Ktm's Harwood on Track for Third Consecutive Title

Ktm's Harwood on Track for Third Consecutive Title

FEBRUARY 5, 2018: Takaka's Hamish Harwood is not as fast as he once was ... he's faster.

The former South Islander, now based in Royal Heights, West Auckland, was in dynamic form at the opening round of this year's New Zealand Motocross Championships near New Plymouth on Sunday.

The 22-year-old took his CML KTM Racing Team bike to finish unbeaten in the MX2 (250cc) class and then took a 300cc KTM SX model bike to finish sixth overall against the 450cc bikes in the MX1 grade as well.

His main focus again this year is on keeping hold of his MX2 crown, the MX1 class assault "just for fun" at this stage in his career and he admitted he "backed off to conserve energy" for his MX2 bid as the temperatures at the Barrett Road facility soared to 30 degrees Celsius on Sunday afternoon.

"I'm pretty happy with that effort," said Harwood afterwards.

"The track was quite gnarly and became very rough. I made it hard for myself in the first MX2 race with a bad start, but I managed to come through," he said matter-of-factly.

It's too early yet to be sure, with three more rounds of racing still to come, but so far it seems that Harwood is well on track to make it three consecutive national MX2 crowns in a row after he won for the first time in 2016 and then successfully defended his title last year.

Harwood finished the day 15 points clear of Taupo's national cross-country champion Brad Groombridge in the MX2 class, with visiting Australian Jay Wilson ending it third overall, just five points adrift of Groombridge.

Also impressive in the MX2 class was Auckland-based former Taihape rider Hayden Smith, last season's National 125cc champion.

Riding for the CML KTM Racing Team, Smith holeshot and led the first of the day's MX2 races before being overtaken by Harwood, the pair making it a CML KTM Racing Team 1-2 at the chequered flag. Smith backed that up by finishing fourth and eighth, good enough to place him fourth overall for the event, just two points behind international star Wilson and seven behind Groombridge.

Hamilton's Kayne Lamont dominated the MX1 class, with defending champion Cody Cooper, of Mount Maunganui, forced to accept finishing overall runner-up for the day.

Harwood's CML KTM Racing team-mate, visiting former Australian champion Kirk Gibbs, had qualified fastest in the MX1 class, but he struggled with the unfamiliar concrete start pad and was forced to play catch-up in all three races.

"I've got good speed at the moment, but I struggled with my starts and I had a couple of tip-overs ... nothing major," said the 28-year-old from Queensland.

"The top four riders are pretty fast, but I'm happy that I've got a good platform to build on."

Meanwhile, it was a true Kiwi-Aussie battle in the National 125cc class, with Mangakino's Maximus Purvis and Yarra Valley rider Mason Semmens sharing the wins.

Altherm JCR Yamaha's Purvis finished 1-1-2 and CML KTM Racing Team rider Semmens finished 2-2-1, giving a narrow three-point advantage to Purvis after this opening round.

Third best rider in this class was Cambridge's Seton Head (Kea Trailers KTM), although he is a massive 17 points behind Semmens in the series standings.

"I had a couple of runner-up finishes to start the day, but then got a better start in the last race, pulled a gap and just held on to that until the end. I'm looking forward to the next rounds of racing," said the 16-year-old Semmens.

The series now heads to Rotorua for round two on February 25. Round three is set for Hawke's Bay on March 11, with the fourth and final round in Taupo on March 24.

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