DIRT NEWS
KIWI RACER RESUMES US GNCC CAMPAIGN
W
ild horses would not be able to stop
intrepid Kiwi dirt bike racer, Liam
Draper, from cutting loose again in
the United States for the Grand National
Cross-country Championships.
The 23-year-old KTM rider from Howick
has been racing in the US for several seasons,
but the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic put
an early end to his 2020 campaign as sports
activities worldwide were shut down in a bid
to stop the virus spreading. But now the green
light has been given for the Grand National
Cross-country Championships in the US to
resume, the COVID-19 lockdown there now
being eased in some quarters.
The first three of 13 rounds of this
internationally-renowned cross-country
motorcycle competition were held before
the virus caused worldwide chaos but lit up
again over the May 16-17 weekend with the
round four event staged at Aonia Pass MX
Park in Washington, Georgia.
Speaking ahead of his first race in the series
post-Covid-19 shutdown, Draper was confident
in his training regime.
“As everyone knows, all of this COVID-19
stuff has changed the world and it put a stop
to racing,” said Draper, who races a KTM
250SX-F bike for the factory-supported Tely
Energy KTM Racing Team.
“So, after round three in Georgia, I left and
came back to Pennsylvania where I live in the
US. I was lucky enough to get to have my dad
over for the Florida round of the GNCC (on
March 9) and for the week in between that and
the Georgia GNCC round (on March 16), then he
went home (to Auckland) and he was lucky to
get home with all this crazy stuff going on.
“But since I have been back in Pennsylvania I
have still been training and riding as per usual.
I had the first week off, just to get everything
back to base, cleaned up and my camper
cleaned out because I had all my stuff in it
that I’d had for the previous two months.
“So I’m pretty lucky up here, as I have two dirt
bike tracks and 400 acres of woods loops and
tracks to do whatever I want and a bulldozer
and a bobcat that I use whenever I want to
clean the tracks up or make new ones, so
things have been good.
14 KIWI RIDER