February 24, 2014: At the rate Mangakino’s Kayne Lamont is going, it won’t be long before he could look back over his shoulder and see
nobody behind him.
His pursuers are almost at the point where they’ll have to give up trying to catch the Husqvarna Red Bull WIL Sport
Management Team’s star rider.
The 20-year-old Lamont stunned the motocross community when, just days after collecting his new Husqvarna TC250 bike and
with virtually nothing done to set it up for racing, he dominated the MX2 (250cc) class at the New Zealand Motocross
Grand Prix at Woodville, including beating the current national champion in that class, Queenstown’s Scott Columb.
A flash in the pan? Maybe.
A couple of weeks later and he repeated the feat, this time winning the day at the first round of four in the New
Zealand Motocross Championships near Timaru.
Another fluke? The sport’s observers were starting to think not.
Lamont again hammered his rivals at the weekend, this time racing at round two of the nationals at Tokoroa and he has
now eased himself to 27 points ahead of his nearest challenger, Dargaville KTM rider Hamish Dobbyn.
So much for ‘flash in the pan’ or ‘fluke’; Lamont and his BikesportNZ.com-supported Husqvarna TC250 are the ‘real deal’.
The national series is at the halfway stage, with just six races to come over the next two rounds and Lamont now has a
one-race points buffer up his sleeve.
“The day didn’t go exactly to plan – I didn’t win all three races – but it went pretty good,” said Lamont, the 2012
Australian under-19 champion.
“I was hoping to come here to my home track at Tokoroa and dominate, to finish here with an even bigger points lead. I
started today with a three-point lead and now that’s 27, so I should be happy with that I guess.
“But the next round is on Hamish Dobbyn’s home turf at Pukekohe, so I will need to step it up.
“My mechanic Norm Cobb has done a lot of work to get things perfect for me with the bike. He’s been awesome and I can’t
thank him enough. The hours that he has put in are paying off big-time. I’m still getting used to the bike but it’s
great. We’ll do some m ore testing before the next round.”
The series continues with round three at Pukekohe on March 9, with the fourth and final round set for Taupo on March 22.
Mangakino’s Kayne Lamont (Husqvarna TC250), in command of the MX2 (250cc) class at Tokoroa. Photo by Andy McGechan,
BikesportNZ.com
ENDS