Watch out! Courtney Duncan has returned to the race track and she’s back to her old tricks, terrorising the elite young men of Kiwi motocross.

The just-turned 18-year-old multi-time former junior motocross champion from Palmerston, halfway between Oamaru and Dunedin, had been sidelined with injury for the past seven months after suffering concussion while racing in the United States last year.

In fact, she had not raced at all in her native New Zealand for exactly a year until she showed up at the opening round of the New Zealand Motocross Championships near Timaru at the weekend.

She rolled her new Yamaha YZ125 to the starting grid for qualifying uncertain of her form, but nonetheless very certain in her resolve to be competitive in this testosterone-fuelled hot-bed for New Zealand’s rising stars of motocross.

For anyone who dared to question Duncan’s championship potential, the answer came very quickly indeed as she qualified her Backflips Clothing and Fox-supported Yamaha in the No.1 position.

The day didn’t work out quite as brilliantly as it had the last time she raced at the Pleasant Point circuit, in the corresponding opening round of the nationals in 2013 – on that occasion she won the class before packing her bags to head away for competition in the US – but she was still impressive this time around.

She shot into the lead at the start of the day’s first 125cc race before eventually being bumped back to third spot, behind Hamilton’s Josiah Natzke (CMR Red Bull KTM) and Tauranga’s Aaron Wiltshier (JT Racing KTM), but at least the “comeback nerves” had been banished and she now knew she had the pace to win.

Duncan again finished third in the next race, this time crossing the line behind Te Puke’s Logan Blackburn (Altherm JCR BikesportNZ.com Yamaha) and Natzke, and a podium finish for the day was looming large.

Then, in the day’s third and final 125cc race, she was again among the leaders and seemed to have wrapped up a podium finish overall, when she crashed and, although she recovered herself and limped to the finish, she was forced to settle for fifth position at the chequered flag.

In the end, her 3-3-5 results at Timaru were good enough for an overall ranking of fourth and she is in a solid position as the riders now regroup to do it all over again at round two in Tokoroa on February 23.

The four-round series will then head to Pukekohe for round three on March 9, with the fourth and final round set down for Taupo on March 22.

“It was not too bad and I felt comfortable,” she shrugged afterwards.

“I’ll just have to accept what happened today and move on. I am only going to get stronger from here.

“I really want to thank my family, Yamaha New Zealand and Fox for all the support they’ve given me.”

Duncan is looking forward to racing again on the sandy Tokoroa track. She has won there in the past, during the junior phase of her career, and she knows that it will be a good place for her to launch an attack.

She is only four points behind the third-ranked Wiltshier. Fellow Yamaha ace Blackburn heads the 125cc standings, one point clear of Natzke, with Wiltshier just seven points further back.

© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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