DIRT NEWS

WORDS AND PHOTO: Andy McGechan, www. BikesportNZ. com

Mount Maunganui’ s Josiah Natzke, sure to be one of the favourites to win at the 63rd annual Honda New Zealand

Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville

Dreams and from the Hollywood film of that name came the phrase:“ Build it and they will come”. That’ s just what Palmerston North’ s Tim Gibbes did more than 60 years ago when he organised the first New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville. And come they did... leading riders from New Zealand, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, England, Scotland, the United States, Australia, New Caledonia and Indonesia have raced on the rolling grass farmland circuit, at the eastern end of the Manawatu Gorge, over the past six decades. The biggest dirt bike race in the Southern Hemisphere – the annual Honda New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville – will celebrate its 63rd anniversary this weekend, with what is expected to be two scorching days of intense race action. The event skipped two years( in 2022 due to

12 KIWI RIDER the COVID-19 pandemic and then it was rained out in 2023), otherwise this year’ s event would actually be the 65th anniversary. Since the stand-alone event was first staged in 1961, the Woodville event has grown to become the jewel in the crown for NZ MX and many hundreds of riders will battle over the weekend, including minis, juniors, seniors, women and veterans. With more than 600 riders again booked for this year’ s edition of the Woodville GP, the dirt-biking extravaganza continues to rank as the country’ s No. 1 dirt bike event. And this big Honda-sponsored event is set to be another massive‘ superstar showdown’, with the racing on Sunday also incorporating round one of three in the New Zealand Women’ s Motocross Championships. The competition will be fierce, with the women expected to showcase their very best, as selection for the New