It was a tough day in the office for NZ’s best Off-Road riders as they battled through Santoft Sand Forest over two days and through eight special tests of deep Manawatu sand.

VIDEO: CLICK HERE for the action video from the final day of racing at Santoft

2019 Youth World Champion Hamish Macdonald came into the final weekend on the podium overall, but not leading the series as expected. Coming off a sensational world title aboard a Sherco 125, Hamish elected to split his time between the SER 300 two-stroke and SER-F 300 four-stroke. The latter being a warm-up for what would be his assault on the 2020 Junior World title on the same bike.

It was Cambridge rider and recent US GNCC competitor Dylan Yearbury, riding a Husqvarna TE300 who proved too good at the opening two rounds of the championship. The farmland style, open and fast tracks suiting Dylan. Hamish, who is used to more technical World GP style terrain is exactly what Santoft provided.

Hamish went 1-1 over the weekend and scored his first New Zealand Outright Enduro title, following in his dad’s footsteps who also tasted glory back in the 80s. Sadly there is no real recognition for winning outright so he will have to head home with bragging rights alone. We can’t think of anyone else who has won a world title before winning his homeland championship? Can you?

Hamish is set to head back to Europe on Tuesday to join his Sherco Factory Racing team and start preparing for a shortened World Championship.

Interestingly though, he did not claim class honors after winning outright. Riding the 300cc two-stroke in the first two rounds, then switching to the 300cc four-stroke in the last two meant that a class title was not on the cards for the South Islander.

In the unders class (0-300cc 4-Stroke & 0-200cc 2-Stroke), Yamaha rider Seth Reardon backed up his 2019 title with another class win riding the YZ250FX. It was actually a Yamaha clean sweep with James Scott and Will Yeoman finishing out the podium - each on the YZ125.

In the 201-Open 2-Stroke division, Dylan Yearbury won every round and took the title, followed by fellow TE300 rider Jason Davis, who is back to racing after a number of years off being a dad. Richard Sutton on a YZ250 finished third.

In the 301-Open 4-Stroke class, Auckland KTM rider Tom Buxton ousted Yamaha man Paul Whibley to the title for 2020 after a number of years away riding and track building for the Red Bull Romaniacs. Third place went to Masterton rider Richy Fallon.

Expert Vets 40+ saw Hugh Lintott and his KTM350XC-F take the title after front runner Cam Smith suffered a mechanical during the closing stages of the final day.

Overall honors in the intermediates class went to Joe Falloon, who held off a hard-charging Henry Pearce. Pearce won the final three rounds but a 21st at Round 1 left him 17 points shy Overall. Another case where the drop round comes into play in the class classification as although Falloon may have won outright, he only scored second in his class.