Moto News Wrap for January 12 by Darren Smart
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Australasian News
McCoy Injury Report
Daniel McCoy has been seriously injured during round two of the UK Arenacross Series held at Glasgow over the weekend and at the time of writing is hospitalised with lower vertebrae damage that is applying pressure to his spinal cord – surgery is scheduled for Wednesday.
“Thank you everyone for the messages,” McCoy wrote on his personal social media. “For those who don’t know, I had a crash last night, at this stage I have no feeling from the waist down, still waiting on surgeons to confirm what operations will be needed. Will keep everyone updated as news comes.”
McCoy’s long term girlfriend, Amy Pinfold, recently lost here speedway legend father Paul, thus the start of 2016 has been apocalyptic for their tight knit bunch.
Amy Pinfold – “This amazing boy has been so strong for me over the last 10 days and now it’s my turn. I can’t wait to get out of this place and start working hard on getting you back up. I love you every step of the way and we will do it together. My best friend forever”
There is a GoFundMe page set up to aid Daniel’s recovery go throw a few bucks his way using this GoFundMe link.
Bopping and Hunter Staying with DPH Motorsport
DPH Motorsport recently announced that both Lawson Bopping and Wade Hunter have been signed for the upcoming Australian motocross and supercross season.
Petonga Valley Champs
Scott Columb has defeated Daryl King and Campbell Bailey in the MX1 class at the Petonga Valley Champs held in New Zealand last weekend while Ethan Martens dominated the MX2 class ahead of Ben Broad and Jayden Turnwald. You won’t be surprised to find out that King also won the Over 45 Vets class by a country mile.
Graham and Keegan Yamaha Mounted for 2016
Yamaha Motor Australia will enter the 2016 Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) with South Australia’s Riley Graham and 2014 E1 championship runner-up Scott Keegan at the helm of their fire-breathing WR250F.
“It’s an exciting time to be joining Yamaha with the extensive range of off-road bikes they have with the introduction of the new WR and YZ’s on both two stroke and four stroke models,” said Graham. “I like to race as much as I can to keep my fitness and skills up as I work during the week so to be on a brand that has such a versatile range of bikes is awesome.”
“Yamaha have also stepped up to offer me a great package and the increase in support means that I can prepare myself better for the racing season and give it my best shot in 2016,” he added. “It will be a busy season for me as I will compete in as many events as I can including Hattah and even more motocross events to go along with the AORC and A4DE.”
“Yamaha has been extremely successful in the E1 class over the past few years winning several championships in the hands of Tom McCormack and Josh Green, so I’m confident I’m on the right bike,” Keegan said. “I have been on the WR250F for a few weeks now and I’m impressed with its performance straight out of the crate,” he added. “It will only take a few personal tweaks to the bike and I will be ready to go.”
The opening round of the Australian Off Road Championship kicks off on 19 March in Queensland.
Tungate Robbed
As of 6.30am on Tuesday morning I can’t find the official results from the final round of the Australian Speedway Championship held at Mildura on Sunday night but I managed to whittle my way through Facebook posts to find out that Brady Kurtz narrowly defeated Sam Masters for the title but from what Rohan Tungate has posted on his web site it looks like there was some controversy.
“The referee definitely got the call wrong when he threw me out that one race for touching the tapes. I think everyone in the place could see it was the guy next to me who touched them first,” said Tungate. “The ref wouldn’t even talk me and after watching a reply of the incident afterwards I didn’t move first and I was literally playing catch up all night with the other guys scoring points around me. I had a decent start in the ‘B’ final but just rode too hard going in to turn three on lap one and it spat me off into the fence. I feel pretty gutted about the whole thing to be honest and the Grand Prix spot is small consolation for me right now.”
FMX Icon Lance Russell On-board Kawasaki KX450F in 2016
Lance Russell will continue to defy gravity and perform hair-raising FMX tricks aboard his KX450F, for the third year in a row. “Being supported by the best manufacturer out there is a dream come true and it helps that the KX450F is my favourite bike!” said the 26 year old from Kurrajong, NSW.
Lance’s interest in FMX began before he was old enough to ride a motorcycle. “Anything from video games to watching FMX events inspired me as a kid. I knew it was what I wanted to do and when I did start riding, my passion just grew from there. I began motocross racing at club level and I was always jumping the highest. I used to jump and take my hands of the bar and I was told I was going to get into trouble so I took it to the ramp where there was more freedom and the rest is history,” Lance said.
