A lready a proven top performing motocross rider in New Zealand , Australia and Europe too , the Honda man has gone from prying open an entry into the enduro racing world to actually kicking the whole door down . And now he ’ s doing the same thing in the parallel and similar cross-country dirt bike racing environment . The 19-year-old fencer had no previous experience racing the powerful Honda CRF450X prior to the start of this year ’ s New Zealand Enduro Championships and he very nearly finished that five-round series among the top three overall , settling instead for fourth overall after disaster struck for him late in his campaign – a rock bent his disc brake rotor and he scored a non-finish .
He ’ s now riding exactly the same bike in the faster but less-technical crosscountry arena and , perhaps not surprisingly , he feeling right at home there too . “ It ’ s not too different from motocross really . Your opposition is right there on the track with you from the start , not like enduros where riders get set off at minute intervals , making it hard to gauge just how good you ’ re going . In crosscountry racing , if you ’ re passing the riders around you , you know you ’ re going okay ,” he explained . With more than 130 elite riders lining up to race the opening round of the popular Dirt Guide Cross-country Series , in forestry at Ohakuri on Saturday , June 26 , about halfway between Tokoroa and
24 KIWI RIDER