Motocross: Pocket rocket scores three from three

Mangakino's Maximus Purvis (CMR Red Bull KTM), unstoppable at the weekend's 54th annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville on Sunday. Photo / Bikesportnz.com

Mangakino's Maximus Purvis, Brodie Connolly and Cobie Bourke are so reliable, you could probably set your watch by these young men.

Purvis took his CMR Red Bull KTM 85 to easily dominate one of the junior sections of day one at the weekend's 54th annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville.

The 14-year-old pocket rocket from Mangakino was unbeaten in the junior 13-16 years' 85cc class, winning three races from three starts, to finish the day ahead of fellow KTM rider Oliver Ayre, of Havelock North. He then won the 85cc/150cc Champion of Champions feature race the next day.

The year 10 pupil at Taupo-nui-a-Tia College in Taupo said afterwards he had "an awesome weekend".

"I love it when it gets tricky, rough with lots of corners," Purvis said.

Phillips helps Honda team to double victory

Rotorua's Michael Phillips was part of the Honda Shop Racing Team's double win at the weekend's 54th annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville.

The iconic event at the eastern end of the Manawatu Gorge was all the sweeter for the men in red when Phillips and Mount Maunganui's Cody Cooper collected two of the event's most prestigious trophies.

Cooper scored an impressive hat-trick of wins to sweep the premier MX1 class at Woodville, each time heading Australian professional Kirk Gibbs across the finish line.

Teammate Michael Phillips powered his way to the top of the MX2 (250cc) class.

Phillips wasn't able to emulate Cooper's MX1 class dominance, but he improved as the day wore on, finishing 3-2-1 in his three MX2 outings to eventually win the class by a healthy 11-point margin over another visiting Australian professional, Caleb Ward.

Gibbs won the day's all-in feature race, a four-lap sprint, but that did nothing to lessen the huge impact and significance of Cooper's MX1 class dominance.

The 31-year-old Cooper, a two-time former outright winner at Woodville and therefore one of the favourites to win on Sunday, had been sidelined with a serious injury to his right knee since June last year and had only begun riding again in November, so his total dominance of the MX1 class was remarkable.

For 28-year-old Phillips, originally lured out of retirement and drafted into The Honda Shop Racing Team merely as a 'fill-in' rider for the squad's injured MX2 rider, it was another great victory.

The so-called reserve has now made it three significant MX2 class wins in almost as many weeks.

He won the MX2 class at the Honda Whakatane Summercross and then won the MX2 class at the annual King of the Mountain motocross in Taranaki just over a week ago.