on three memorable occasions over the years – third overall in England in 1998 , third again at Namur , in Belgium , in 2001 , and third too at Matterley Basin , in England , in 2006 – and the Kiwis have also finished among the top-five on three other occasions – fifth in Austria in 1993 , fourth in Belgium in 2003 and fourth in France in 2005 . New Zealand has finished among the top 10 just three times since 2006 – they were eighth in England in 2008 , eighth in the United States in 2010 and eighth in France in 2015 . But the past few years have been lean times for the Kiwis and this year was another case of close-but-yet-so-far as Lady Luck steered well clear of the New Zealand contingent in Michigan . The bad luck started when Team New Zealand was drawn 33rd out of the 34 teams in the random ballot on the Friday before racing . This meant the New Zealand riders had 33rd pick on the start gate ... virtually no selection at all , with 32 teams choosing their starting spots before the Kiwis got anywhere near the gates . This was just bad luck in the purest sense and nobody can be held responsible for this ... the ping pong balls of the ballot don ’ t have
favourites . For reference , Morocco balloted No . 1 , but they eventually finished only 32nd overall at the 2022 MXoN . Then the spectre of bad luck came calling again with a mechanical gremlin killing Connolly ’ s bike during his MX2 qualifier on Saturday . Natzke crossed the line 17th in his MXGP qualifier and Carter managed 20th in his Open
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