Mount Maunganui's Cody Cooper has the No.1 emblazoned across his bright red Honda CRF450 motocross bike for a very good reason.

He's fabulously fast, smooth and stylish and he gets winning results for his Waikato-based Honda Racing Team.

Mount Maunganui's Cody Cooper (Honda Racing Team CRF450) was untouchable at the Waikato Motocross Championships on Sunday. Photo: Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com

It was business as usual for the 32-year-old in his first major outing of the new season, racing at the two-day Waikato Motocross Championships near Te Kuiti over the weekend.

The national MX1 champion exploded out of the blocks and was simply untouchable as he dominated Sunday's senior racing with an impressive hat-trick of wins.

In the process, he fended off challenges from Hamilton's Josiah Natzke and Jesse Wiki and Taupo's national MX1 No.5 Brad Groombridge.

'I'm pretty happy with my day,” Cody says.

'I'm normally a little bit off the pace at this track, but I have had a whole week of training and arrived here having done some good build-up work.

'In terms of preparation for the upcoming nationals, I think I'm ahead of where I was at the same time last season.

'I didn't feel great on the bike for the first race. We changed the suspension settings a bit and it was awesome for the second and third races.

'My next big event is to race the Auckland Motocross Championships (near Pukekohe on December 5-6) and I hope they can prepare the track there as well as the North King Country Motorcycle Club did for us here. I loved this track, especially all the deep ruts.”

Cody says he believes there are more international riders coming over to tackle the New Zealand Motocross Championships this season, starting at Timaru on February 7, but he doesn't feel any extra pressure to defend his title.

'If I prepare well, then I'll be fine,” he says. 'The Waikato Motocross Championships were a good workout for me and I pushed myself quite hard. My build-up is going to plan.”

Cody's result in the MX1 class was perhaps inspiring for his young team-mate Trent Collins, as the Cambridge rider finished fourth equal overall in the highly-charged MX2 (250cc) class.

Two-class hero Natzke won the MX2 class, finishing the day ahead of Taupo brothers Cohen and Wyatt Chase, with another dual-class ironman, Groombridge, sharing fourth overall with Trent.

Trent won the junior 14-16 years' 250cc class the previous day and impressed by backing that up with another solid showing on Sunday.

Wyatt won the junior 15-16 years' 125cc class on Saturday.