Perhaps New Zealand has its own Field Of Dreams and from the Hollywood film of that name came the phrase: “Build it and they will come ...”

And that's just what Palmerston North's Tim Gibbes did more than 60 years ago when he organised the first New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville.

So come they did ... leading riders from Sweden, Denmark, England, Scotland, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Japan, the United States, New Caledonia and Australia, for example, have raced on the rolling grass farmland circuit, at the northern end of the Manawatu Gorge, over the past six decades.

Since the stand-alone event was first staged in 1961, the big annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville has grown to become the jewel in New Zealand's motocross crown and the 2025 edition is coming up in just three weeks’ time, on the weekend of January 25-26.

The Honda-sponsored extravaganza continues to rank as the country's No.1 dirt bike event.

Indeed, the population of the small Tararua town of Woodville will probably more than double for this one special weekend at the end of this month.

More than 600 of New Zealand's elite motocross racers will again flood the region, along with their support crews, families and fans.

Now in its 62nd year, the event is obviously a very strong magnet for the nation’s dirt biking elite and it is the biggest event on the Kiwi motocross calendar for many reasons.

Host Manawatu-Orion Motorcycle Club president Brad Ritchie said he was excited ahead of this year’s 62nd running of the event.

“All 62 of the events have been staged on the same farmland property, in the same paddock and our club is now 113 years old.

“We are not locked and loaded yet with all the entries, so I can’t comment on possible overseas entrants, but we have so many top Kiwis expected to line up anyway.

“We saw Bay of Plenty rider Levi Townley win the junior motocross world championships last year and then other Kiwis too winning national titles in Australia recently, with Karaka’s Hayden Draper, Raetihi’s Karaitiana Horne and Townley grabbing the silverware across the Tasman Sea in 2024.

“Senior riders too have been making waves overseas recently, men such as Tauranga’s Josiah Natzke in the Canadian nationals, so we really don’t need to look anywhere else but New Zealand for world-class talent.”

In addition to offering New Zealand GP titles across several different bike categories, the stand-alone event caters for entrants from as young as four, to senior men and women in their 40s and 50s.

There have been 33 different overall winners at Woodville over the past 63 years, but only 12 riders have won there more than once since the inaugural event in 1961.

The most prolific winner in the history of the event has been New Plymouth's Shayne King, with an incredible nine Woodville wins to his credit. His last winning appearance there before retiring was in 2006, although King's two sons, Curtis and Rian, will again be lining up at this year's Woodville event.

Current national MX1 champion Hamish Harwood, from Royal Heights in West Auckland, is the defending Woodville champion and he’ll be keen to become a three-time winner this year. Harwood won Woodville outright in 2020 before also winning there again last January, just before going on to win the 2024 New Zealand Motocross Championships in the premier MX1 class.

Papamoa’s Cody Cooper is a three-time former winner at Woodville – the top man there in 2007, in 2014 and again in 2019 – and he'd also like nothing better than to win it again and join the select group of just five riders so far who have won it three times or more.