Competitors in the 125cc open class at the New Zealand motocross championship have been put on notice.
World-class rider Courtney Duncan will be back on track, and she is curious to see how she will fare against the men, after not racing them for nearly a year.
Duncan raced women in the United States in 2013, in both the amateur and professional ranks.
She left them for dust. However, it was her performance against the boys at the James Stewart AMA Spring Championships at Freestone that really caused some ripples.
The American amateur motocross experts at Vurbmoto.com said Duncan's seventh in the schoolboy moto ''raised a few eyebrows, no doubt'' and they listed her as being ''definitely on our radar for 2013.''
Unfortunately, ''a few knocks to the head'' last year, culminating in a concussion-causing crash at the national amateur championship at Loretta Lynn's ranch in Tennessee, left her no option but to take some time off the bike.
The 18-year-old came back home to Palmerston and spent four months ''getting the head sorted''.
It was a difficult time for the fiercely competitive and dedicated Duncan, who has put everything into her riding and training since she realised how good she was at it, nearly 10 years ago.
''I played the waiting game, which sucked,'' she said.
She waited until the physical dizziness which dogged her gym sessions disappeared, and until the after-effects of a brain injury abated.
''The head is back to normal now and I am excited to be back on the bike.''
Duncan credits her family and the friends who stood by her, supporting her path to recovery, for getting her back to where she is now - ready to attack the four-round national series.
Yamaha New Zealand has given her a YZ125 and although she has not done as much preparation as she would like for the first round in Timaru next Saturday, Duncan is set to go all-out.
''I'm just going to do the best that I can. Obviously I'm going to give it everything I've got.''
While she is focused on the national series, which finishes in March, the ''ultimate goal'' is to head back overseas to re-establish the dominant international form she had established in the United States last year.
