Recapping the SX1/2/3/85 races from Wollongong AUSX

2024 Fox Australian Supercross Championship
Round Three – Wollongong

The third instalment of the 2024 Fox Australian Supercross Championship was run at Wollongong on the first Saturday in November.

American Joey Savatgy arrived at The Gong’s WIN Stadium with the SX1 championship lead ahead of Brit Dean Wilson and top local Luke Clout. It was a case of Déjà vu in Wollongong with that trio finishing in the same order once again.

It was a tight affair though with both Savatgy and Wilson tallying the same points from the three contests in Wollongong, with Savatgy getting the round victory thanks to his race wins.  The championship chase though is still very close with Savatgy on 72 points, Wilson 67 and Luke Clout on a tally of 62.

Matt Moss had a tumble in his heat race and looked to be unhurt as he remounted and finished that race but Mossy did not take to the gates for the Main races.  A tough blow in front of his home crowd, especially as he had been fifth fastest in qualifying.

Shane McElrath was on top once again in SX2 but this time around Brodie Connolly got the better of Cole Thompson for second place with both leaving Wollongong equal second in the championship on 56 points, seven points behind the American.

Ky Woods was on top in SX3 to narrow Seth Burchell’s championship lead to five-points. Jake Cannon equidistant in third on the championship tally after taking fourth in Wollongong.

Seth Thomas extended his championship lead in the CR22 85 cc competition to seven-points over Jack Nunn.  Ritchie Lawler climbed to third on the points tally after finishing second to Thomas in Wollongong.

AUSX reconvenes for the penultimate round in Adelaide for the Supercross X Sprint on the weekend of November 17 before the Melbourne ASUX Open finale on November 30.

SX1 Final One

Luke Clout led Aaron Tanti and Joey Savatgy out of the opening turn. Dean Wilson then moved up to third, pushing Savatgy further back to fourth.

Tanti chased Clout hard over the opening laps as Dean Wilson tried to join their party. Joey Savatgy was not far behind but a mistake on lap three demoted him back to seventh and left the championship leader with plenty of work to do.

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Dean Wilson sneaked past Tanti for second place with five laps remaining. At this juncture Clout led by two-seconds. Jed Beaton was up to fourth and Dylan Wills fifth.

Wilson closed on the exhaust pipe of Clout’s Kawasaki with two laps to run as the leaders scythed their way through lapped traffic.

Wilson put a move on Clout on the final lap but couldn’t make it stick. The American then buttoned off to secure a safe second place while Clout took the win.

Aaron Tanti was almost ten-seconds further back in third place with a small buffer over fourth placed Beaton.

Savatgy had recovered to fifth place by the flag.

SX1 Final One Results

SX1 Final Two

SX1 competitors were back on the gates only minutes after taking the chequered flag in the opening bout. Joey Savatgy was straight into the lead ahead of Dean Wilson. Luke Clout was fifth early on but made short work of Nathan Crawford and Jed Beaton to move up to third by lap two.

Savatgy was never headed en route to a clear victory over Wilson.  Clout rounding out the podium.

It was not all plain sailing for Savatgy though as he actually went down with three laps remaining! His lead was such that he managed to get back on the bike and rejoin the race without losing the lead.

Jet Beaton fourth while Dylan Wills made up plenty of places in the final laps to move up to fifth place by the flag ahead of Nathan Crawford.

SX1 Final Two Results

SX1 Final Three

Luke Clout and Aaron Tanti were side by side thorugh the opening turn but Tanti went high into the next berm as he tried to avoid Tanti but the Empire Kawasaki man came off very much second best, running over the crest of the berm and lost almost ten positions in the process.

Joey Savatgy was quickly up to second and locked onto the back wheel of Tanti, waiting for the Australian to make a mistake. Savatgy was through to the lead before the end of the second lap and immediatey started to pull away from Tanti.

Tanti then fell into the clutches of Dean Wilson, the Briton taking that second place with four laps to run. Wilson didn’t have enough speed to run down Savatgy though, settling for second place with a comfortable buffer over Tanti.

