As motorsport ground to a complete halt worldwide over the past three months, Covid-19’s ripple effects continue to be felt by a trio of Otago riding and driving identities. Catherine Pattison talks to women’s motocross champion Courtney Duncan and rally drivers and business owners Hayden Paddon and Emma Gilmour, about how the remainder of 2020 is shaping up for them.
Courtney Duncan is awaiting an important call from Europe — the go-ahead to return to defend her 2019 world motocross crown.
She is leading the series after two rounds and isdoing her best to be fit and ready if and when racing resumes.
‘‘I’m on my bikeand keeping up my fitness, so when I get the green light, I’m ready,’’ she said.
Mixing her training rides between the region’s motocross tracksand motorbike trails, Duncan can call on a group of motorbike-riding friends to keep her riding at a pace that should enable her to beat the best women in the world.
‘‘I have a couple of good friends who are fast and they keep me honest,’’ Duncan said.
The next round of the series is tentatively scheduled for September 6 at Afyonkarahisar in Turkey which, coincidentally, was the location where Duncan won her maiden championship last year.
While at home in Dunedin during lockdown, Duncan has managed two wins off the track — becoming just the fourth woman to win the supreme award at the ASB Otago Sports Awards and also being voted New Zealand’s Sports Woman of the Year at the national Media and Entertainment Award.
How many races will run, and in which countries, has not yet been confirmed, although Duncan refuses to let the uncertainty faze her.
‘‘You can only control what you can control. I have no control over what is happening. The only thing Ican do is enjoy riding with no pressure.’’
In terms of plans dashed, Hayden Paddon, of Cromwell, was given a bitter pill to swallow: the four-round World Rally Championship campaign he had lined up for this year in a second Hyundai WRC team came to nothing when the series was put on hold.
‘‘We had the contract on the table ready to sign just as Covid hit New Zealand,’’he said.
Paddon has been fighting to return to the top level of rallying since his contract with the Hyundai WRC team was cut at the end of 2018. His two recent bids to return to the WRC with the M-Sport Ford team in 2019 were dashed by a testing accident in Finland and then bushfires forcing the cancellation of the Australian round.
‘‘I have accepted it now, but it took me a month or so to accept that yet again another attempted return had been squashed,’’ Paddon said.
A long-term promoter of the WRC returning to New Zealand, the decision to cancel the leg due to Covid-19 was another blow.
As was the decision to can the remainder of the New Zealand Rally Championship and, with it, Rally Otago.
‘‘In terms of a single event, Rally Otago is always the one I look forward to the most. I can’t wait for next year already,’’ he said.
A master of keeping busy, Paddon has plenty on his calendar to fill the gaps. His key planned events — the Ashley Forest Rallysprint and the tarmac Targa Rally — will still take place and Paddon is considering taking part in more local car club events and some circuit racing.
Emma Gilmour, of Dunedin, was focused on executing a successful 2020 rally season when Covid-19 caused the first two events of the NZRC to be postponed, then the full championship to fold.
She had a new team, Choice Performance, in Pukekohe and head mechanic Tony McConachy lined up to run her Suzuki Swift AP4.
Kiwi co-driver Malcolm Peden had been enlisted to call her pace notes and Gilmour had a newfound desire to go rallying, after a tough 2019 that was marred with mechanical failures.
She was philosophical about having to ‘‘park up’’ her rally car for the season, despite having tested it pre-lockdown and finding it had ‘‘never felt so good’’.
The car will remain in Auckland for now and she will continue with testing as time and budget allow, readying herself and the car for 2021.
Put her personal regrets aside, Gilmour was full of praise for the way New Zealand responded to the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘‘It was disappointing, but in the scheme of things we are healthy and got out of it well. We have done the right thing,’’ she said.
Having owned her car dealership for almost 10 years, Gilmour turned her focus to keeping it afloat when the new-normal way of trading began in Alert Level 3.
‘‘Being a business owner, that was my priority. When I employ people, that’s my main focus,’’ Gilmour said.
She appreciated the loyalty of returning customers and has enjoyed seeing the ‘‘positive let’s get on with it attitude’’ of Dunedin locals.
Paddon has also had plenty on his plate when it came to running Paddon Rallysport.
‘‘Business-wise it’s been very busy. I’m just trying to build a new base and diversify a little so we can look to survive the coming months ahead,’’ he said.
He has retained all his technicians and engineers at his Highlands Motorsport base, despite the Covid-19 curveball.
‘‘Throughout my life and career, I have become accustomed to being thrown challenges and, despite this being a big challenge, I’m feeling up to it. It will mean some changes over the next 12 months, but the end goal is still the same, with the five to 10-year plan to take our 100% Kiwi team international.’’
During lockdown, his team has made solid progress on its electric rally car project. The chassis is finished and they are beginning to dummy fit components.
‘‘The last piece of the puzzle is a couple of major parts from Europe which have been delayed, but we are still aiming for August testing, followed by a public reveal not too long after,’’ Paddon said.
- Catherine Pattison
Photo: Kawasaki Europe
