As the penultimate round of the Yamaha New Zealand Motocross Championships wrapped up on Saturday, the Altherm JCR Yamaha team riders were sitting on the podiums’ top two rungs.

Oparau’s James Scott is perched on the highest step in the MX2 class, with a dominant performance at Pukekohe this weekend securing his red plate going into the final round in three weeks.

He has a six-point buffer over defending champion Cody Cooper and an impressive victory rate over the 2023/2024 season in his favour to secure his debut MX2 title.

Altherm JCR Yamaha Team Manager Josh Coppins sums up Scott’s success.

“Out of seven contracted events with the Altherm JCR Yamaha team, we have still got one to go and James has won five out of six so far. The only one where he hasn’t won the overall was at Balclutha, when he had a sore back.”

“We go into the final round with a small lead and need to work hard on that and try to capture that MX2 championship,” Coppins says.

Scott’s Saturday started on song and he qualified first by a good margin and holeshot the first two motos.

“Moto one, I got a massive holeshot. My Yamaha YZ250F just launched out of the gate perfectly and I nailed my start and led the moto from start to finish. Caleb [Ward] caught up in the middle, when I got held up by lappers but I pulled away for the win,” he says.

The second race panned out in a similar way with Scott leading from start to finish.

The third moto was where he came unstuck. After working his way into second by the second corner, he passed Cooper for the lead.

“About 30 seconds after that I hit a hard, shiny piece of the track and went down while leading. I’m gutted about that as it could've been a perfect day. I got back up to third from seventh or eighth.”

Scott is determined to carry his winning streak through to the end of the season in New Plymouth on April 13.

Altherm JCR Yamaha’s MX1 rider Jed Beaton claimed the second spot overall but had one of those weekends where his speed and everything he is learning with the team wasn’t reflected in the final scoresheet. Not that there’s anything wrong with three runner-up results, it's just that the Australian import had high hopes of taking the red plate into the final round.

The extremely muddy track meant starts were crucial and just missing the holshot in the first two motos meant Beaton was forced to follow class leader Hamish Harwood around.

“I tried to make a pass but the track was really one-lined and it was hard to make a pass,” Beaton says.

“The last race, I got off to a holeshot and was leading for the first couple of laps and pulled out a pretty comfortable gap. Then unfortunately I crashed in a slippery turn and let Hamish by and finished second in that one again.”

He trails Harwood  by 17 points going into the final round but remained positive about the Pukekohe event.

“I learned a lot this weekend with my starts. I feel like the riding was really good. Nothing too negative but the riding and everything we learned didn’t show in the results. All in all it was a good weekend,” Beaton wraps up.

Coppins says the heavy rain on Saturday morning made for a “a mud race for the first two rounds of racing” with conditions ranging from tricky to treacherous.

“It was very hard to pass because of the nature of the conditions and the track became one-lined. Jed was very fast - qualified fastest and had a lot of speed but couldn't quite get past Hamish Harwood in the first two races.”

Coppins adds that Beaton is new to the Yamaha brand  - he is riding for the CDR Yamaha Monster Energy team in the Australian Motocross Championships - and new to the Altherm JCR Yamaha team. He was a late call-up after the team’s two, Kiwi MX1 options were ruled out with knee injuries.

“Jed has been fast and is a good attribute to our team. However, we can’t underestimate how much time goes into preparing our riders going into a championship. It’s not through a lack of speed or effort that he’s runner up in the MX1 championship heading into the last round,” Coppins says.

Wills Harvey, who is supported by Altherm JCR Yamaha in the MX125cc class, and has based himself in Taupo this year, got all three holeshots but didn’t quite have the speed this weekend.

Coppins described his riding as “a little bit too cautious.”

“He was on the podium every race and ended up third for the round. He’s 9 points down, sharing second place, so a little bit of work for him there if he wants to win the championship.”

The Altherm JCR Yamaha team will spend the next three weeks honing their race preparation to give it one final all-out effort at New Plymouth’s Barratt Road track on April 13.

Coppins concludes with an acknowledgement to the riders and their families, who travelled from all over New Zealand to compete in the YZ65 Cup.

“Conditions on Saturday weren’t suitable for the YZ65 Cup, which was scheduled to provide young riders with the opportunity to race in front of a national crowd, and the tough decision was made to cancel it.”

“The YZ65 Cup is the breeding ground for Yamaha future champions and has developed lots of great Kiwi racers. We couldn’t race with the muddy conditions too tough for the wee wheels and the younger riders. We apologise to all those who made the big effort to be there. Hopefully we can get it back on track for next year and look forward to breeding more future champions and helping them onto the international stage.”

NZMX CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND THREE RESULTS:

MX1

1st Hamish Harwood – 75

2nd Jed Beaton (YZ450) – 66

3rd Jack Treloar – 54

MX2

1st James Scott (YZ250F) – 70

2nd Caleb Ward – 63

3rd Cody Cooper – 60

MX125

1st Reuben Smith – 69

2nd Seth Morrow – 65

3rd Wills Harvey (YZ125) – 62

NZMX CHAMPIONSHIP OVERALL RESULTS (R1, R2 & R3):

MX1

1st Hamish Harwood – 216

2nd Jed Beaton (YZ450) – 199

3rd Jack Treloar – 166

MX2

1st James Scott (YZ250F) – 201

2nd Cody Cooper – 195

3rd Caleb Ward – 191

MX125

1st Reuben Smith – 201

2nd Seth Morrow – 192

3rd Wills Harvey (YZ125) – 192

2023/24 ALTHERM JCR YAMAHA CONTRACTED RACING CALENDAR

Date:                        Event:       Location

21st & 22nd October 2023 – MX Fest (Taupo)

29th & 30th December 2023 – Summercross (Whakatane)
27th & 28th January 2024 – Woodville GP (Woodville)
3rd February 2024 – R1 NZMX Nationals (Rotorua)

25th February 2024 – R2 NZMX Nationals (Balclutha)

23rd March 2024 – R3 NZMX Nationals (Pukekohe)

13th April 2024 – R4 NZMX Nationals (Taranaki)

2023/24 ALTHERM JCR YAMAHA ACTIVATIONS CALENDAR

27th to 29th October 2023 – bLUcRU Kids Camp (Rotorua)

11th November 2023 – Yamaha Women’s Off-Road Ride Day (Rotorua)

17th to 19th November 2023 – bLUcRU Kids Camp (Glen Murray)

12th to 14th January 2024 – bLUcRU Kids Camp (Oparau)

3rd to 7th February 2024 – Yamaha Adventure Ride (Picton to Invercargill)

15th to 17th March 2024 – bLUcRU Kids Camp (Gore)