race one and then he suffered a crash while
running 12th in race two – that resulted in
him dislocating his shoulder – and these two
incidents ruined what had otherwise been a
promising campaign.
Chase was toughness personified as he and
the rest of the team kept it quiet that he had
seriously injured himself during a training
crash on Wednesday, a spill that left him
suffering ugly, deep bruising all down his
right thigh. He amazed everyone that he was
able to battle on despite this.
Enduring intense pain, his 34th and 38th
(actually a DNF) results from his two races
don’t reflect his ability or his attitude and he
deserves to be congratulated.
Meanwhile, the youngest team member,
just-turned 19-year-old Purvis took his 250cc
bike into battle against riders on 450cc
bikes in the Open class and he proved to be
something of a revelation, his 27th and 33rd
results extremely honourable under the
circumstances.
New Zealand ended up 19th overall.
As for the actual event winners, the favoured
RIDE - UPLOAD - REVIEW
Dutch celebrated their first MXoN victory,
Team Netherlands finishing the weekend
well ahead of Team Belgium and then Great
Britain, followed by Estonia and then last
year’s champion Team France.
“The whole team was all about development.
The guys even more than was expected of
them and I’m extremely proud of all of them,”
said King afterwards.
MMZ general manager Virginia Henderson
said she was “absolutely thrilled to see our
development team achieve at this level”.
“With Dylan Walsh already in Europe and
doing well, he was going to play an incredible
part in our team’s performance and he did
just that, his performance instrumental in the
team qualifying among the top 20,” she said.
“A huge thanks must go to the team
managers Shayne King and Bevan Weal for
their incredible commitment and support to
lead our team and to Darryn Henderson for
stepping in at the last hour.”
The Motocross of Nations will be staged at
Ernee, in France, next year.