Dominant New Zealand MX2 champion Hamish Harwood will be considered an outside threat for the Pirelli MX Nationals championship when he returns to Australia in 2018, focusing on the MX2 division for this season.

Harwood made headlines last year by doing double-duty in both the MX1 and MX2 classes aboard KTM two-stroke machinery, in which he battled to 14th and fourth in the respective championship standings.

The determined 22-year-old has taken out the MX2 title at home for the past three seasons riding a CML KTM Racing 250 SX, and he is certain that contesting a single class in the coming season will be a benefit to him locally as part of last year’s title-winning Davey Motorsports KTM organisation.

“I’ve previously won a New Zealand title and come over, but really struggled in Aussie,” Harwood told MotoOnline.com.au. “But I do think this year I’ve probably got the best chance that I have ever had. I’m just looking forward to riding round-by-round, race-by-race and we’ll see how we go. I do think we’ll be a lot more competitive just racing the one class.”

Harwood was the Australian MXD champion back in 2013 and went on to capture second in the MX2 standings as a rookie in 2014 – the best result of his career in the class. Victory at Murray Bridge was the high-point for Harwood last year on his way to P4 in the MX2 points.

The recent New Zealand championship marked Harwood’s strongest performance at home yet on his way to a third-straight crown, clean-sweeping the four-round season overall and winning all but one of the 12 races to stamp his authority on the series.