near Tokoroa back in June 2021 . But this still makes him a ‘ virtual rookie ’ at national cross-country championships level . So much for his newbie status ... he put aside his trusted Honda CRF250 to instead climb aboard the bigger Honda CRF450RX enduro machine and make his cross-country nationals debut at round one of the Yamaha-sponsored 2022 series near Marton in late February . He stunned everyone – except perhaps those who know him well – when he beat defending New Zealand champion Tommy Watts ( Yamaha ) to the chequered flag that day . Then it was all quiet on the racing front , with a seven-week break before rounds two and three scheduled for the long Easter Weekend , but Scott simply picked up again where he had left off in February . Scott won both the back-to-back rounds two and three – near Pahiatua / Masterton on the Saturday and near Dannevirke on Easter Monday – proving comprehensively that his first-round win was certainly no fluke . It was the same podium that formed up at the end of racing on both days over the Easter
break , Scott winning both three-hour senior races ahead of Napier-based former Wairoa man Watts , with Taupo ’ s Wil Yeoman ( Yamaha ) crossing the line in third place both times . With only three of the four rounds to be counted , it means that Scott ’ s win at round one , followed by his pair of wins over the Easter weekend , put him in an unbeatable position and the national cross-country champs first-timer therefore wrapped up the coveted senior title with a round to spare . It was a must-win situation for Watts at round three , with a race win needed from him to keep alive his hopes of a successful title defence . If Watts could have won at Dannevirke and then again at the final round , he would have taken the title by virtue of the count-back rule . It didn ’ t work out that way , with Scott leading the Dannevirke race from start to finish . After a poor start , Watts did manage to close in on Scott near the end of the race , but it was never quite enough , even though Watts was the first rider to see the chequered flag . The finish flag came out for Watts with him having completed nine of the 17km laps in the
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