Kiwi on Kawasaki wins Rd 1 Womens MX

New Zealand’s Katherine Prumm lived up to her star billing as she raced to convincing back to back wins at the opening round of the Australian Women’s Motocross Championships in Victoria on Sunday.

The 18 year old Kawasaki rider from Bombay, South Auckland, then declared immediately afterwards she was not satisfied.“I didn’t ride well,” lamented the blonde teen who was last month named Motorcycling New Zealand’s Off Road Rider of the Year.

The 2006 women’s world champion also received the Special Achievement Award at MNZ’s glitzy awards dinner. But the MR Motorcycles Team Green rider refused to rest on those laurels and was typically her harshest critic, despite easily taking her Kawasaki KXF250 to the top of a talent laden line up at the Newry circuit on Sunday.

“I could have won by more,” she said matter of factly. “I really must thank the Australian Kawasaki team, especially Brett Whale. They were fantastic.”Australian Ashlea Bates (Kawasaki) was runner-up to Prumm at the weekend, with KTM’S Kristy Gillespie third and Hamilton’s Emma Davis (Yamaha) fourth overall.

Round two of the series is in New South Wales on June 3, with the third and final round set for Horsham, Victoria, on July 15.

In 2006, Prumm became women’s world champion by winning both rounds of the series, in Germany and Sweden. In the same year, she competed in the WMA (United States) Championship and stunned the Americans when she won both races at the opening round. Prumm went on to win the first race of the second round, but, while running second in the final race, a lapped rider collided with her, breaking Prumm’s hand in two places.

Prumm returned five weeks later to compete in the final round of the world championships in Sweden,where she courageously rode off with the world title.She will again contest the world series this season, the championship bumped up to a three round contest this season – Germany on May 13, Sweden on July 1 and The Netherlands on September 2.