Podium finish for injured Whibley

Motorsport

Pahiatua's Paul Whibley overcame a hand injury to finish third in the latest round of the Off-Road Motorcycle and ATV Championships in the US.

A crash in the week leading up to the event which saw Whibley hit a tree "pretty hard" left him with an injured hand and a damaged bike and there were doubts about him even making it to the start line, but some good work by his mechanics and a determined mindset produced a positive result.

Overnight rain made for tricky conditions and Whibley found himself in fourth place through the opening stages.

"I was not pushing too hard as it was difficult to hang on, the plan was just to survive and pick up some points," he said.

With one of the leaders, Kallub Russell, getting wedged in a rut Whibley improved to third but then ran into trouble at a creek crossing where he got stuck trying to climb up a steep bank.

His injured hand meant he was not able to lift his bike up the bank and by the time help arrived he was back in fourth.

The second lap saw Russell again become edged in a rut and again Whibley overtook him, and with the creek crossing being removed from the course he held his position for most of that lap until he struck more problems, this time through barbed wire becoming wrapped around his wheel.

So it was back to fourth again but when Russell got stuck for a third time Whibley again moved up to third. and stayed there.

"To land on the podium when I was unsure if I was even going to be able to finish was a pretty good result," he said.