Otago’s Courtney Duncan
KIWI ACE DUNCAN RULES IN PORTUGAL
I
t may have taken a switch of teams, but
Courtney Duncan is back where she belongs,
on top of the world.
The 23-year-old from Otago rider was in
scintillating form at the second of five rounds
for the 2019 Women’s World MX Champs in
Portugal, convincingly winning both her races to
snatch the championship points lead.
Riding for the British-based Bike It DRT
Kawasaki racing team, Duncan has been the
dominant rider of the series thus far. She won
the opening race of the world championships in
The Netherlands, but then crashed heavily while
leading race two and fought back to finish the
race in seventh. Unfortunately, she was forced to
settle for fourth overall that weekend.
But now, with back-to-back wins in Portugal, it
means she has won three of the four races run
this season and enjoys a four-point lead over
Dutch rider Nancy van de Ven as they prepare for
round three in the Czech Republic on July 27-28.
In her first race on Saturday, Duncan exited turn
one in second position, but needed just half a
lap to sweep into the lead, and opened up a two-
second lead by the end of that lap. She increased
her lead to a comfortable 10 seconds by mid-
race and eventually won by more than 12
seconds over German rider Larissa Papenmeier.
In race two, Duncan took the lead on lap two
and quickly opened a gap. In the end, Duncan
finished more than 30 seconds ahead of runner-
up rider van de Ven.
“I got blocked in at the first turn in that second
race, but I didn’t panic, sorted out a good place to
make a clean pass and could race away.
“I’m just taking it race by race at the moment
and not really thinking about the championship.
“It was a great weekend – from qualifying on
pole, then two race wins and taking the red
[championship leader’s] plate... I really can’t ask
for much more,” Duncan told BikesportNZ.com.
“Now it’s a big break again, but I’ll use this
opportunity to continue to build. I’m very excited
to get back to work and get better.
“Thanks to the whole DRT Kawasaki team for
all the effort and everyone for support, and also
to Kawasaki Motors Europe, Kawasaki NZ and
Monster Energy for showing their faith and giving
me this opportunity. The amount of messages
I’ve received from back home has been crazy
really. I appreciate it. I’ll be going back to NZ to
keep doing the work and come out swinging at
Loket [in the Czech Republic],” said Duncan.
This season is Duncan’s first on Kawasaki and
she is well on target to emulate the Women’s
World Cup successes achieved by fellow Kiwi
Katherine Prumm when she finished top in the
world in 2006 and 2007.
Duncan has come close to winning the WMX
title three times, but has frustratingly fallen short
each time. Twice she was denied the world title
through injury and then lost the title by just two
points on the other occasion.
More determined than ever to finally achieve
her goal, Duncan made the decision to join the
highly-experienced British squad run by Steve
Dixon.
“They’ve given me an awesome opportunity and
I’m very motivated to put them on top in 2019.
A fresh start was what I needed and I couldn’t
be more excited than to do that with Kawasaki.
Kawasaki New Zealand has also come on board
to support me at home, for which I am also very
thankful.”
KIWI RIDER 101