WOMEN’S MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPION COURTNEY DUNCAN LEAVES NZ FOR WORLD TITLE DEFENCE
Courtney Duncan (24) flew out of Auckland for Europe on Wednesday to mount her 2019 Women’s Motocross World Championship title defence.
Dunedin’s Duncan has re-signed with the England-based Kawasaki Dixon Race Team for a further two years. After a summer of catching up with friends and family, she has knuckled down again – training hard on her 2020 Kawasaki KX250 towards bringing the winner’s silverware back home at the end of the six-round WMX season.
Kawasaki New Zealand Managing Director Shane Verhoeven says the Kiwi arm of the brand was proud to have Duncan representing ‘Team Green’ internationally.
“Courtney obviously gelled with Kawasaki and the Dixon Race Team last year and we are excited to see what that brings for her in 2020. She’s now familiar with the bike and team environment she’s in and she’ll be coming into the season confident. On behalf of Kawasaki New Zealand, we wish her all the best,” Verhoeven says.
Monster Energy has produced an mini-doco and accompanying media release below.
Kiwi motocross star Courtney Duncan has her eyes firmly set on securing a second consecutive Women’s Motocross World Championship as she looks to defend her crown, with the series kicking off later this month the UK.
Duncan travels to Europe today to reunite with her 2019 Championship winning team with the World Champ also dropping her latest global content piece ‘Girl on Fire’ in conjunction with major sponsor, Monster Energy.
The 24-year-old says the ‘Girl on Fire’ film, which has been launched to millions of fans worldwide through Monster Energy’s global channels, is a depiction of the journey and sacrifice that took Duncan to the top of the world in 2019.
“Girl on Fire represents my career I think, just all the setbacks, injuries and failures that I’ve had, and then to come back and finally win a world title last season, this video is a representation of that journey,” said Duncan.
“To win back-to-back world championships in 2020 with all the injuries I’ve had to endure would be really cool, it’s definitely the goal and why I’m packing the bags and heading back to Europe and I think I’ve got a good opportunity of achieving that goal.”
Duncan says the production was the biggest of her career to date and riding through fire and being part of a high-end production was an experience she’ll never forget.
“It was the first time I’d ever done a film like this and having the fire in this shoot made it really cool. Literally riding through the fire, I’m not going to lie, was pretty daunting at the start but in the end, it was really cool, I could literally feel how hot it was flying through the air and I’d definitely do another one of those.”
A championship win in 2020 will see Duncan equal Kiwi motocross legend Katherine Prumm who was a devastating force in 2006 and 2007 winning both year’s World Motocross titles.
“To equal Katherine Prumm’s record would be really cool, I grew up watching her race so it’d be cool to equal that but at the same time I’m not a big stats girl, I just want to focus on riding to the best of my ability and I know if I do that we’re gonna win titles,” Duncan added.
Round 1 of the 2020 FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship kicks off on February 20 at Matterley Basin in Winchester, UK.
2020 FIM Women’s Motocross World Championships
20/02/2020 – Matterley Basin, UK
06/03/2020 – Valkenswaard, France
17/04/2020 – Intu Xanadú, Spain
15/05/2020 – Maggiora, Italy
04/09/2020 – Afyonkarahisar, Turkey
18/09/2020 – Imola, Italy
