Queenstown's Scott Columb will be leading the charge in the MX1 class. The 2013 MX2 national champion has stepped back up to the larger category he raced in while in Europe for six years.
While he joked that he did not need to watch what he ate so much now he was riding the heavier Yamaha YZF 450, its tendency to punish any complacency made him mindful of its brawn.
''I have to be respectful with the power,'' Columb said.
His build-up to the national series has been positive with a major trophy win at the King of the Mountain motocross in Taranaki last month.
The Altherm JCR Yamaha Racing Team rider was again on the podium just seven days later, at the 54th New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville.
Columb (31) fought his way to third overall in the MX1 class and also finished third in the all-capacities feature race. He then rode the Taranaki and Rotorua circuits that will host rounds of this year's national championship.
''I wanted to familiarise myself with the dirt and the layout of the tracks,'' Columb said.
Although he will face stiff competition from Mount Maunganui's defending national MX1 champion Cody Cooper, Brad Groombridge (Taupo), Ethan Martens (Waitakere), John Phillips (Rotorua) and a host of Australian riders here to get race ready before their own national campaign starts later in the year, Columb has a simple game plan.
''To win,'' he said.
Oamaru's Joel Meikle has made a couple of big changes before he begins his first full MX2 campaign. He has recently signed with the Auckland-based CMR KTM team after eight years with Honda.
The 17-year-old has also swapped living in the South for a base in Tauranga with fellow rider Campbell King (20), of Brighton, who will also contest the MX2 category.
It will be King's third year in the senior lites class and he has been ''slowly getting better and better'' after tearing a ligament in his ankle last season.
King's recent results in the MX2 category are seventh overall in the Woodville GP, third in the New Zealand supercross championships and a southern series title win.
The third Otago rider in this competitive category is Dunedin's Sam Cuthbertson (17), who will make his senior lites debut this season.
Although he described the field as ''pretty stacked'' as it includes in-form riders such as Rotorua riders Mike Phillips and Scott Canham, Atiamuri's Hadleigh Knight and Cohen Chase, of Taupo, he believed it ''should be a good experience and good racing''.
Courtney Duncan (19), of Palmerston, will be giving it her all in the 125cc class against the men. She said her preparation had gone better than last year and she had ''done all [her] homework'' before the 12 national races.
Duncan last raced in December, when she cleaned up in all six outings at the Auckland motocross championships - three against the women and three against the 125cc-class men.
Her main rivals will be Taupo's Wyatt Chase and Hamilton's Josiah Natzke, who will also race in the MX2 class.
After racing in Taranaki on Sunday, the series heads south to Pleasant Point, near Timaru, for round two on February 22.
Round three is set for Rotorua on March 8 and the fourth and final round is at Pukekohe on March 15.
