NATALIE KANE FACES WESTON CHALLENGE
One Weston debutant to keep an eye open for is rider number 34. That will be Natalie Kane, Britain’s fastest woman motocrosser. At 17 she’s barely out of school but already she’s three-times a British motocross champion and this year she finished third in the women’s world championship.
So, already a globe trotting racer, sharing a paddock with the greats in world motocross, the young lady from Banbridge in Northern Ireland is nonetheless desperately keen to race her first Weston.
“I’ve been wanting to do this race for the last few years but each year I’ve been sidelined, by injury or a clash on dates. This year I’m here, I’m really looking forward to it.
“I think I’m taking the same view on it as the rest of the guys, that it’s a bit of fun, so I’ll aim at a finish as being my goal for now. After that much, I’ll see what comes.”
Given her impressive results, it would probably be fair to say Kane will be more a competitor than a tourer. But are there any aspects of the race that give her pause for thought?
“Oh yes, if there was one thing that I’d say scared me right now, it would be the start. I’m only on a 250 so I’m worried what it’ll be like with 1000 of us charging down the straight to the first turn, I can see me getting passed left and right by guys on the 450s. But after that it’s just riding, lasting for three hours – and trying not to get hung up in a dune.”
As you’ll see, Kane is no slouch on a bike. She’s been riding for 14 years, in her junior years she of course raced against the boys in schoolboy motocross and she now has so much bike speed that there’s no woman in the UK who can match her – she won every British championship race this year and at the last round she won by a huge 26-second margin. Which begs the question, could she race in the British championship proper?
“I don’t know. I haven’t actually compared my lap times of late. But oddly enough I have been thinking about trying a round next year if there’s a clear date to work with.”
That Kane rode to third in the world championship this year is all the more remarkable for she missed almost all of 2008 through injury. Having badly dislocated her shoulders and suffered nerve damage, she needed surgery and a lengthy recovery. There was, though, just enough time before and after to sneak in two races to win the British title for the second time.
Her 2009 world title assault didn’t start too well either. At the first round she was riding in second when she crashed hard, but remounted to come back for sixth. In the second moto, challenging for third she crashed hard again, recovering to seventh. But the crashes left their marks – with an injured back, ankle and thigh it wasn’t until the fifth round, the German GP, that she was riding without pain.
There she placed 3-4 for fourth overall. At the next round she bettered that, with a 3-3 she made third overall and her first world championship podium.
“I’d finally got there, I was so happy. Then at the final round at Lierop (in Holland) I made 5-3 and that gave me, in that last race, the lift to third in the championship. That felt brilliant. I’d started the year with crashes and injury, so to get back to third made me so happy.”
It also made her a very attractive proposition in the paddock, so this weekend Kane celebrates her signing with the KTM UK team with whom she’ll be returning to the GPs next year, as well as the British Championships again.
“I’m really excited about that, I’m riding their 250SX-F and really enjoying it. But I’ve been two and a half years with Suzuki and MVR-D, we’ve shared so much success, they’ve helped bring me to where I am today so I want to say a big thank you to them as well.”
Posted: 6 Oct 2009