Taupo’s Connor Feather produced outstanding results at the big annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville last month, but now his focus is shifting to major races overseas.
In just a few days, the 13-year-old – the 13-16 years’, 85cc class winner at last month’s 62nd annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville – will embark on a journey to train at the Millsaps Training Facility (MTF) in Georgia, in the United States of America.
There the Husqvarna rider will undergo intensive, specialised training under the watchful gaze of, among others, Davi Millsaps, a multi-time supercross and motocross champion and he retired before the 2018 supercross season.
Millsaps is tied for 19th place in all-time 450 Supercross race wins and 9th place all-time for 250 supercross race wins. Millsaps has 13 supercross combined wins. Millsaps was also a nine-time national amateur champion.
Feather is hoping to sharpen his skills so that he might impress at the Loretta Lynn’s AMA amateur national motocross championships at Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.
The qualifying program for that will start mid-February with “area qualifiers” followed by “regional championships” taking place in late May through the month of June. The national will be held from July 28-August 2.
In the build-up for this trip, young Feather and his father Marc have been travelling down to the Taranaki region to receive tuition and advice from multi-time former New Zealand and Australian motocross and supercross champion Daryl Hurley, the now 49-year-old Hawera-based man who also, notably, won the opening round of the World Supercross Championships at a muddy Estadio Olimpico in Seville, Spain, in December 2003.
Taupo teenager Connor Feather (Husqvarna) gets a few tips from Kiwi motocross and supercross legend Daryl Hurley (left) before the young man heads off on a packed programme of international appointments. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
Hurley raced professionally in the US and also represented New Zealand at the Motocross of Nationals on several memorable occasions (including stepping onto the podium at the MXoN at Namur, in Belgium, 2001) and who is also twice a former Veterans’ World Champion (in 2016 and again in 2018).
“Marc gave me a call to see if I would help his son,” Hurley explained. “So, anyway, we’d just built a supercross circuit here (at the Hack Track, just north of Eltham). There are a couple of Kiwi kids keen to put a bit of an effort into the Aussie supercross season this year, so we were ready to go with this facility.
“Connor and his dad have shown some dedication too, coming down here once a week for a couple of days at a time. Connor is getting better and better and he’s smart enough to know he needs to put in a bit of training before he heads overseas. Back in my day, we just headed overseas and learned on the job.”
Meanwhile, teenage rising star Feather is under no illusions how tough the trip might be.
“After MTF we will go to the Freestone Spring Nationals (at the Freestone County Raceway in Texas, from March 3-9) and then the Spring-A-Ding-Ding event (from March 10-16), at Oak Hill Raceway in Texas.
“It’s pretty exciting. We are about five weeks in America and then we fly to Melbourne (Australia) and do the first round of the senior Pro MX, riding in the 85cc support class. It will be like an Aussie nationals. Then we come home to race the New Zealand Junior Motocross Championships at Pukekohe (from April 11-13).
“Looking ahead, I have my sights set on the Junior Motocross World Championships (in Romagné, in France on July 6), before heading back to the US for the Loretta Lynn’s event.”
So many Kiwis have, in years past, taken the bull by the horns to test themselves at the top level internationally, but Feather’s programme is truly bulging at the seams.
BikesportNZ.com wishes him all the best for the year ahead.
© Words and photos by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com
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