On eve on 2019 Motocross of Nations 73rd edition New Zealand stands proud of historical record set no other than from FIM World MX2 Champion 2004 Ben Townley.
It was MXoN 2015 that BT showed the world spectacle of racing. Having not raced professionally for over 2 years, BT planned, prepared, trained and raced with selection for MXoN at top of mind.
Out performing MXGP world-class riders with hole-shot in Qualifying Race, 6th in Race One and repeat hole-shot and stunning performance in Final Moto, BT pulled off extraordinary 2nd behind 2015 MXGP Champion Romain Febvre.
Accolades for Team NZ at then named Motocross Des Nations go back to 1984 when Tony Cooksley, Daryl August and Mark Haines flew the first Kiwi flag.
Historical records set by Shayne King (11x representative), Darryll King (8x), Josh Coppins (14x) along with Ben Townley, Daryl Hurley and Cody Cooper set bench-mark of NZ’s performance for the inaugural ‘Olympics of Motocross’ standing on top of the podium in 1998, 2001 and 2006.
In 2014 stage was set for young up-coming riders: Hamish Harwood MX2, Hamish Dobbyn MX1 and Scott Columb Open to represent NZ at MXoN at Kegums, Latvia.
Below are riders comments at time of flying out to Latvia in 2014. All proud to fly Kiwi flag, excited to race best riders in the world and determined to rise to the challenge of racing the biggest and only Nations-Team event in World Motocross.
Scott: ‘I will give it my all. I feel a lot of pride at this event of who I am and where I come from. Racing the World’s best riders is awesome’.
Hamish Dobbyn: ‘Getting the chance to be one of the 3 riders to represent our country at the biggest annual event in the sport and to line up with those riders that so many of us look up to is definitely something most riders think about throughout their riding career. To be selected to go and do the task is pretty awesome!’
Hamish Harwood: ‘With NZ putting out such great riders in the past and getting such great results it makes for such a good feeling to be picked to represent NZ. But it also puts a lot of pressure on us to do well as NZ has such a good reputation at previous Motocross of Nations events’.
All best for 2019 Team NZ riders: Dylan Walsh, Maximus Purvis and Wyatt Chase.
Header Photo: MXoN 2015 Ben Townley Photo Credit: Ray Archer.
Words: Sharon Cox.
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