Within a year of launching himself from ramps, Lance was already successfully landing backflips, albeit with a few injuries on the way. Becoming the first person in Australia to perform a rodova is one of the plethora of achievements under Lance’s belt. In an effort to prove that the sky is the limit, Lance was the first person in the world to perform a rodova-stripper, sideways. In another feat of success, Lance is the only Australian featuring as a playable character on the MX vs ATV Supercross, video game.
“Becoming a character on a video game was a childhood dream come true, but I haven’t reached my potential yet and I want to build my skills again after focusing a lot of effort into my Social Media and film production efforts recently. So it’s time again to start focusing on riding progression and taking things to the next level with FMX competition.”
Like Father Like Son
Last Saturday night I was invited by Thorough Clean Pressure Cleaning Performance Centres to the Archerfield round of the World Series Spring Cars and it was a sensational nights racing but there was one driver who really impressed me and that was Kevin Titman, the son of Speedway legend John.
Titman blitzed the opening heat and backed that up with a 2nd in the next race but a mechanical failure put pay to a solid overall finish. I went down to say hello and Kevin told me that they were up until the wee hours fettling the car after writing off the ‘good chassis and engine’ less than a week before when the throttle stuck coming onto the back straight causing a huge crash into the fence on the inside and outside of the track. As far as the way Kevin drives a spring car he is definitely a chip off the ol’ block….
American News
Peick Peaks!
JGR Yamaha rider Weston Peick has been fined and will miss this weekend’s second round of the AMA Supercross Championships after losing the plot and bashing the crap out of serial pest Vince Freise during the opening round of the AMA Supercross Championship held at Anaheim last weekend – find out about that punch up, Stewart laying on the track and my take on what went down last Saturday further down the page.
Euro News
Raga Wins Opening X-Trial World Championship Round
FIM X-Trial World Championship kicked off in Sheffield last weekend and Adam Raga came away with a rare win ahead of defending champion Toni Bou and fellow Spaniard Albert Cabestany.
Last Weekend’s Racing
2016 Dakar
Wrapping up his fourth stage win so far, Toby Price has won the 8th stage of the 2016 Dakar between Salta and Belen by over five minutes handing the Aussie the overall lead ahead of Honda’s Paulo Gonçalves. Price started the day three minutes behind Goncalves but he stormed his way through the stage flawlessly and now has a 2’05’’ lead over the Portuguese rider Honda rider as they head into the final five stages.
Dakar 2016 – Stage 8 – Salta to Belen – Results
Dakar 2016 – Overall Placings after 8 of 13 Stages
2016 UK Arenacross Tour – Rounds 2/3 – Glasgow
Rounds two and three of the UK Arenacross Tour was held in Glasgow last weekend and despite not winning either of the two nights main events Cedric Soubeyras still leads the championship if only by one point from round two winner Fabien Izoird while round three winner Josh Hansen finds himself fifth in the points just 12 points off the lead – this championship is far from over.
Pro Class Final (Round 2)
- Fabien Izoird
- Cedric Soubeyras
- Florent Richier
- Cyrille Coulon
- Adam Chatfield
- Jack Brunell
- Collin Jurin
- Angelo Pellegrini
- Thomas Ramette
- Josh Hansen
Pro Class Final (Round 3)
- Josh Hansen
- Cyrille Coulon
- Fabien Izoird
- Thomas Ramette
- Cedric Soubeyras
- Jack Brunell
- Matt Bayliss
- James Dunn
- Adam Chatfield
- Angelo Pellegrini
Pro Class Points Standings after Round 3:
- Cedric Soubeyras – 58pts
- Fabien Izoird – 57pts
- Cyrille Coulon – 50pts
- Thomas Ramette – 47pts
- Josh Hansen – 46pts
- Jack Brunell – 42pts
- Adam Chatfield – 37pts
- Florent Richier – 32pts
- Matt Bayliss – 32pts
- Angelo Pellegrini – 29pts
2016 AMA Supercross – Round 1 – Anaheim
The opening round of the 2016 AMA Supercross Championships was nothing short of sensational and instead of reproducing the official racer report here is how I saw the racing:
– Jason Anderson was going to win this event one way or another – the Husqvarna pilot has been training his arse off under the guidance of Aldon Baker right beside Ryan Dungey throughout the off-season and he was on fire all day – Anderson does some kooky things around the track but he is strong, fit and fearless – he is a contender!
Anderson had this to say to RacerX: “Yeah, I was like 7th. The first start I was ready. I was on it. The first one I had an inside gate, second I had the same gate, but it worked out perfect and then the second one I kind of got pinched a little bit in the chaos, but came out top 8. Had to make a pass on Brayton. What was cool was that group of guys up front were all good. So it wasn’t like you were going to get stuck behind someone that would let the front break away, so that helped me – I had to pass six guys that were waxing me last year (to take the win).”
