Appin MX Nationals 2015 Round Two Image Gallery C – Photos by Jeff Crow
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Appin MX Nationals 2015 Round Two Shake Up with Todd Jarratt
Round two of the 2015 MX Nationals over the weekend was unbelievable to say the very least. The racing took place at Appin NSW, just south of Campbelltown in the western suburbs of Sydney and we saw everything from debut race wins, to injured champions, chaotic first turn pile ups, emotional victories, championship shake ups and action that had the crowd on their feet throughout the entire day. To put it simply, if you are thinking about heading to a round of the MX Nationals this year – I advise you do so.
In the MX1 class, from sight of the first green flag in qualifying to the final drop of the chequers late in the afternoon, we saw a completely different mentality in the field of riders and it was obvious throughout the day’s proceedings.
In the first championship point scoring event, only two of the five riders from the opening round’s GoPro superpole event were able to claw their way back into the feature sprint in the morning, as Kirk Gibbs, Adam Monea, Lawson Bopping, Kale Makeham and Jesse Dobson took to the track for their ‘heater’ laps. The dominant rider from round one at Horsham, Gibbs, continued his role of momentum, posting the fastest lap by a two-second margin over Monea and Bopping. Makeham and Dobson both struggled with small mistakes throughout their respective laps, but this was expected in their debut appearances in the one lap format.
In the first moto of the day Kirk Gibbs finally managed to get across the holeshot line in front, but only metres later lost the front end of his KTM machine and went down, taking defending champion Matt Moss and returning CDR Yamaha rider Daniel Reardon with him. Both Gibbs and Reardon remounted, albeit at the rear of the field. Moss though remained grounded and was attended to by the Suzuki Race Safe Medical Crew and later airlifted to Liverpool hospital to undergo scans for his neck injury.
As the race continued Lawson Bopping took advantage of the leading trio’s incident and inherited the lead early on and maintained it until the 25 minute mark. Kade Mosig, the fastest rider of moto one, started outside of the top five but made many passes throughout the race, with the most important move being made at the 25 minute mark where he got by Bopping to grab the lead and remain in that spot through to the finish.
Luke Styke, a hard charging Kirk Gibbs and Jesse Dobson followed Mosig’s suit in the late stages of the moto and moved by Bopping to finish in that particular order.
Rounding out the top ten were Daniel Reardon, who had fought back from dead last on the opening lap to finish sixth, Dylan Long, Adam Monea, Cody Cooper and Kale Makeham. Notably, Makeham ran in third comfortably until the half way mark before he went down and had trouble starting his Suzuki. Whilst Ford Dale who was running at the pointy end of the field early on had issues over the finish line jump and came into contact with the Appin circuit in a big way, falling to 18th by the end of the moto.
In moto two, Cody Cooper grabbed the holeshot but was quickly passed by Daniel Reardon and Kirk Gibbs in the opening lap as they moved out front and never faulted. Luke Styke followed through to move into third, ahead of race one winner Kade Mosig and young gun Jesse Dobson.
Lawson Bopping also ran inside of the top four for the majority of the moto, but again fell back in the later stages of the race to finish sixth, just edging out Kale Makeham. A
dam Monea came home in a distant eight, six seconds ahead of privateer Dylan Long and early leader Cody Cooper who rounded out the top ten.
Unfortunately the GoPro Superpole winner from round one, Ford Dale was involved in a first turn incident and was unable to finish the race – though is expected to be back on the line at Broadford in two weeks time.
On the overall podium, our round winner Kade Mosig had this to say, “I’ve got a great crew behind me in the CDR Yamaha team and they all put in 100 per cent effort and it’s showing. They give me everything I need to come out and get these great results so I can’t thank them enough”.
Kirk Gibbs salvaged second overall on the day after his first turn crash in moto one and a failed rear brake in moto two. “That first race was disappointing, I had a holeshot and threw it away and then had to just manage the damage control for the rest of the race. Hats off to all the boys though, they rode great”.
Luke Styke made it onto the overall podium for the second time in as many rounds, as he solidifies his name as a championship contender for 2015. “The whole KTM race team are doing a great job this year and they’re providing me with the opportunity to ride to the best of my ability. I did struggle a little today with line selection today and small mistakes, but we are going to regroup on that and come out firing at Broadford”.
In the MX2 class, two riders distanced themselves from the rest of the field in both motos and spent almost all of their day’s racing banging bars for the round win, leaving the remaining competitors to fight it out for the final spot on the podium.
Moto one saw a sharp eyed and focused Jay Wilson grab the holeshot and early lead from Dylan Wills, Dylan Gosling, Luke Clout and Rhys Carter. The defending champion Clout made short work of Wills and Gosling to jump up into second position and set his sights on race leader Jay Wilson. The Yamaha mounted duo edged away from the rest of the field in an unbelievable 30 minute display of racing 101. Mid-moto Clout managed to take the lead for a short time but then stalled his bike while under pressure from Wilson and dropped back into the runner up spot. The pair, Wilson and Clout would finish out the race in first and second respectively, ahead of Nathan Crawford and Jed Beaton who both suffered from issues early on in the moto and had to fight their way through the pack in order to return to the front.
