Bay of Plenty’s Rhys Carter was the king of Taranaki last year and the question being asked now is can he keep this treasured motocross crown?
The Kawasaki rider was in dazzling form as he completely dominated the Mach 1 Yamaha-sponsored annual King of the Mountain motocross near New Plymouth last January, the event an ideal warm-up before the nationals were due to kick off there a fortnight later.
It’s the same scenario this year too, with the opening round of four in the 2019 New Zealand Motocross Championships set for the same Barrett Road circuit on February 3 … and that’s just three weeks away.
The man who finished behind Carter at the King of the Mountain last season was national cross-country champion Brad Groombridge, (Suzuki) from Taupo, and former national motocross champion Daryl Hurley (Suzuki), from Hawera, finished third overall.
This year’s KoM event doubles also as the final round of the North Island Motocross Series.
Tauranga’s Brodie Connolly won the junior King of the Mountain trophy last year.
Best of senior 125cc riders last year was Rotorua’s Joshua Bourke-Palmer, with Opunake’s Taylar Rampton the best of the women and Dunedin’s Grason Veitch the best of the junior 250cc riders.
Carter also won the King of the Mountain (KoM) trophy in 2015, perhaps making him the main title favourite again this time around.
The KoM win is also an ideal warm-up ahead of the big annual Honda New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville, set this year for January 26-27.
© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com
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