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This Anzac weekend, April 25-28th, the cream of New Zealand’s young motocross talent will descend on the King Country, for the Thirtieth running of the New Zealand Junior Motocross Championships.
The four-day event is being run in Otorohanga by the North King Country Motorcycle Club and is sponsored by KTM and Kawasaki.
The event begins Friday afternoon with noise testing, followed by practice Saturday and then seven rounds for each age group/ machine capacity class over Sunday and Monday.
This year’s event has again attracted riders from Australia and with some of New Zealand’s stars missing, like Yamaha’s Hamish Dobbyn (Warkworth) who is racing overseas and Honda’s Cameron Dillon (Mangakino) injured. The top 14-16 years 250cc four-stroke class will be definitely worth a look. The riders to watch will be reigning Champion, Wellington’s Henry Madams (KTM) and Rotorua’s John Phillips (Kawasaki)
In the 15-16 years 125cc two-stroke class the battle will be between the Yamaha mounted Ethan Martens (Waitakere), Kieran Leigh (Cambridge) and Scott Barr-Smith (Tauranga) against Honda’s Michael McCarthy (Marton) along with KTM’s Kieran Scheele (Otane)
The racing in the younger classes will be just as fierce, right down to the 8-10 year-olds.
Riders to watch will be Suzuki mounted Tom Managh (Wanganui), Yamaha’s Callum Moore (Featherston), Honda’s Craig Smith from Christchurch and KTM’s Brandon Tipene (Albany).
Another milestone to be reached this weekend will be announcer Neil “Turbo Tonsils” Ritchie celebrating his Silver Jubilee association with Junior Motocross Championships.
This weekend will be the 25th time he has commentated at the Junior Motocross Championships.
