Hamilton's Kayne Lamont, Takaka's Hamish Harwood, Mangakino's Maximus Purvis and Opunake's Taylar Rampton each set benchmarks when they dominated their respective classes at the opening round of the New Zealand Motocross Championships in Taranaki at the start of this month.
The second of four rounds is set for Rotorua this Sunday and each of these riders know they will again have to be at their best to keep their rivals at bay.
Of these four class leaders, only MX2 (250cc) competitor Harwood is racing in defence of a national title, with Lamont chasing his first MX1 crown – although he did win the national MX2 title back in 2014 – Purvis chasing his first senior National 125cc title and Rampton leading the Women's Cup, a brand new separate two-round competition this season.
The performance of the 22-year-old Harwood is particularly noteworthy so far. He is something of an ironman, once again also racing in the MX1 class this season.
The former South Islander, now based in Royal Heights, West Auckland, was in dynamic form in Taranaki. He was unbeaten in the MX2 class and then took a 300cc version of his bike to finish sixth overall against the 450cc riders in the MX1 grade as well.