Scott Columb's international riding future has been up in the air this summer, but a last-minute call-up to England has seen him offered at least three races in the early part of the northern hemisphere season.
The Queenstown rider is leaving the country this week after the rain-cancelled third and final round of the New Zealand supercross championships in Tokoroa at the weekend.
His scores following the first two rounds were enough to see him take his third MX2 crown, 32 points clear of Mount Maunganui's Mason Phillips.
The win partially made up for his frustratingly close loss of the New Zealand motocross MX1 title in December.
Columb finished two points off the pace after a crash at the first round and a cancelled race robbed him of the chance to catch up to class victor Damien King, of Cambridge.
Despite a long hunt for sponsorship, Columb could not finance the $24,000 entry fee for the world motocross championships.
However, Rob Hooper, who runs the Relentless Suzuki team, has offered him a MX1 450cc machine for two rounds of the British motocross championship, as one of his riders has been injured. While it was disappointing not to be returning to the world competition with a sponsored ride, Columb reasoned he was in the right place should a chance arise.
