturday and then harsh sun testing the senior grade riders in a different way the following day, the huge phalanx of riders who had entered certainly needed to bring their ‘A game’ to cope with the various challenges that arose.
“It was a sharp contrast for riders to face damp and treacherous conditions on Saturday, and then we had to impose a delay for racing early on Sunday for safety reasons, until the blinding sun rose high enough to be out of the riders’ eyes.
“Rain hats and umbrellas on Saturday, sun hats and sunscreen on Sunday. Who would have figured on that?” said host Manawatu-Orion Motorcycle Club president Brad Ritchie.
Palmerston North’s Brad Ritchie, club president for the Manawatu-Orion Motorcycle Club. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
This Honda-sponsored 63rd annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix had originally been scheduled to run at its iconic home, the rolling farmland venue at Woodville, back in January, but that meeting fell victim to a torrential onslaught of rain, turning the track and pits area into a quagmire.
Sadly, this wasn’t the first time that this legendary event, the largest and most prestigious motocross in the Southern Hemisphere, has been brought down by Mother Nature, with the event also cancelled in 2023 due to heavy flooding and cancelled too when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2022.
But the Manawatu-Orion Motorcycle Club refused to admit defeat this time around and so the New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix was resurrected five months later, the free-draining, grass-covered but mostly-sand terrain near Foxton proving to be an ideal foil to whatever nature would throw at it.
To cut a long story short, Mangakino’s Maximus Purvis won the premier MX1 class on Sunday and therefore also took away the prestigious Tim Gibbes Memorial Trophy.
It was his second consecutive MX1 victory at this coveted event after he had also won the trophy last season.
This allowed him to join a rare “multiple winners’ club”, becoming only the 14th multi-time (two victories or more) winner of the main New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix trophy.
Taupo’s Maz Parkes raced both days at the weekend’s 3rd annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Himatangi and finished on the podium in both junior and senior race action. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
Maybe Purvis might aspire to match the man who recorded the most outright senior wins at this event, New Plymouth’s Shayne King, who celebrated winning the main trophy nine times between 1992 and 2006.
Meanwhile, fellow Kiwi international Josiah Natzke – the young man from Huntly now resettled back in New Zealand after a 2024 season where he came agonisingly close to winning the national title in Canada, but forced to settle for runner-up – finished second to Purvis in the MX1 class on Sunday.
Raetihi’s Karaitiana Horne was again the stand-out individual in the women’s racing, alongside Halcombe’s Indie Allison. Horne finished 2-1-1 in the senior women’s grade, while Allison posted a 1-2-3 scorecard on Sunday to settle for overall runner-up.
Allison also won the junior women’s grade on Saturday with a stunning hat-trick of wins.
Ritchie said it was a massive effort that had been put in by his club volunteers and it was “an amazing spectacle” from every point of view.
“Thousands of man-hours go into creating this each year and it’s so special because this is the home of the first major motocross GP event in New Zealand.
“It was fantastic to be able to resurrect this event five months after calling it off in January.
Raetihi rider Karaitiana Horne, the stand-out performer in the senior women’s ranks at the 63rd annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at the weekend. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
“It is a shame that, for the first time we have not been able to run the event at Woodville, obviously the spiritual home of the event but we have been able to offer this to the sponsors, the partners, and the riders too and been able to hand out the New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix titles. That’s pretty cool for us as a club.
“We are impressed too by the numbers that showed up … they all responded. The top-level riders remained fit and active to get through to the winter and have a late tilt at the Grand Prix silverware.
“We needed a bit of rain leading into the week, but the thunderstorms on Friday night nearly killed us. Full credit to the Manawatu-Orion Motorcycle Club committee and track crew that worked tirelessly in the morning and through the night to get things ready for Saturday.
“We were very lucky that we were hosting in the sand country and it’s a credit to the Flipp family for the use of the land and principal sponsors such as Blue Wing Honda that we could do this.”
Individual class winners from the weekend’s 63rd annual NZ Motocross GP at Himatangi:
Seniors, veterans and women (Sunday):
Mangakino’s Maximus Purvis (MX1 class and main GP trophy);
Karaka’s Hayden Draper (MX2 class);
Waipukurau’s Carson Carroll (MX125 class and Roddy Shirriffs Memorial Under-22 Trophy);
Raetihi’s Karaitiana Horne (Senior women);
Raetihi’s Richard Horne (Veterans, Over-35).
Juniors (Saturday):
Taupo’s Maz Parkes (14-16 years’ 250cc class);
Tauranga’s Ethan Carleton (15-16 years’, 125cc class);
Waipukurau’s Carson Carroll (12-14 years’, 125cc class);
Palmerston North’s Max Wright (13-16 years’, 85cc class);
Otorohanga’s Cooper Bennett (11-12 years’, 85cc class);
Ashhurst’s Mason Nicholls (8-10 years’, 85cc class);
Te Awamutu’s Jai Gibson (8-11 years’, 65cc class);
Halcombe’s Indie Allison (Junior women).
© Words and photos by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
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