KIWI RIDER APRIL 2021 VOL2 | Page 27

W est Auckland ’ s Hamish Harwood ( CML KTM Racing Team ) has won national motocross titles many times in the past , but this year he celebrated winning his first national championship title in the MX1 class . The 25-year-old Harwood finished a solid 10 points ahead of Mount Maunganui ’ s 37-year-old multi-time former national MX1 champion Cody Cooper , with Taupo ’ s Wyatt Chase claiming the third podium spot . Cooper ( Honda Racing Team ) actually dominated the final round , scoring a hat-trick of wins that day , but that was too little and too late for him to salvage the title overall . In total , the MX1 race wins were shared between just three riders – Harwood won

six out of the 11 MX1 class races in the series , while Cooper won four and Yamaha privateer Chase won the other one . Harwood was New Zealand junior 250 champion in 2011 , the Australian Under-19 Champion in 2013 , was twice Australian MX2 class runner-up ( in 2014 and 2018 ) and was outright winner of the coveted GP trophy at the New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville in 2020 . As for his New Zealand senior motocross championship crowns , Harwood won four New Zealand MX2 ( 250cc ) titles ( in consecutive years between 2016 to 2019 ) and double-classed in 2019 to also win the 125cc championship that year , before clinching the premier MX1 title this time around .
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