Words & photos: Andy McGechan/bikesportnz.com
The annual Honda New Zealand
Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville
is the premier event on the Kiwi
motorcycling calendar and this
year’s 57th edition was a cracker.
A
gain, it was a case of champions
galore at this year’s edition of the
popular stand-alone event at the
end of January, but also this year
it was also accorded FIM Oceania
status, meaning that points scored
by Australian competitors and
their Kiwi opposite numbers were
counted towards the battle-within-
a-battle for FIM Oceania Challenge honours.
New Zealand won the FIM Oceania Challenge,
886 points to 829, but, when it was all boiled down,
it was Hamilton’s Kayne Lamont who took the
most prestigious silverware, the Yamaha rider
clinching the all-important Senior Feature Race
trophy at the Honda-sponsored event, to be
crowned the Woodville GP champion for 2018.
Mount Maunganui’s Cody Cooper (Honda)
won the MX1 class overall; Taupo’s Wyatt
Chase (KTM) won the MX2 class; Mangakino’s
Maximus Purvis (Yamaha) won the 125cc class;
Whakatane’s Darren Capill (Yamaha) won the
veterans’ class; Melbourne visitor Maddy Brown
(Yamaha) won the women’s class and Hamilton’s
Chris Power (Honda) won the river race class.
However, Lamont’s winning of the all-capacities
feature race was where all the main focus went.
It was Lamont’s first time winning the prestigious