Whibley Gets Straight Back to Business

Whibley Gets Straight Back to Business

JANUARY 27, 2015: Pahiatua's Paul Whibley officially retired from fulltime international competition at the end of last year, but that doesn't mean it's time for total rest and relaxation, not for a few more years anyway.

He is now settled back in New Zealand after more than a decade of racing overseas, a lengthy international campaign that included him tackling the world enduro championships in Europe before heading to the United States to take on the best cross-country racers in the world in the popular Grand National Cross-country Championships (GNCC).

He clinched two GNCC titles in the US, in 2009 and 2012, and wound up the American phase of his career by finishing fifth overall in the GNCC series in 2014.

The former Manawatu forestry worker, affectionately dubbed “The Axeman” on the motorcycling scene, was also a six-time winner of the parallel Off-Road Motorcycle and ATV (OMA) series in the US, his outright win during his farewell 2014 season an ideal way to sign off his international career.

But rest and relaxation is still a long way off for Whibley.

Now supported in New Zealand by Palmerston North's Freedom Moto Yamaha, the 36-year-old Whibley headed off to nearby Woodville at the weekend with a bike he'd only picked up a couple of days earlier to tackle the River Race segment of the 54th annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix.

He comfortably won both the novelty river races, his competition drenched in the wake of his water-proofed Yamaha YZ250 as he showed he was ready to get serious again, albeit now on the domestic scene.

Whibley led soon after the start in both Sunday’s river races – both times quickly powering past fast-starting Palmerston North rider James Galpin – and he was never threatened after that, finishing ahead of Palmerston North's Charles Alabaster in race one and ahead of Tauranga's former motocross world champion Ben Townley in race two.

Townley had finished third in race one and that was enough to give him overall runner-up spot for the day, a carbon copy of last year's river race result at Woodville.

"It was hard to pass other riders, but, once I was in front, I just kept out of trouble. There were some very big ruts near the finish flag and I shot off the track a bit and was heading towards the crowd at one stage. I thought "oh, no, I'm going to hit that kid', but I managed to bring it all back into line.

"Today was just a bit of fun but I'm getting ready now to race the opening round of the New Zealand Enduro Championships (at Riverhead Forest, west of Auckland) this coming weekend. I will then switch to concentrate on the New Zealand Cross-country Championships.

"There are too many date clashes for me to be able to do all rounds of both series, so I'm really just concentrating on the cross-country events.

"I'll have a Yamaha YZ450F for these races. The YZ250 that I used at here was just for today."

Whibley is supported by Yamaha Motor New Zealand, Freedom Moto Yamaha, Monster Energy, Shoei, Sidi, Smith, MSR G2, Asterisk, Moto SR, Vortex Ignitions, EC3D, Bush Riders MCC, Spectro, Acerbis, DID, JT sprockets, Leatt, Kenda, Yamaha NZ, Bikesportnz.com, Unibiker and Tire balls.

by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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