MX season opener starts
things off with a bang
M
by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com
angakino’s Kayne Lamont is back
on top of the Kiwi motocross scene,
temporarily at least. The 24-year-old
Altherm JCR Yamaha Racing Team rider
made his MX1 class debut a winning
one at the popular annual MX Fest
event in Taupo on the Sunday of Labour Weekend,
claiming the main trophy after a day-long battle
with reigning national MX1 champion Cody Cooper
(Honda Racing Team CRF450), of Mount Maunganui.
Lamont was crowned national MX2 (250cc)
champion in March 2014, but now he’s the MX1
class rider for the high-profile factory Yamaha
team and the pressure was on him over Labour
Weekend to quickly adapt to his new Yamaha
YZ450F bike and also to battle the cream of the
big bike class at one of New Zealand’s premier
stand-alone events. He didn’t disappoint.
He kicked off the weekend by winning Saturday
evening’s Speedcross event, an invite-only,
supercross-style segment of the two-day MX Fest
programme. He headed Taupo’s Brad Groombridge
(Kea Suzuki RM-Z450), Auckland’s Blake Gillard (MR
Motorcycles KTM 450F) and Cooper across the
finish line in that spectacle and that was perhaps
an omen for what was to come the following day.
Lamont finished overall runner-up to Cooper after
the regulation three MX1 class races on Sunday
– Cooper finishing 1-2-1 in the three outings and
Lamont 2-1-2 – but then came the quick-fire,
knock-out feature races, a whittling-back process
that eventually left Lamont, Cooper and Te Puke’s
Tyler Steiner (Crownkiwi Kawasaki KX450F) to race
the final winner-takes-all one-lap shoot-out.
When Cooper crashed out in the first turn of
that final showdown, it became a two-man race
and Lamont was simply too swift for Steiner,
winning the race comfortably, taking the shoot-
out honours and winning the MX1 class outright,
ending the day two points clear of Cooper
and a whopping 24 points clear of eventual
MX1 class third-ranked man Groombridge.
“I showed lots of speed all day and that’s despite
Mangakino’s Kayne Lamont (Altherm JCR Yamaha
YZ450F), the main winner at the MX Fest event in
Taupo over Labour Weekend