“I had a terrible start. I was last off the line...
the bike just didn’t fire first time,” said the
24-year-old Dickey.
“I still managed to catch up and pass half
the field in the first paddock, just holding the
throttle pinned right around the outside of the
bunch.
“Then I went off the track and dropped back
a few places again. When the leaders pitted
I snatched the lead and managed to hold it
from there. I didn’t have any real problems,
just a couple of lappers holding me up at
times. Visibility in the dust wasn’t too much of a
problem for me.”
Moving dirt is something that Brown is
particularly skilled at, the 28-year-old Brown
30 KIWI RIDER
working as a digger driver during the week, and
he was doing that with his KTM 450XC-F at a
terrific pace on Sunday.
“I had a pretty good start and was leading the
race inside the first lap. But halfway around
that first lap I suffered ‘arm pump’ and just
had to let Jason [Dickey] and Reece [Lister] go
by me. I had a bit of a surge after that and got
back into a battle with those guys again.
“I was in front until I pitted, I nearly ran out of
gas. I didn’t think I was going to last the lap. I
had a large enough tank that I only needed one
fuel stop [for the three-hour race], but it was
pretty risky.
“I caught back up to Jason but then he looked
back at me and pulled away again.”