Jed Beaton fourth while early race leader Luke Clout recovered to fifth by the flag.

Savatgy and Wilson finished on equal points for the round but Savatgy the victor due to his race wins while Luke Clout rounded out the podium and is also third in the championship with two rounds still to run.

SX1 Final Three Results

SX1 Round Points

SX1 Championship Points

SX2 Final One

Shane McElrath scored the holeshot in the opening eight-lap SX2 contest of the night ahead of Reid Taylor and Canadian Cole Thompson.

Thompson took second place Taylor on lap two but could not make any real inroads towards the American, the gap staying around three-seconds, give or take a second or so, over the last half a dozen laps.

Brodie Connolly took third place from Empire Kawasaki’s Reid Taylor on the final lap to make it a Honda 1-2-3.

SX2 Final One Results

SX2 Final Two

SX2 competitors had a short five-minutes to catch their breath before lining up on the gates once again for the second SX2 bout of the night.

Shane McElrath emerged from turn one in front of Reid Taylor.  Brodie Connolly took that second place from Taylor on the opening lap and set about trying to get on terms with McElrath as Cole Thompson moved up to third.

With five laps to run the race was temporarily halted so medical assistance could be rendered to Bailey Malkiewicz.  The stoppage benefitted Connolly as the Honda man had a decent tumble just before the race was halted. The break allowed his Polyflor Honda mechanics to make some running repairs to his CRF250R on the gates before the action recommenced.

Cole Thompson got the jump at the restart ahead of Connolly and Jayce Cosford. McElrath made short work of Cosford to make it a Honda 1-2-3 up front once again.

It took three laps for McElrath to sneak past Thompson for the lead and once up front the American pulled away with ease.

Just when it looked like the Honda triumvirate would run away with it Jayce Cosford came back into the contest, getting the better of Connolly with three laps to run to move up to third.

Cole Thompson then went down while running in second place with two laps to go. The Canadian was shuffled down to sixth place before he was back up to speed and that put him out of podium contention. His mistake promoted Cosford up to second place and Brodie Connolly on to the podium.

McElrath taking the victory over Cosford by 8.54 seconds. The American’s fastest lap almost two-seconds quicker than anyone else could manage and clearly a class above.

SX2 Final Two Results

SX2 Final Three

Shane McElrath again got the jump on the field as Brodie Connolly and Reid Taylor gave chase. A small bobble by Taylor early on allowed Cole Thompson to sneak by him for third place. The quartet remained in that order right up until the final lap, when Thompson got the better of Connolly for second place.

McElrath completed the clean sweep for the night and looked to do it pretty easy.

Cole Thompson and Brodie Connolly rounded out the race three podium but Connolly pipped Thompson by a point for the round podium.

Reid Taylor fourth for the round by a point over Kaleb Barham.

SX2 Final Three Results

SX2 Round Points

SX2 Championship Points

SX3 Final

Cooper Rowe got away to an early lead before being overhauled by Kye Woods. Jake Cannon then pushed Rowe further back as he moved up to second place.

Kayd Kingsford was running strong in fourth before going down heavily in the whoops.

After moving through to the lead early Woods was never headed, pulling away from the field to a clear victory.

Jake Cannon had been in second place for much of the contest but went down just before the final turn on the final lap while trying to catch Woods. That mistake allowed Koby Hantis and Jack Byrne through to push him off the podium.

SX3 Final Results

SX3 Championship Points

CR85 cc Final

Seth Thomas was quickly through to the lead and was never headed in the 85 cc ranks to extend his championship lead over Jack Nunn to seven-points.

Jack Nunn had finished second, five-seconds behind Thomas, but was demoted to fourth place for a start gate infringement. That promoted Ritchie Lawler and Nixon Darragh on to the podium.

CR85 cc Final Results

CR85 cc Championship Points

65 cc Cup Race

Maxi Harris won the four-lap 65 cc Cup contest by a nose ahead of Caiden Riley.  Ryder Burchell rounded out the podium places after crossing the line five-seconds after the leading duo.

65 cc Cup Race Results