{"id":507690,"date":"2026-07-03T09:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/507690\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T09:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:45:12","slug":"tauranga-motocross-rider-levi-townley-aims-for-gold-at-junior-world-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/507690\/","title":{"rendered":"Tauranga motocross rider Levi Townley aims for gold at junior world championships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019m just going to ride like I normally do: ride to my potential.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">His younger brother Jaggar will race in the same class, while Nixon Coppins and Nico Verhoeven, both aged 13, will race in the JMX85 class.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Jaggar Townley, 14 (left), Ben Townley, Levi Townley, 16, Josh Coppins and Nixon Coppins, 13, in preparation as part of Team New Zealand's push for a world title at the FIM Junior Motocross World Championships. Photo \/ MNZ\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Jaggar Townley, 14 (left), Ben Townley, Levi Townley, 16, Josh Coppins and Nixon Coppins, 13, in preparation as part of Team New Zealand&#8217;s push for a world title at the FIM Junior Motocross World Championships. Photo \/ MNZ<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt is cool to have some Kiwis over here and to have my brother on the team,\u201d Levi said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s always good to have some friends and family over supporting, and nice to have some banter with the Kiwis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">All four of the racers are based in the Northern Hemisphere but they are revved up about representing New Zealand on the international stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI am ready to go and I\u2019m excited,\u201d Coppins said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI love New Zealand and love being able to represent the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI know it won\u2019t be an easy race, but I am ready to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Levi Townley is hoping for another big win at the Junior Motocross World Championships. Photo \/ MNZ, Kevin Francois\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Levi Townley is hoping for another big win at the Junior Motocross World Championships. Photo \/ MNZ, Kevin Francois<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">Verhoeven, who won the 2026 New Zealand Junior Motocross Championships in the 11-12 Years 85cc division and finished second in the JMX65 championship in the 2024 Junior World Championships, said being away from family while training has been on his mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cYou train your whole life for the biggest event you can do, and now we\u2019re over here prepping for that,\u201d Verhoeven said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe\u2019re away from the family, so it\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">However, he\u2019s kept his goals simple.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI don\u2019t have any goals other than qualifying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019ll set a goal after that \u2013 top 10 would be good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cAs long as I get a good start and don\u2019t crash, I should be sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"KGVqebHjEg\" style=\"display:none\">Practice and qualifying starts on July 4 and the main world title races begin on July 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m just going to ride like I normally do: ride to my potential.\u201d His younger brother Jaggar will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[33147,4886,1975,5759,2024,2082,4241,26588,57876,58723,111,43,139,69,1071,1227,4054,1961,209654,4767,377],"class_list":["post-507690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-aiming","tag-aims","tag-at","tag-championships","tag-europe","tag-for","tag-gold","tag-junior","tag-levi","tag-motocross","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rider","tag-tauranga","tag-teenager","tag-this","tag-townley","tag-weekend","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}