Courtney Duncan 2019 Women’s World Motocross (WMX) Champion
C
ourtney hails from Dunedin on New Zealand’s south island. Like many MX riders her career has been punctuated with injuries, but in 2019 all the cards were in her favour and she comfortably took the WMX title. We spoke to her as she relaxed at home in the antipodes. What was your motocross background and your family influences – how did it all start? My stepdad used to race and he was a pretty good rider back in his time. He got me a bike when I was seven years of age. It was one of those things that I kind of got into from day one and I really enjoyed it straight away. I grew up in a rural community outside the town of Dunedin and a lot of kids had bikes. Of course there was a lot of farmland and places to ride bikes and that really helped. Was it natural that in that area in the South of New Zealand that there were loads of off road bikes? Yeah, pretty much. I mean we all grew up on farms so it was natural to have a little farm bike. At the time we had a lot of small local events so every Sunday everyone got together to go racing and right from the start I was pretty competitive from day one. That made me want to train and, after a while you kinda got addicted to that lifestyle. Did you ask for your first bike or did it just appear? No not at all. I was only six or seven and my step dad got me and my brother a bike and I did well but my brother did not take to it like I did and he did not really catch the
18
MX bug. I think I had a better natural feel for it – it felt natural from day one. I’d come home, change out of my school clothes and just go riding. It was a geared bike so I quickly learned about how gears worked and when to change gears. My stepdad wanted me to learn the fundamentals from an early age so no auto bike for me! What were your first two or three steps in racing classes and how successful were you? I started on semi-auto 50’s then up to a 65cc bike with totally manual clutch and gears. I won my first race on the 50cc bike and when I got to 65’s I was actually put on the track for the 85cc bikes. Obviously that
From farm bike to Monster Energy sponsorship – quite a journey
was harder as I was down on power but we wanted to learn the tough tracks and conditions so it was a great experience. Were you racing against boys? Yes, always. Did people remark that you were a girl winning races against boys? Yes a lot of interest. Obviously at the time you do not register it so much. But when I won it was not like there was a girl third,
fifth, ninth. It was me winning and the only girl in the race. There was no tension between me and the boys I raced against. To be honest the rivalry only really started later on when I was looking towards the Pro classes in Europe that are much more competitive. Do you have a cabinet full of trophies? I used to have. I used to count my trophies but not so much anymore. I feel that a trophy does not define you. In these past few years and including this championship winning year I have won a lot but it does not make me a different person so why should you define yourself just from trophies or race wins? There is so much more to a person than that. I don’t need other people to tell me whether I am being successful or not. Are you an independent person? Yes definitely. I always had to have that certain independence and my parents wanted me to figure things out on my own a lot of the time. Right from the start of racing I packed my own bags so I knew where everything was and I was responsible for it. By being so dedicated to racing have you missed out on other aspects of life? Growing up? Absolutely not, I had a good balance. All through school I played team sports, went to my friends birthday parties, I ate chocolate cake and did all the normal things. The approach came from myself. There was no one telling me “you have to do this”, I pretty much worked it out for myself. I worked hard from a young age. If it was what I wanted to do was to train I just did it.
Mini bikes to MX2 machinery; it’s been a fast ride for Duncan
Is there something about coming from New Zealand that makes you unique? The Kiwi mentality has helped me overseas. Everywhere is a long way from home. We don’t have a lot of opportunities so from the first race overseas you have to give it everything you’ve got as you may not get another chance. This year actually commuted from New Zealand – between races I actually came home. It’s expensive and it’s hard to plan ahead to book tickets so getting the cheapest flights is not possible. It’s costly but life’s short. You need to be happy in yourself and happy in order to succeed so the cost is relative. How do you deal with injury? In Juniors I was injured maybe once but
in Pro every year I had an injury that took me away from title contention and last year was worst as I was so close to being able to win before being injured. But here we are now with the 2019 Championship so we must have done something right. The level of racing is getting higher so you have to push the limits just to be guaranteed a ride and the speed is increasing each year. Now you are WMX Champion would you like to race against men? It needs to be separate. It’s more realistic and better for our sport. There at least forty in each WMX race but if you put us
against the men you are not really going to get such a good race. As a champion you always have people on your back so I can thrive off that motivation. You kind of think what now? But I can go on to achieve more and win it again, at least that is my goal. Is being the female world champion opening doors and other opportunities? Sure, in New Zealand I get a lot of TV and newspaper interview requests. It’s cool to see as MX is not so popular overall here but me being champion has got me a lot of front pages and increased interest in motocross so that’s cool to see.
19