Traditionally regarded the first big event of the New Zealand summer season , the big annual Huka Honda MX Fest extravaganza on the outskirts of Taupo typically brings out all the main contenders for the multi-round national championship season in the New Year . This high-profile event has always been the ideal place for riders and teams to showcase their new machines , test bike settings and perhaps also fire off a few early warning shots at their rivals . But this year it was semi-regular visitor Gibbs who celebrated the loudest – supported in his quest by the Auckland-based CML GASGAS Racing Team , Alpinestars and Crown Kiwi Enterprises – who took his sparkling new GASGAS MC450FE to clinch the coveted Nicky Smith Memorial trophy , the prize for winning the popular “ champion-of-champions ” shootout feature races on Sunday . The 35-year-old Gibbs , from the Sunshine Coast , outlasted all competitors in the feature shoot-out , a series of races that eliminated riders at each phase . The shoot-out started with the top riders from each of the senior 125cc , MX2 and MX1 classes and culling out the slowest riders each time , reducing the competition from 40 riders in the first stanza , to 20 , to 10 , to six and eventually there were just three riders in the final one-lap dash . Gibbs was the last man standing , winning the final three-rider shootout ahead of Mangakino ’ s Maximus Purvis ( Yamaha ) and Papamoa ’ s defending Nicky Smith Memorial winner Cody Cooper ( GASGAS ). Gibbs had finished 2-2-5-2 in the 10-minute