You get the feeling nothing fazes Courtney Duncan.
The 20-year-old has been riding motocross since the bikes were bigger than her.
But she has graduated from the 7-year-old who used to beat the boys to beating the world's best in her rookie season on the Women's Motocross Championship circuit.
It is quite a story. The Palmerston flyer stunned the sport when she won both races during the opening leg in Qatar. She backed up those wonderful performances with a win and a fourth during the second round in the Netherlands last month.
What made her effort in the Netherlands even more impressive was she crashed during the first race and slipped from first to fourth.
Even with wonky handlebars and dodgy brakes, she was still able to hold on to fourth.
She returned the following day and blitzed the field to record a very comfortable win in the second race. When Duncan stays upright, she is very hard to beat.
‘‘Yeah, I had a bit of a crash. I actually went down pretty hard,'' Duncan said.
‘‘My steering was all bent up and I had no front brakes, so it was tough. But obviously I had to salvage as many points as I could because it is the championship which matters.
‘‘I was hurting a wee bit but it was not too bad.''
The tumble certainly did not dent her confidence. She roared around the track on her Yamaha the next morning and crossed the finish line 25sec ahead of the runner-up, 2008 world champion Livia Lancelot.
Remarkably, the gritty rider leads the overall championship standings with 93 points.
You can only imagine how some of the more experienced riders have received Duncan's arrival on the circuit. After all, rookies are meant to battle for the minor placings and welcome the consolation, not stand on top of the podium looking like part of the furniture.
Duncan represents a serious challenge to that order.
‘‘I guess we are rookies but we work hard and I live the sport day in and day out. I eat, breathe and sleep it and I expect to be getting results.
‘‘I have a very good group of people around me and have everything I need to go out there and perform.''
Duncan was not really sure what to expect when she made the step up in class this year but felt prepared.
‘‘We put in a lot of hard work during the summer here in New Zealand to make sure I could be as ready as I could be.''
Duncan's profile has risen sharply since her breakthrough win in her debut race. People are ringing wanting to know her back story and she even made a guest appearance on the long-running children's show What Now where she ate raw courgettes and was slimed.
‘‘I was working five days a week [at the Coffee Cup in Palmerston] and then all of a sudden I'm off overseas and travelling and this is now your job.
‘‘It is a big change but, to be honest with you, I don't really look at it like that. I just get up in the morning and go and ride my bike and enjoy what I do.''
The next round of races is in Germany in May. Duncan has been preparing at a training camp in Nelson under the watchful eye of retired rider Josh Coppins and leaves for Europe in a couple of weeks.
