South Islander Hamish Harwood won the championship in the under-19 motocross grade in Australia last season and now he’s determined to back that up by also scooping the main prize in the senior MX2 class this season.

The 19-year-old from Takaka, near Nelson, finished the day fifth overall at the fifth round of 10 in the 2014 Australian Motocross Championships at Wanneroo, on the outskirts of Perth, Western Australia, on Sunday and that was enough to see him rise up to second position overall in the championship as the season reached the halfway stage.

It was 17-year-old fellow KTM-supported rider Caleb Ward who won the day in the MX2 class at Wanneroo on Sunday, but consistency throughout the earlier phase of the competition means it is actually Harwood and not Ward who leads the KTM charge for the title.

Harwood took his CMR Red Bull KTM to finish 3-11-7, good for fifth on the day and, significantly, he is now just 10 points adrift of series leader Luke Clout.

“That’s the closest I’ve been to Clout all series and now I think my championship-winning chances are looking very good,” said Harwood.

“I didn’t go so well at the previous round because I had a bad cold, but I’m healthy again now and feeling pretty good.

“In the first race on Sunday I had a pretty good start and was in third place for most of the race. I passed Clout for second spot at one stage but he passed me back and I had to settle for third.

“We decided to change the clutch to freshen things up before the second race but that was probably a mistake because it was slipping in race two.

“Although I managed to get up to ninth place at the finish, I was then docked two positions to 11th by the officials because they deemed I’d gone too fast when the race was under a yellow (warning) flag.

“We changed the clutch again before race three and it was much better. I had an average start and was in about eighth position through turn one.

“But then, because of the deep sand, visibility was tough and I used up all my goggle tear-off after just seven minutes. I was in about fifth place at the stage but I was struggling to see and so tore my goggles off. I ended up seventh.”

Fellow Kiwi Kayne Lamont (Husqvarna Red Bull WIL Sport BikesportNZ.com Racing), from Mangakino, had been second in the championship standings after round four but a difficult day for him at Wanneroo saw him slip down to the No.5 spot, albeit still just 37 points behind Clout, with five rounds still to go.

“It was a good and bad day for me really,” said Harwood. “I’m not really happy with how I went but, looking at the championship, it’s a good result. Both Kayne (Lamont) and Luke (Clout) had bad days, so that means it was good for me.”

The series now takes a five-week break before round six, at Swan Hill, Victoria, on June 29.

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

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