race three, it meant he was the best-
performed MX2 rider for the day and had
bolstered his championship advantage.
From leading the series by just three
points from Todd at the start of the
day, to now be 35 points ahead of the
new second-ranked rider in the class,
Mangakino’s Maximus Purvis (Altherm
JCR Yamaha YZ250F), it means Harwood
has more than an entire race up his
sleeve as the riders now headed to
Taupo’s final round.
Harwood’s position in the separate
125cc championship is even stronger.
Harwood won all three 125cc races at
Pukekohe – he is actually unbeaten for
the series in this class – and he is now a
whopping 57 points clear of his nearest
threat, Ngatea-based Placemakers KTM
rider Ben Broad, meaning (with a race
win worth 25 points) Harwood now has
more than two races up his sleeve with
just three more 125cc races still to come
at Taupo.
“I’m pretty happy with my 125cc class
results at Pukekohe,” said Harwood. “I
only did two laps in qualifying, to save my
energy, because I felt my lap times were
fast enough to put me in a good position
already. As it turned out, I had done
enough to qualify second fastest (behind
main rival Broad) and that was good
enough.
“For the MX2 class, I qualified third
fastest. I wasn’t too disappointed with
that because I knew I could go faster and
a top-five in qualifying is good enough
really.
“All-in-all I had a pretty good day, except
that last MX2 race, when I blew the start
and was back in about 15th position. It’s
a really hard track to pass on and so I
was pumped to be able to fight my way
through and catch up to the leaders.
“I was telling myself ‘don’t do anything
silly’, ‘you don’t need to win this’. But
at the same time I don’t want to win a
championship just by getting seconds and
thirds.
“With what happened to Wilson
(Todd) today, I can even afford to let
him win all the races at Taupo because
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KIWI RIDER 29