The MX1 podium ( from left ) Josiah Natzke

( third ); Maximus Purvis ( winner ) and Hamish

Harwood ( second )

MX1 To cut a long story short , Mangakino ’ s Maximus Purvis demonstrated that consistency counts most when he won the first two of three races in the premier MX1 class and was therefore afforded the luxury of cruising to a distant third in the rain-drenched and extremely slippery final outing , which was enough for him to wrap up the class overall and also to take the prestigious Tim Gibbes Memorial Trophy for the first time on seniors ’ day Sunday . Runner-up was two-time former Woodville champion and national MX1 No . 1 Hamish Harwood , from West Auckland , with Kiwi international Josiah Natzke claiming third overall at Woodville on Sunday . Purvis finished 1-1-3 in his three MX1 outings , while Harwood posted a consistent 2-2-2 scorecard . “ I had a good day and felt great on the bike ,” said Purvis afterwards . “ I had some pretty average starts but took the overall . I ’ m looking forward to the first round of the nationals .” Mount Maunganui ’ s Natzke finished 3-3-1 , his performance in the treacherous mud at the end of the day a real stand-out . In the end , the gap between Purvis and Harwood was just four points for the GP title overall , with Natzke finishing just one point further back . “ I guess I saved the best for last ,” the 26-yearold Natzke smiled with muddy teeth after the final race . “ For the first two races I was just trying to get comfortable on the new bike . I knew that if I could get the lead in the mucky final race , that might be enough to get the win and that ’ s what happened . “ The bike is good and we ’ re just doing more work on getting the suspension set up for me . I think I ’ ll be going better and better from here onwards .”

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