“It hasn’t hit me yet. It’s kind of crazy. I mean, especially because I didn’t come up like a lot of these guys. I mean, my rookie pro season I raced east coast and finished sixteenth in points! I was just hoping to maybe become a top-five Lites guy and now I’ve won a 450 supercross? I’m so pumped.”
– Ryan Dungey has had better nights but as we all know he doesn’t have to be 100% on his game to still garner a result – 2nd after being taken out by Trey Canard mid race put the defending champ in good stead for the next 16 rounds.
“Got off to a good start,” Dungey told RacerX. “Was settling in and got together with another rider (Trey Canard) and fell down. From there I just tried to really make the most of it and get back up to the front. I knew I was going to have to make passes happen because I was going to run out of laps if not. So I was glad we were able to do that. The last lap pass for second, I thought I was in third the whole time. I didn’t even know Trey went off the track. Not too bad of a night. Good start to a season. Kind of made it tougher on ourselves tonight but a little bit of adversity, I feel like we handled it pretty good.”
– If Cole Seely was being trained by Aldon Baker he would have won A1 – he has the talent, he has the speed, but he is young and just couldn’t keep it together for the whole 20 laps.
“To go out there and get a holeshot after the restart and be able to run some laps in the lead, it felt like a West Coast round [250s in 2014], me and Jason [Anderson] leading it,” Seely told RacerX. “But he rode a really good race. I’ve got to give it up to him. He just straight up out-rode me. I had the worst stomach ache of my life, and I’ve said that before but the nerves were just getting to me hardcore. No excuses. It was a good effort by the team. Just stoked to come away from Anaheim 1 third.
– Eli Tomac didn’t look like he had the speed but he is confident that he isn’t far from the front of the pack. “There were certain sections where I was the fastest guy, and other places where I belonged in the C Class,” Tomac said. “Before the finish line, in that section, I was terrible. The tunnel jump, I was by far C Class status there. The good thing is, for how bad I felt, the front of the race wasn’t that far away. With some improvement I think I can be there soon.”
– Ken Roczen crashed hard in his heat race and had to go to the Semi and in the re-start he was dead last after crashing in the second turn yet somehow rallied back to fifth. “My night was pretty rough,” Roczen told RacerX. “I did not have the best heat race start. I got cleaned out by Barcia. I don’t think he really had the jump on me that hard to pull that far to the left. He literally ripped my handlebar out of my hand and then I just went off and whatever. And then I wanted to keep riding but my bike was literally smashed. So I had to go back and semi; it was whatever. I got third. It was fine. I just wanted to actually get some riding time. Went into the main, obviously they red flagged it. I think if they wouldn’t have red flagged it I could have really made some damage and got up on the podium at least. My other start obviously back of the pack.”
– Chad Reed and James Stewart have a ‘love-hate’ relationship and what went down at A1 must frustrate Chad – on Saturday night Reed was looking good in 5th place in the main event behind the leading riders but when Dungey and Stewart came together the AMA decided to red flag the race while Stewart laid on the track long enough to cause the restart – now, history says that it doesn’t take much to see Stewart laying in the middle of the track these days so the customary Yellow flag would have been more than sufficient which would have left Reed behind Barcia, Anderson and Dungey with a very good shot at the podium – instead it was back to the starting line where Reed was left to untangle himself from a poor start and fight back to a more than credible 6th place finish.
Chad is looking fast, smooth and in control and the sooner the fast, loose and out of control Stewart is left on the sidelines the better – it has been reported that Stewart may miss San Diego – one can only hope, the racing will be better with Bubba on the couch!
Point Number 1: When at the front of the pack on the opening lap you don’t square corners as aggressively as Stewart does because there is nothing surer that another rider is diving up the inside (sometimes not by choice) – Bubba has done this repeatedly and caused havoc throughout his career – the guy has the peripheral vision of Stevie Wonder.
Point Number 2: I will say it again – Suzuki sacked Brett Metcalfe after THEIR bike caused him injury and they haven’t looked like winning shit since – Karma!!!!!!!!!
Weston Peick and Vince Friese came together in their heat race and Friese gave Peick an elbow causing the Yamaha pilot to hit a tough block and go down then in their Semi Friese drilled Peick in a right hand bowl turn and took them both down in a blatant takeout.
