August 2020 -- Vol 4 -- Issue 8 August 2020 | Page 176

On The Pegs 176
Tell us about New Zealand. Why are there so many world champions in Formula
1 and road race and enduro come out of such a small country?
We’re probably very hardworking people. There’s just so much variety. You can ride
sand and then you can drive an hour and ride rocks. Then you can drive another
hour and be on black topsoil. There’s so much riding. You can race every single
weekend if you want to.
Talk about your win last week at the GNCC. That was awesome. You jumped
out to the lead and you pulled away.
Yeah. I almost got the holeshot, but Brandy beat me to the line. Then I got into the
lead quite early, I think around mile four. Then I guess with the dust, I just managed
to pull a huge gap. Becca caught me on the third lap, I think it was. I looked behind
me to see how far she was and she was right beside me. Just made some really
sketchy passes around some lapped riders and managed to get a few bikes between
us. Then slowly opened up the gap again and finished with a 59-second lead.
How did you get hooked up with Randy Hawkins?
I used to train with Paul Whibley quite a bit back home. He lives four hours away
from me. On school holidays I’d go down to his place and stay there for a few weeks
and just ride and train. You’d come back exhausted and wanting to sleep for a week.
But it was good. He got me in contact with Randy and Randy offered to give me an
amateur support program last year, and then I ended up fourth overall so I signed a
two-year contract to be pro.
What did he make you do? Did he make you roll tires over?
We’d go down to the beach and he’d make us bear crawl backwards up the sand
dunes and then run up and down the beach doing sprints holding a big log and
stuff, and then wade through the waves. All kinds of weird stuff.
How big of an adjustment was it moving to America? How much different is
America from New Zealand?
It was quite scary because I was 17 when I moved over here by myself. It’s a bit of a
culture shock, but it’s definitely opened my eyes up. It’s just so different. Over here
there’s so many religious people and stuff, which I’m not used to, but I think it’s