Former Motocross World Championship contender Darryl King has credited his grand prix experience after winning the MX2 New Zealand Motocross Championship at New Plymouth on Sunday.

The 42-year-old was a last-minute entry for the series and opted to race the YZ250 two-stroke, eventually beating out Australians Daniel McCoy and Cody Mackie for the title.

“I didn’t think I could do this,” said King, who is also the team manager of the MXDK Rockstar Yamaha Team.

“I was on an old two-stroke bike against some very fast kids of four-strokes but, I suppose, all my grand prix experience counted for something.”

Though the spotlight was on him, King neatly diverted the glare towards his teammates as he slipped effortlessly back into his more customary role as manager to reflect on how his MXDK Rockstar Yamaha team had performed.

MX1 contender Josh Coppins was ruled out of title contention with an ankle injury over the weekend, while Ethan Martens was untroubled to wrap up both the 125cc and Under 21 titles on Sunday.

“It’s a real shame we couldn’t get a clean sweep of titles. We had been leading all four classes,” he shrugged. “I suppose, as a team, we have to be satisfied with winning just three out of four titles this year.”