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Promising motocross rider Karaitiana Horne joins Pro Circuit Team Green Race Team

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MAY 29, 2023:

Kawasaki Motorcycle Distributors is proud to announce the support of Karaitiana Horne for the 2023/2024 New Zealand motocross season. Joining the Pro Circuit Team Green Development Race Team, Karaitiana will contest race events aboard her Pro Circuit Team Green KX250.

 Alarn Young, team manager says, “We’re excited for Karaitiana to join the team. Karaitiana is a talented up-and-coming rider with a bright future. I look forward to seeing her grow as a rider and potentially follow in the footsteps that Courtney Duncan has paved to the world stage.”

 When asked what Karaitiana’s expectations are for the season she says, “my goal is to train hard, be faster and win”. The 14-year-old from Raetahi already has multiple junior national titles to her name, most recently winning her class at the 2023 NZ Junior Nationals with 5 from 5 wins.

Karaitiana will join team riders Maz Parkes, Flynn Watts, Soren Staudinger, Tyler Brown and Jared Hannon.

The team has already had a stellar first season since establishing last year with teammates Maz Parkes and Flynn Watts winning their respective classes at Junior Nationals. Their senior graded teammates Tyler Brown and Jared Hannon also tasted success with Tyler clinching both the MX1 and MX2 titles at the NZ TT Champs while Jared has been busy on the world stage racing in the USA.

 With the arrival of her KX250, Karaitiana is busy getting acclimatised to her new bike in the lead-up to the season.

Karaitiana has the full support of her family and receives mentorship from her father Richard, a successful racer in his own right. The upcoming season will see Karaitiana jump up from the junior ranks and test her abilities against senior riders at select events for the first time.

Karaitiana is also supported by C4, Nutrition Systems, Stihl Shop Hamilton East, Whites Powersports, Motomuck, Bridgestone, Bike Torque, Chase Works, Got Speed Media, Powerparts Depot, RB Bikes, Forest Service & Training and Fly Racing.

 

 

BAY OF PLENTY RIDER PUTS GREEN BIKE ON THE TOP STEP

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April 17, 2023:

Bay of Plenty’s Flynn Watts demonstrated perfectly why green means go when he clinched his first national motocross title in Southland at the weekend.

The 16-year-old from Pukehina, near Whakatane, took his bright green Kawasaki KX250 to seal up the premier 14-16 years’ 250cc class title at the three-day 2023 New Zealand Junior Motocross Championships on the outskirts of Invercargill.

The annual school holiday event was run from Friday through until Sunday, at The Sandpit track at Otatara, and the racing was incredibly fierce, with the elite of New Zealand’s junior motocross talent, aged between eight and 16 years, all determined to make their mark before they graduate to the senior ranks, where racing and winning gets a whole lot harder.

Watts has been racing high-powered motocross bikes since he was aged just four and he needed every kilogram of experience to tackle and eventually beat the nation’s elite junior racers in Invercargill at the weekend.

Watts finished runner-up to rival Seth Morrow, from Silverdale, in the first race of the weekend, but then he won the next two, which meant he led the standings with just Sunday’s racing still to come.

Another runner-up finish and then an unaccustomed fourth in the final race of the weekend was enough for Watts to get the job done and he finished the event on top of this premier grade, ahead of Levin’s Phoenix Van Dusschoten and former Southland rider Morrow.

“I knew where I had to finish in that last race, so just relaxed a bit and settled for fourth,” Watts explained.

“The track was challenging and fast too, but that suited me. The suspension set-up was great and I had no bike issues all weekend.

“I had finished third overall in my class at the junior nationals in Tauranga two years ago and was forced to skip last year’s nationals in Taranaki because of injury, so it was great to bounce back and win my first title now. I was sidelined with injury for something like eight months, but that’s all forgotten now.

“I am hoping I can head away to race in the United States later in the year, but that’s just in the planning stages at the moment.”

Meanwhile, his Pro Circuit Kawasaki Racing Team-mate, Mangakino’s Maz Parkes, also tasted great success at the weekend, winning the 12-13 years’ 85cc/150cc class title.

Parkes won four out of his five races at the weekend and, like Watts, he was satisfied to settle for fourth in his final outings, easily enough to get the job done and seal up the title ahead of Karaka’s Hayden Draper and Auckland’s Jack Ellingham.

It is interesting to note that Papamoa’s Cody Cooper took his Bridgestone Kawasaki Racing Team KX250 to win the senior MX2 (250cc) title at the 2023 senior New Zealand Motocross Championships in March, which means the brand now holds both the national senior and junior titles for 250cc motocross competition.

Credit: Words by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

Keep up to date with the new team on Facebook and Instagram. @procircuitteamgreen