Taranaki ’ s Sam Parker ( Husqvarna TE300 ), outright winner of the 2023 edition of the New Zealand Hard Enduro Championships series
When the going gets tough , the tough get going and that was just the sort of attitude exhibited this season by Taranaki teenager Sam Parker . The second and final round of the 2023 New Zealand Hard Enduro Championships , held over two days ( Friday and Saturday ) in Canterbury , during the region ’ s anniversary weekend in November , wrapped up this most brutal and unforgiving of motorcycling competitions . The first round of this year ’ s Yamahasponsored series had sent riders into the Akatarewa Forest near Pauatahanui , north-east of Porirua , in September and it was Papakura ’ s Ryan Hayward ( KTM 300EXC ) who emerged on top on that occasion , with young rising star Parker ( Husqvarna TE300 ) settling for fourth overall at that two-day event . Hayward and the third-place competitor at Moonshine , Whitecliffs rider Luke Corson , were both sidelined with injury for the weekend in Canterbury , but New Plymouth 17-year-old Parker still had to contend with and defeat the rest of the cream of New Zealand ’ s off-road dirt
biking talent , including men such as last year ’ s series winner Jake Whitaker ( KTM 300EXC ), of Wainuiomata , and Kiwi international star Hamish Macdonald ( Sherco ), from West Melton . Macdonald , recently home from a successful season racing in Europe , won the novel endurocross , staged within the A & P Showgrounds in Christchurch , on the Friday ( November 17 ), while Amberley ’ s Ethan McBreen ( KTM 250XC ) was runner-up and Parker was third . This arena-style event was also recognised as a stand-alone race-within-a-race , classified as the inaugural New Zealand Enduro-cross Championships , so that was first blood to Macdonald and a fresh national title in the bag for him . There was just the small matter of the next day ’ s Nutbuster hard enduro , on farmland at Hawerden , still to come to wind up the two-day weekend . And that ’ s where Parker proved consistency counts most . Whitaker won the Nutbuster enduro on the Saturday , with Taranaki 21-year-old Daniel Herbert ( KTM 250TPI ) finishing runner-up , then
KIWI RIDER 37