Ace Pahiatua rider Paul "The Axeman" Whibley has won his first endurance trial and possibly the largest purse of its kind at the Raglan Rocx cross-country race at the weekend.
Riding solo in a four-hour endurance race is an off-road motorcycle challenge that saps energy and spirit and Whibley has shown he's more than up to the task.
"I had done four-hour races before but this was the first time I've had a crack at the Raglan Rocx in the ironman class.
"It would be a good measure of how the pre-season training is progressing," says the 33-year-old Whibley, who finished No 2 on the United States cross-country scene last season.
KC Entertainment put up $500 for the rider who won the holeshot, probably the biggest payout for a holeshot in New Zealand cross-country racing history.
"I'm not sure if it was the holeshot money, or if it was an off weekend for the country's top motocross riders, but quite a few of them turned up to race, namely Bay of Plenty riders Ben Townley (the former MX2 world champion) and Cody Cooper (the national MX1 motocross and supercross champion) and visiting British MX1 rider Jake Nicholls.
"Because I was a little late to the line, it meant a far outside gate pick - not ideal but I was still confident of a reasonable start," Whibley said.
"I was expecting some carnage in the first turn, with some guys having dollar signs in their eyes, but the time I had spent during the week practising the New Zealand style of dead-engine starting paid off, with the Yamaha YZ450F firing quickly and launching towards turn one, earning me the holeshot money and the immediate race lead."
Yamaha was well represented in the ironman class with Mokau's Adrian Smith and Taupo's Rory Mead looking to take advantage of the conditioning benefits to be derived from four hours in the saddle and it was Mead who put Whibley under the most pressure early on.
"Rory Mead had been chasing me for the first half of the event and a little tip over in a rut resulted in a busted peak on my helmet and the lead falling into Rory's hands.
"I struggled with the peak, having to slow to remove it as the high speed nature of the track resulted in the peak sticking straight up and the wind trying to tear my head off.
"Once I had reverted to bullet-man style, I was back up to speed.
"I reeled Rory in and retook the lead with an hour to go."
Mead, who is the national enduro champion, then struck an obstacle at the side of the track, crashing off the track and out of the race.
Mead, who at the time was only 15 seconds behind Whibley, is now preparing to defend his national enduro title with the New Zealand Enduro Championships set to kick off at Oparau, near Kawhia, on February 4.
With Mead out of the Raglan Rocx, it was eventually a cruise to the finish for Whibley, the Kiwi international finishing nearly three minutes ahead of Townley and his co-rider from Otorohanga, Jaden Gray.
Whibley, a former Manawatu woodsman, won the second round of the inaugural Energy Honda Taranaki Cross-Country Championships at Urenui this month over the same weekend he also took round two of the Bush Riders Cross-country Series near his hometown Pahiatua.
Meanwhile, Kiwi international rider Ben Townley, the world MX2 champion in 2004 and United States East Coast Lites Supercross Champion and US 250cc class runner-up in 2007, has set his eye on he 2012 Honda New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville this weekend.