Peick jumped to his feet and started raining punches down on the back of Friese’s helmet before giving the serial pest a shove over the tuff boxes. The AMA and FIM told Peick he was fined $5000.00, disqualified for the night and next weekend’s race in San Diego. There were no penalties for Friese who is not a popular person among his fellow riders.
– Lawson Bopping made it to the main event via the LCQ after qualifying 21st fastest – here is what Lawson posted on his FB page: ‘USA update: well I got over here 2 weeks ago I brought a yzf 450 from Langston motorsports, brought over suspension and some bolt on parts from my bike back home. Had a couple of rides on it but CA had a lot of rain last week so that made it tricky.. My graphics didn’t show up from Aus so I had to get some made 2 days before the race at Anaheim. Got them 9pm fri night, I was almost about to run duck tape numbers!. Race day: it was hectic I didn’t sit still most of the day. Practice went good I topped the C practice and ended up 21st overall in the 450 class. The track was beat up and it’s way gnarlier then it looks on TV. Heat 1 was tangled up in a first turn crash then had a lil crash by myself think I ended up 11thin it. Semi was a lot of fun I had a better start and ran in 3rd for quite awhile but got passed on the last lap and just! Missed out ended up 6th, then got a decent start in the LCQ and finished 2nd in that behind Will Hahn. And I was so pumped with that my goal for over here was to just make a main event! Went back to the pits and the O ring near my water pump had split so I almost didn’t make it to the line! Thankfully Jerad Wilson worked his ass off and got the bike sorted for the main. By this point I was totally wrecked and only had a couple good laps in me for the final but it was a weekend I won’t forget.’
– When the red flag came out for the prone Stewart on lap two Justin Barcia was in the lead but the Yamaha rider didn’t quite get the best jump when they restarted the race but Barcia made his way into second before arm pump dropped him back to fifteenth.
– Wil Hahn is a factory Kawasaki rider – he is Davi Milsaps team mate – he SHOULD be at the pointy end of the field – at least in the top ten – well Wil Hahn spent the whole main event battling with his brother Tommy for 17th and 18th position cutting laps that were fours second per lap slower than the top five guys – Hahn is over-rated and I have no idea how he gets a factory Kawasaki ride when the like of Josh Grant are left on the side lines….only in America!
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450 SX Points Standings after Round 1 of 17
- Jason Anderson – 25
- Ryan Dungey – 22
- Cole Seely – 20
- Eli Tomac – 18
- Ken Roczen – 16
- Chad Reed – 15
- Trey Canard – 14
- Davi Millsaps – 13
- Dean Wilson – 12
- Justin Brayton – 11
- Broc Tickle – 10
- Jacob Weimer – 9
- Justin Bogle – 8
- Marvin Musquin – 7
- Justin Barcia – 6
- Mike Alessi – 5
- Wil Hahn – 4
- Christophe Pourcel – 3
- Kyle Chisholm – 2
- Tommy Hahn – 1
- Lawson Bopping – 0
- James Stewart – 0
250
– Cooper Webb was expected to win A1 and that is exactly what he did – the defending champion spent the whole off-season racing everything he possibly could on the YZF450 (including the Sydney round of the Australian Supercross Championships) and it showed – Webb was flawless around the technical layout and won the race going away.
– Jessy Nelson and Zach Osbourne earned 2nd and 3rd in the 15 lap main event and both rode exceptionally well but the likes of Joey Savatgy, Mitchell Oldenburg and Michael Craig had nights they would rather forget.
– Hayden Mellross put in a stellar performance at A1 after transferring to the main event directly from his heat race and after getting a so-so start in the 15 lap main event Mellross steadily made his way up to 11th place by race end. “Well last night was a dream come true for me, to race AMA Supercross and to have most of my friends and friends there to watch! I finished 11th overall in the 250SX Main Event for my debut and I couldn’t be happier!! This is an awesome start to the season and I look forward to building off this result! Thank you everybody that makes this possible!”
– Jackson Richardson crashed during qualifying and landed right on top of the bike and by the looks of things the young Queenslander never recovered and failed to make the main event.
