Cody Cooper( Honda CRF450R) took the MX1 in relaxed style
steadily building strength and form as he prepares now for the senior nationals early next year. Scott dominated racing on both days of the annual Auckland Motocross Championships at Tuakau in November, winning the 15-16 years’ 125cc class during junior racing on the Saturday and then stepping up to dominate again the following day, this time in the senior 125cc class. He edged out Wairoa’ s Tommy Watts( HLR Husqvarna Racing Team) to win the junior class on Saturday and overshadowed visiting Australian rider Mason Semmens( CML KTM) and Mangakino’ s fellow international star Maximus Purvis( Altherm JCR Yamaha Racing Team) to take the senior glory on the Sunday.“ It’ s really good to know that I can run with Max( Purvis) and now even beat him. He was always the favourite to win this class, but I guess today was my day,” said Scott. Scott won the first two senior 125cc races on Sunday, finishing ahead of Purvis both times, but he couldn’ t quite make it a hattrick, with 16-year-old Melbourne KTM rider Semmens nipping in to steal his thunder by winning the final 125cc race of the day.“ I just couldn’ t find a way past Mason,”
Scott explained.“ I have been getting great coaching from [ Kiwi former world motocross champion ] Ben Townley over the past 12 months and that’ s been awesome,” said Scott. A first-timer at the Tuakau circuit, Semmens got better as the day wore on and he learned the track and he will obviously be a contender when he returns to tackle the 2018 New Zealand Motocross Championships in the New Year. Meanwhile, an outstanding performance from Taupo’ s Wyatt Chase( Chase Racing KTM) handed KTM a second senior class win at the Auckland event, the 18-year-old dominating the MX2( 250cc) class with a hat-trick of wins to easily out-point dual-class rider Semmens. Both Scott and Chase have been on fire lately – the two young men also won their respective 125cc and MX2 classes at the recent Waikato Motocross Championships near Te Kuiti soon after that. All these riders now look ahead to racing the big annual Summercross event at Whakatane, just after Christmas, followed by the New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville in late January, with the four-round national championships set to kick off in Taranaki in February.
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