It wasn’t the best of weekends for Kiwi heroes Cody Cooper and Hamish Harwood at Raymond Terrace, in New South Wales, at the weekend, the two New Zealanders racing at the sixth round of 10 in the Australian Motocross Championships.

Mount Maunganui’s Cooper (Honda) finished 8-6 in his two MX1 class outings and, although he remains ninth in the championship standings, he is now 16 points behind the man in eighth position, CDR Yamaha’s Dan Reardon.

Competing in the MX2 class, Takaka’s Harwood (KTM) finished 13-10 in his two races and has slipped from ninth to 10th in the championship standings, now nine points behind the new man in ninth, Nathan Crawford.

KTM Motocross Racing’s Kirk Gibbs dominated the MX1 class on Sunday with 2-1 results.

Team Motul Suzuki’s Matt Moss won the first of two MX1 races on the day, with Gibbs claiming second spot and Gibbs backed that up by winning moto two, with a back-from-injury defending champion Moss forced to settle for fourth position at the flag.

“Today was a good day,” said Gibbs afterwards. “It was actually awesome to have Matt back, and have that battle in the first race,” he said.

“I had a fair bit of bad luck here last year, so it’s good to now put that all behind me and take a second and a race win to get the overall.”

“I really have to give it up to my team and the people around me – I feel very blessed to be in the position I’m in, and a lot of that is because of them.”

“The plan is just to keep plugging away every week, keep making progress and fingers crossed I might even be able to wrap the championship up early.”

MX2 CLASS

KTM Australia’s Caleb Ward claimed his third consecutive overall win in the MX2 class, while Altherm JCR Yamaha’s Jay Wilson, the New Zealand MX2 champion, secured the red plate for the first time this season.

With the round marking the return to the MX Nationals from the mid-season break, the MX2 class basically started fresh, with only five points separating series leader Luke Clout (Serco Yamaha) from his nearest competitors.

Before moto one had even started, Clout was forced in to panic mode, suffering a rear break issue on the start line and unable to switch bikes. With the red plate holder in trouble, the door was left wide open for Wilson to seize the opportunity and take control of the championship.

Despite Geran Stapleton claiming the hole shot in moto one, it was local Newcastle KTM rider Dylan Wills who proved to be the star of the show. After taking the early lead, Wills fought off fellow KTM mounted Ward and Wilson, to eventually claim a career first race win on home turf, ahead of the pair respectively.

With Clout crossing the line in seventh position, Wilson became the new Motul MX2 Championship leader by a single point, and with another race for the day still remaining.

In moto two, it was all about Ward. After narrowly missing the hole shot, Ward went on to launch himself into the race lead, managing to hold the number one position for the entire race.

With Ward checked out, the focus was on the battle behind him. Wilson managing to execute passes on Nick Sutherland, and Luke Arbon to eventually settle in to second position for the remainder of the moto.

When race two concluded, it was Ward who claimed a commanding race win, with Wilson crossing the line in second and Serco Yamaha’s Jed Beaton finishing in third.

With results across the board thrown in to disarray, the round six Motul MX2 podium saw Ward on top, followed by new series leader Wilson in second, while third place was awarded to local rider Wills, who finished moto two in 13th.

 

RESULTS AND STANDINGS:

 

GoPro Super Pole Results:

1) Matt Moss – 1:58.548

2) Daniel Reardon – 1:59.234

3) Kirk Gibbs – 1:59.433

4) Lawson Bopping – 2:01.231

5) Kade Mosig – 2:01.266

 

MX1 round six overall points:

1) Kirk Gibbs 67

2) Matt Moss 63

3) Luke Styke 62

4) Daniel Reardon 52

5) Adam Monea 51

6) Dylan Long 50

7) Kade Mosig 49

8) Cody Cooper (New Zealand) 48

9) Jesse Dobson 43

10) Ford Dale 43

 

MX1 championship points:

1) Kirk Gibbs 411

2) Luke Styke 351

3) Adam Monea 334

4) Kade Mosig 331

5) Lawson Bopping 320

6) Daniel Reardon 286

7) Dylan Long 284

8) Jesse Dobson 283

9) Cody Cooper (New Zealand) 267

10) Kale Makeham 221

 

MX2 round six overall points:

1) Caleb Ward 67

2) Jay Wilson 62

3) Dylan Wills 53

4) Luke Clout 52

5) Luke Arbon 51

6) Jed Beaton 50

7) Joel Wightman 47

8) Wade Hunter 42

9) Takeshi Katsuya 42

10) Matt Ryan 41

 

MX2 championship standings:

1) Jay Wilson 343

2) Luke Clout 338

3) Takeshi Katsuya 323

4) Jed Beaton 300

5) Wade Hunter 288

6) Luke Arbon 279

7) Caleb Ward 249

8) Geran Stapleton 243

9) Nathan Crawford 234

10) Hamish Harwood (New Zealand) 225

 

© Photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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