This coming weekend’s 63rd running of the annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix – this Saturday and Sunday, June 6-7 – is eagerly anticipated perhaps like never before because it’s something of a catch-up after the original date for this event in Woodville in late January ended up being washed away by stormy weather.
Huntly’s Josiah Natzke #30, is sure to be one of the favourites to win at this year’s 63rd annual Honda New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix to be held at Himatangi. Photo: MNZ/Derek Morrison
And so, instead of the traditional farmland venue at Woodville, it will this weekend for the first time be staged at an entirely different venue, Flipp’s Motocross Park at Omanuka Road in Himatangi, a popular sand-based track that should resist even the worst of any likely downpours.
The racing is set to be another massive ‘superstar showdown’. The event skipped two years (in 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then it was rained out in 2023), but organisers have refused to allow 2026 to register as another unfortunate cancellation.
But, even with the vast talent of riders entered this weekend, last season’s New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix winner, Mangakino’s Maximus Purvis, and fellow Kiwi international Josiah Natzke, from Huntly, remain the clear favourites to win the main prize.
Woodville is one of the biggest events on the Kiwi calendar and it will be another great showdown between Purvis and Natzke.
Since the stand-alone Honda New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix was first staged at Woodville more than half a century ago, in 1961, the two-day motocross extravaganza has grown to become the jewel in crown for dirt bike racing in New Zealand and hundreds of riders will battle over the weekend, including juniors, seniors, women and veterans.
The long and illustrious list of previous winners includes Shayne King, the New Plymouth man who was the 1996 500cc motocross world champion, Britain’s Greg Hanson, top Australians Kirk Gibbs and Dean Ferris, American Willie Surratt and Sweden’s Gunnar Lindstrom, to name just a few.
To date there have only been 13 multiple (two wins or more) champions at Woodville – Shayne King holding the incredible record as a nine-time senior champion there (between 1992 and 2006).
However, if Purvis wins again this time around it will be his second overall victory at Woodville and, if Natzke wins, it will be his first.
Host Manawatu-Orion Motorcycle Club president Brad Ritchie said it was “an honour to continue the legacy of top-calibre motocross” in New Zealand”.
“We want to again say a big thanks to our sponsors, particularly Blue Wing Honda.
“The event really does have an international Grand Prix feel about it. The New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix is a very special occasion for everyone.”
Sadly, the former world championship Grand Prix motocross rider who founded the event in 1961, Palmerston North’s Tim Gibbes, passed away in October 2023, although his legacy does live on.
The senior feature race prize has been renamed the Tim Gibbes Memorial Trophy and is still the most coveted piece of silverware on offer to the Kiwi motocross racing community.
Credit: Words by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com
