It was only 2022 when New Zealand teenager Cole Davies was making a statement in the SX3 class of the Australian Supercross Championship (AUSX) prior to testing himself along the United States’ elite amateurs in the Supercross Futures program last year under the guidance of Kiwi icons Josh Coppins and Ben Townley. Fast-forward to Salt Lake City in 2024 and he now has an AMA National Championship in the category to his credit.

Since first entering US competition, Davies – still only 16 years of age – has attracted the attention of the official GasGas amateur operation led by Daniel Blair, while also working closely with the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas Factory Racing team throughout his 250SX Futures journey. His first victory came on debut in red at Anaheim 2 as part of the process to ‘qualify’ for the title-deciding finals in Utah.

“It’s definitely good to get experience doing the futures class, I’ve improved at each round.” said Davies. “Daniel Blair has helped me heaps, it would’ve been pretty hard to do this without him.

“I’ve gotten bigger and stronger, I’ve done a lot of bike set-up and gotten it to a comfy place and that’s helped heaps.

With podiums to his credit also coming at Daytona and St. Louis, Davies entered Rice-Eccles Stadium in the picture as one of the favourites, but in a winner takes all situation, you have to execute when it counts. He was quickest in both sessions to top qualifying on Saturday afternoon and then, come the main event of 10 minutes plus one lap, he powered his MC 250F to a commanding 7.887s victory in the end after taking charge on lap eight.

Joining Davies on the podium was early leader Drew Adams (Monster Energy Kawasaki Team Green) and Gavin Towers (Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing), which signifies the calibre of high-profile, young American riders that the teenager from Waitoki managed to defeat. It’s been an impressive journey so far for Davies, but as the mentors around him – including TLD trainer Will Hahn – would often be reminding him, this is the first step in his path to the professional ranks. Already he’s been linked to a factory seat for 2025, but nothing has been confirmed at this moment.

“Nothing is confirmed at the moment, I’ll go pro when I’m ready. You might see me [at Loretta Lynn’s], you never know.

“But, first we’ll go back to New Zealand for a week or so. When I get back, I’ll do some races at Pala and the two Combine races at RedBud and Ironman again. I’ve already raced some qualifier races for Lorettas, and will do another one when I get back, but I’m not 100 percent on whether I’ll race Lorettas yet, even though I’ll definitely qualify.”