Max’ result for Purvis at Australian MXD

If they didn’t know anything in Australia about Kiwi motocross hero Maximus Purvis before, they certainly do now.

The young man from Mangakino headed across the Tasman Sea to contest the sixth round of 10 in this year’s Australian motocross Championships at Nowra, in New South Wales, at the weekend and his debut performance there this season had the course commentators reaching for their event programmes to try and work out just what they were watching.

The Yamaha ace found himself in all sorts of trouble in the first of his two MX Development (Under-19) class races, at the very back of the 30-rider field after a ‘‘shocking start’’.

He dug deep to battle through traffic, however, and ended the race an impressive 10th overall, although it was not the sort of introduction he had wanted to make for himself on the Australia scene.

‘‘I was second-to-last at the start,’’ said the 16-year-old Purvis afterwards. ‘‘I managed to move through the traffic, but it was pretty tight in places and hard to pass.’’

He soon made amends in the next race, capturing a top-three position at the start and then moving into the lead after three laps.

‘‘I had Cody Dyce and Isaac Ferguson ahead of me at the start, but then got past them and started to stretch out a lead.

Purvis eventually won the race by 1.4 seconds from Ferguson.

‘‘They didn’t know much about me before today ... but they know now,’’ said an obviously delighted Purvis, who was crowned double New Zealand junior champion in April this year, on that occasion winning both the 14-16 years’ 250cc class and the 15-16 years’ 125cc class as well.

The 2017 Motul MX Nationals will continue with round seven set to be held at Shepparton, in Victoria, on July 16, and Purvis will again line up on his Yamaha YZ250F in the MXD class.

Because the MXD competition comprises only eight rounds, with the final two rounds of the nationals not including an MXD class, Purvis will attempt to secure a starting position for himself in the MX2 class at the final two events of the series.

‘‘Hopefully I can get a ‘wild card’ entry into the MX2 class at rounds nine and ten. That means I will still be eligible to go back and contest the full MXD championship next year.’’