The 2025-26 New Zealand Motocross Championships kicked off with two rounds in the South Island in November and fast approaching now is round three in Tauranga.
The final two rounds – in Tauranga on February 21, followed by Rotorua’s finale a week later, on February 28 – will certainly sort the men from the boys and the women from the girls.
Mangakino’s Maximus Purvis leads the MX1 class after the opening stanza, while Queensland’s Caleb Ward and Karaka’s Hayden Draper share the lead in the MX2 class.
Meanwhile, Levin’s Phoenix Van Dusschoten tops the 125cc class standings.
The women were to have raced their opening round of three as part of the 2026 Honda New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville last weekend, until impossibly wet and sloppy conditions put paid to that in the early hours on Sunday morning.
They will, however, be in action at Tauranga and Rotorua.
What we have below is a fantastic video production from fabled South Island-based videographer Derek Morrison.
Here he has interviewed several of the favoured young riders in the MX2 class this season, each of them paying a fitting verbal tribute to the “old man” of the sport, 42-year-old Cody Cooper (pictured above), from Opotiki.
Cooper won the MX2 crown outright in 2023, finished runner-up in 2024 and placed fifth overall last season.
Over the years, he has also been chosen to race for New Zealand at the Motocross of Nations on a staggering 11 occasions.
He was a member of the three-rider squad that finished on the podium, in third place overall, at Matterley Basin, in England, in 2006, and the last time he was a member of Team New Zealand was at Ernee in France in 2023.
On that occasion, Team New Zealand finished 14th out of the 37 countries entered.
© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
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2025-26 New Zealand Motocross Championships calendar:
- Round 1, November 16, 2025 – hosted by the Southland Motorcycle Club
- Round 2, November 22, 2025 – hosted by the South Otago Motorcycle Club
- Round 3, February 21, 2026 – hosted by the Tauranga Motorcycle Club
- Round 4, February 28, 2026 – hosted by the Rotorua Motorcycle Club