Sam Greenslade
A
ucklander Tom Buxton is going places,
fast. In just his fourth season in the
premier grade, the 20-year-old from
Helensville is now the man to beat on
the national enduro scene, although
the writing had probably been on
the wall for quite some time before that.
In 2014, Glen Eden’s Chris Birch (KTM) was
dominating the sport at the top level here and
the then 16-year-old Buxton was heralding his
“arrival” in the sport by winning five out of six
rounds to claim the intermediate grade trophy.
Buxton finished 10th overall on debut in the
top grade the following season, in 2015.
A year later and Buxton was regularly finishing
among the top 10. At the end of that 2016 season
he finished with a ranking of eighth overall and
actually took his KTM 200XC to win the expert
under-200cc two-stroke crown. Last year he rode a
KTM 350 EXC-F and finished the season fifth overall.
Fast forward to 2018 and he’s now the top dog
after the first two rounds of this year’s five-round
New Zealand Enduro Championships series – round
Tom Buxton
HE PACE
NATIONALS
KIWI RIDER 81