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250 Western Regional SX Points Standings after Round 1 of 9:
- Cooper Webb – 25
- Jessy Nelson – 22
- Zach Osborne – 20
- Jimmy Decotis – 18
- Jordon Smith – 16
- Alex Martin – 15
- Colt Nichols – 14
- Joey Savatgy – 13
- Mitchell Oldenburg – 12
- Kyle Peters – 11
- Hayden Mellross – 10
- Cole Martinez – 9
- Mitchell Harrison – 8
- Fredrik Noren – 7
- Zach Bell – 6
- Trevor Reis – 5
- Christian Craig – 4
- Cole Thompson – 3
- Kyle Cunningham – 2
- Maxime Desprey – 1
2016 AMA Supercross Championship Remaining Rounds:
- Rd2: Jan. 16 – San Diego, CA
- Rd3: Jan. 23 – Anaheim, CA
- Rd4: Jan. 30 – Oakland, CA
- Rd5: Feb. 6 – Glendale, AZ
- Rd6: Feb. 13 – San Diego, CA
- Rd7: Feb. 20 – Arlington, TX
- Rd8: Feb. 27 – Atlanta, GA
- Rd9: March 5 – Daytona, FL
- Rd10: March 12 – Toronto, CAN
- Rd11: March 19 – Detroit, MI
- Rd12: April 2 – Santa Clara, CA
- Rd13: April 9 – Indianapolis, IN
- Rd14: April 16 – St. Louis, MO
- Rd15: April 23 – Foxboro, MA
- Rd16: April 30 – East Rutherford, NJ
- Rd17: May 7 – Las Vegas, NV
AMSOIL Arenacross – Round 1 – Cincinnati
Photo: ShiftOne Photography
Former Australian Supercross Champion Gavin Faith is the championship leader after the opening round of the Amsoil renacross Championships was held in Cincinnati last weekend.
Faith kept his Kawasaki up near the front over the two nights of racing to end up with 2-3 finishes and heads to round three with his teammates Jacob Hayes and Travis Sewell right on his tail.
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Arenacross Class Overall Results (Main Event Results)
- Gavin Faith, Duncombe, Iowa, Kawasaki (2-3)
- Jacob Hayes, Liberty, N.C., Kawasaki (5-1)
- Chris Blose, Phoenix, Kawasaki (4-4)
- Gared Steinke, Woodland, Calif., Husqvarna (3-5)
- Travis Sewell, Westville, Ind., KTM (1-7)
- Keith Tucker, Fuquay Varina, N.C., Yamaha (6-2)
- Jacob Williamson, Swartz Creek, Mich., Kawasaki (7-6)
- Kyle Regal, Lake Elsinore, Calif., Husqvarna (10-9)
- Justin Cooper, Cold Springs Harbor, N.Y., Yamaha (8-11)
- Daniel Herrlein, Bethesda, Ohio, Honda (11-10)
Photo: ShiftOne Photography
Arenacross Class Championship Standings
- Gavin Faith, Duncombe, Iowa, Kawasaki – 30
- Jacob Hayes, Liberty, N.C., Kawasaki – 29 (1 Main Event Win)
- Travis Sewell, Westville, Ind., KTM – 27 (1 Main Event Win)
- Gared Steinke, Woodland, Calif., Husqvarna – 27
- Chris Blose, Phoenix, Kawasaki – 27
- Keith Tucker, Fuquay Varina, N.C., Yamaha – 26
- Jacob Williamson, Swartz Creek, Mich., Kawasaki – 22
- Kyle Regal, Lake Elsinore, Calif., Husqvarna – 17
- Justin Cooper, Cold Springs Harbor, N.Y., Yamaha – 15
- Daniel Herrlein, Bethesda, Ohio, Honda – 13
Eastern Regional Arenacross Lites Class Results:
- Keith Tucker, Fuquay Varina, N.C., Yamaha
- Lane Staley, Chillicothe, Ohio, KTM
- Henry Miller, Rochester, Minn., Honda
- Daniel Herrlein, Bethesda, Ohio, Honda
- Dylan Walker, Lancaster, Ohio, Honda
- Ben Nelko, Aliquippa, Pa., KTM
- Steve Roman, Apollo, Pa., Suzuki
- Brandon Hartranft, Brick, N.J., Yamaha
- Tyler McSwain, Shelby, N.C., Yamaha
- Scott Zont, Algonquin, Ill., KTM
Eastern Regional Arenacross Lites Class Standings:
- Lane Staley, Chillicothe, Ohio, KTM – 15
- Henry Miller, Rochester, Minn., Honda – 14
- Dylan Walker, Lancaster, Ohio, Honda – 12
- Steve Roman, Apollo, Pa., Suzuki – 10
- Brandon Hartranft, Brick, N.J., Yamaha – 9
- Tyler McSwain, Shelby, N.C., Yamaha – 8
- Scott Zont, Algonquin, Ill., KTM – 6
- Drayke Sizemore, Tamaroa, Ill., Yamaha – 5
- Isaac Teasdale, Robbinsville, N.C., KTM – 4
- Benny Bloss, Oak Grove, Mo., Yamaha – 2
