Lamont takes an early lead in Motocross champs
The first shots have been fired and the guns are still smoking hot.
There were comprehensive winners in all three championship classes, and the Women's Cup competition, too, at the opening round of this season's New Zealand Motocross Championships in Taranaki last week, but none of these riders should feel safe and secure just yet.
With three rounds to come, anything can still happen.
The defending national MX1 champion, 34-year-old Mt Maunganui man Cody Cooper (Honda), became acutely aware that the young brigade may be catching him up as he struggled all day at Taranaki with a man 10 years his junior, Hamiltonbased former Mangakino rider Kayne Lamont (Yamaha).
The 24-year-old Lamont won all three MX1 class races and looked comfortable doing so, in the process establishing a solid 15-point lead over Cooper at the top of the series standings.
However, there was more to it than just the polished form of the young challenger, with Cooper indicating he was struggling to come to grips with his suspension settings, issues that perhaps led to his big crash in the day's final MX1 race.
Cooper was spat off his bike while leading the race and was forced to settle for fifth place at the finish — still enough for him to finish the day overall runner-up in the class.
Third best rider in the premier MX1 class was visiting Australian Kirk Gibbs (KTM), his 4-3-2 scorecard over the three races perhaps no real indicator of his potential, because he, too, fell victim to the track on more than one occasion.
Lamont can rightfully celebrate his stunning hat-trick of wins at Taranaki, but he will be mindful that Cooper and Gibbs, and all the other MX1 competitors, will likely bounce back with a vengeance at round two in Rotorua in just over a week (February 25).
Meanwhile, in the MX2 (250cc) class, defending champion Hamish Harwood (KTM) was also in scintillating form.
The 22-year-old West Aucklandbased former Takaka man won all three MX2 races at Taranaki, finishing the day 15 points clear of Taupo's national cross-country champion Brad Groombridge (Suzuki).
Third best in this class was visiting Australian Jay Wilson (Yamaha), the former Grand Prix motocross star becoming faster as the day wore on and his 8-3-2 score-card left him just five points adrift of Groombridge.
The National 125cc class was a fierce Kiwi-Aussie battle with Mangakino's Maximus Purvis and Yarra Valley rider Mason Semmens sharing the wins.
Yamaha's Purvis finished 1-1-2 and KTM rider Semmens finished 2-2-1, giving a narrow three-point advantage to Purvis after this opening round. Third best rider in this class was Cambridge's Seton Head (KTM), although he is 17 points behind Semmens in the series standings.
The first two rounds of this year's national series also incorporated the inaugural Women's Cup competition, a chance for the women to share some of the spotlight outside their own two-day nationals.
The first of two Women's Cup rounds at Taranaki saw Opunake's 2017 national women's champion Taylar Rampton take charge on her home turf.
She took her Suzuki to register a 1-1-2 score-card and end the day with a three-point advantage over former national women's champion Letitia Alabaster (KTM), of Rotorua, with another Rotorua rider, Mel Patterson (KTM), nine points further back in third-equal overall.
Motueka's Roma Edwards (Yamaha) is level in points with Patterson, but missed out on a podium place on countback.
The series now heads to Rotorua for round two on February 25. Round three is set for Hawkes Bay on March 11, with the fourth and final round in Taupo on March 24.