GNCCRacing.com: Tell us a little about yourself.

Rachael Archer: I’ve been riding dirt bikes since I was three, I have three older brothers and grew up on a 2000-acre cattle farm in New Zealand. As I was growing up, I spent most of my time after school riding.

Congrats on your first-ever WXC win! How does it feel?

Ah, it feels so good! I actually started crying a little when I got to mile marker on the last lap… (laughs) I had to tell myself to pull it together so I didn’t crash!

So, did you go into this race expecting to win? Did you feel it was a course that suited you well?

I did feel like it was a course that suited me well, and I knew that if I got out in the front and just made no mistakes and rode smooth I could win. I had one little mishap with a lapped rider just after the four, going up a hill. It was a powdery hill and he cut over across on me and I stalled it. I didn’t end up falling over but it slowed me down a little. That was pretty much the only thing that happened.

I’ve never been to New Zealand, so I don’t really know what the riding is like there. You said this was a course that suited you, does it resemble the riding back home?

Yeah, like in the summer we have this cross-country series called Bel Ray and it’s normally super dusty like High Voltage was. There’s nowhere near as many people, but … yeah, the track was very similar to what we used to ride in that series, a lot of farmland and fast open stuff.

So, let’s back up a little bit. Growing up on the farm, I’m guessing it was your parents that got you into riding?

Yes! So, my dad has raced all over the world – he took a silver medal at Romaniacs in 2015, he’s raced Baja a few times, done the 4-day Enduro in Australia. He was actually supposed to go to the ISDE in 2000 but broke his leg beforehand. He got multiple titles back home and is kind of a legend there!

Tell us about your amateur career in New Zealand.

From the time I was eleven until about fourteen, I went through about five 85s, I rode a lot (laughs). I did a lot of enduro and hard enduro racing. After that Husky came to the party and gave me a 125, and I started racing a little bit of motocross to work on my speed. From there I moved to 250s and went over to Australia for the Hattah desert race and got second in women’s class. From there I started riding four-strokes, and not long after got the opportunity to come here and race in the States.

What made you want to come over here and start racing the GNCCs?

Watching all the WXC girls while I was growing up, it was always a big dream of mine. Back when I was in high school and stuff I used to imagine what it would be like to come over here and win (laughs). So, that was always something I was really focused on.

Last year might have been your first full season, but you came over a couple times prior to that, right?

Yeah, in 2015 when I was about fourteen or fifteen, I came over for the first time. I rode one of KR4’s 125s and did a Sprint Enduro and round one and two, so Big Buck and Wild Boar. I got like 7th at Big Buck and 4th at Wild Boar. From there I was hooked. I came back next year. Randy [Hawkins] gave me a 250 to use and I didn’t really do that well… The following year Paul Whibley helped me get a deal put together to race for them like as an amateur, then this year I finally signed my first pro contract.

It has to be tough living thousands of miles from home like this. But overall, are you glad you came?

Ah yeah, like I said, this is a dream I’ve had since I was little. So, it’s amazing to actually be over here living that dream. And then it’s good now with facetime and messenger and stuff, because you can ring your loved ones and it feels like there right there with you. That makes it easier being away from home.