Celebrating those who blazed a winning trail
Kiwi champions show how a little selfbelief can help you achieve your goals
Self-belief . . . it’s a hard thing to develop and nurture, but could be the secret recipe to success on the race track. Self-belief is exactly what Taranaki brothers Darryll, Shayne and Damien King gave to Kiwi motocross hopefuls in the 1990s and what Josh Coppins, Ben Townley, Daryl Hurley, Chris Birch and Paul Whibley passed on to fellow New Zealanders a decade later.
By performing among the world’s elite and eventually becoming world elite themselves, these riders have succeeded in illuminating a pathway for their comrades back home; the exploits of these trailblazers are probably motivating current Kiwi internationals Courtney Duncan, Josiah Natzke, Hamish Harwood, Dylan Walsh and James Scott right now.
The King brothers showed it was possible to leave rural Taranaki and become world championship contenders.
That also, no doubt, is what Kurri Kurri’s Chad Reed and the James Bond motorcycle stuntman on Skyfall, New South Welshman Robbie Maddison, have done for our transtasman mates.
As Kiwis Sam Neill and Peter Jackson showed our movie industry people — actors and special effects crew for instance — they didn’t have to come from California or be in Hollywood to make blockbuster movies or be taken seriously by the international film industry.
We know the King brothers had to endure a few hardships on their way to motocross GP glory.
They lived out of the back of a van and survived on a cheap diet of rice and noodles. Shayne had one of his factory bikes stolen, and Darryll broke his back.
Coppins also copped a few careerthreatening injuries during his time in Europe and had to fend off an unjust “drugs cheat” label along the way after some cough medicine he’d taken showed up as a “positive” on a test.
And it was his team-mate at the time who was pushing for sterner action to be taken against him (Coppins was this rider’s biggest threat). Imagine the psychological stress that must have brought.
Then, to cap things off, he wasn’t even being paid, as the team reneged on his salary.
Townley had a few tough days in Germany when he raced for an under-funded fledgling 125cc GP team and was struggling to qualify for GPs. He also had his fair share of major medical traumas.
But he became world champion in 2004, just three years after first arriving in Europe.
What is it about the number three? It was exactly three years after Shayne King arrived in Europe for the first time, he became 1996 500cc world champion.
Hard work and sacrifice will get you a long way and, not just in motocross, but in all sports and in all facets of life.
So the next time you have a “bad day at the office (race track)” — have stubbed your toe on the trailer, skinned your knuckles with a spanner, fallen off the bike and bent your bars — give a thought to how much worse things could be.
And the next time you think you’ve had a “bad day at the actual office” — stapled your finger, given yourself a paper cut or suffered a demotion — remember what our Kiwi internationals have been through and how they still came out on top.
Quitters don’t win and winners don’t quit? What are you? Have a little self-belief.