Rhys Carter finished in a very strong fourth, ahead of Hamish Harwood, Dylan Wills, Wade Hunter, Dylan Gosling and Takeshi Katsuya.
Upon completion of moto one, we all thought the battle of the day had been and gone, but we were happily mistaken. In moto two Wilson again got out front early on and managed to build a small lead over Clout in the beginning stages. Rhys Carter and the three Dylan’s – Dylan Wills, Dylan Leary and Dylan Gosling all started up front as well, ahead of Katsuya, Crawford and Wade Hunter.
As moto one seemed to be repeating itself Clout chased down Wilson and the pair rode wheel to wheel faultless laps wile increasing their gap over the rest of the field. On the second last lap of the race we saw Clout finally force a move and take the lead, holding his own under the pressure of Wilson in the last two laps to take the win, the overall and the red plate back.
Finishing off the final moto strong was Takeshi Katsuya, who charged all the way to the chequers ahead of Crawford who was followed by the pack of Hunter, Beaton, Carter, Wills, Leary and Hamish Harwood.
“That was the most fun day of racing I’ve had in ten years or so. To leave the field like we did was awesome, and going back and forth the whole time was really cool. I for sure think the crowd got their money’s worth today!” stated Clout.
With the count back situation, second place overall went to Jay Wilson – “I wasn’t even sure if I was going to come up and race this weekend. It’s been a tough two weeks since Horsham sitting by Dee’s side in hospital but I wasn’t here for any other reason than him. He would’ve kicked my ass if I wasn’t here, and this is a round that we could’ve easily lost the championship at so the team proved today how good they are and that we are in it for the long run”.
Finishing the round off in third overall, with solid, but distant 3 – 4 moto results was Husqvarna mounted rider Nathan Crawford. “Those two guys up front were riding really well today. At the moment it’s my starts letting me down so hopefully I can improve on them and try to run up there with those two next round at Broadford”.
In the MXD class, it was like the two separate moto results were thrown into a blender and slapped together afterwards to form an overall round score. I say this because of the entire field, only two riders managed to finish within the top five in both moto’s and the championship points chase at only round two has already been turned on its head. Heading into Appin, with the class only completing one full moto at round one two weeks ago, Jordan Hill held the series points lead from Dee Wilson, Jayden Rykers and Wilson Todd in fourth.
In moto one Jesse Madden scored his first MXD holeshot of the year, followed closely by Connor Tierney, Wilson Todd and Blake Parker. Entering turn two Todd had a rider go down beside him and get caught up in the rear wheel of his GYTR Yamaha, immediately dropping him to the rear of the field. Madden maintained his position out front until the midway point in the race, where fellow Queenslander Kaleb Barham, who had to fight through the pack early on, made the pass for the lead and went on to collect his first ever MX Nationals race win. Madden was able to hold on to a comfortable second place for his career best finish, ahead of Wilson Todd who managed to make his way past 37 riders in the 20 minute plus one lap moto. Fourth place went to Bailey Coxon, followed by Toby Stevens, Connor Tierney, Zak Small, Jordan Hill, Blake Parker and Lachlan Davis.
Moto two saw a more expected race win from Wilson Todd with Toby Stevens in second and Connor Tierney in third. Ryan Shadbolt charged forward throughout the moto to finish fourth ahead of Jonte Reynders, Jayden Rykers, Bailey Coxon, Joel Meikle, Jesse Madden and Zak Small. Our series points leader heading into the round, Jordan Hill suffered from poor starts and crashes throughout the day and has now fallen all the way back to 11th in series points standings, which shows just how unpredictable this MXD class can be!
Thanks to his 3 – 1 moto scores Wilson Todd took home the round win and became the new MXD series points leader ahead of Toby Stevens and Connor Tierney, who also finished second and third respectively on the day.
“Obviously the first race wasn’t what I was looking for, but in the second moto I was able to get out in front and ride my own race so that was a step in the right direction for the championship,” Wilson stated.
When speaking to second place overall Toby Stevens, he had the following to say about his day’s racing “It’s great being on the overall podium! I honestly didn’t expect to get up here today after the poor start in the first moto but standing up here now and knowing where I stand in the series is points is a huge booster for the confidence and will keep motivated leading into Broadford in two weeks time”.
Connor Tierney, who now sits third in the series points was reflective on his progress two rounds into the season, “All of the travel between Western Australia and these eastern state rounds makes it hard to train during the week, but I’m stoked to be up on the podium this early in the season already. I think over the course of the year I will be able to adapt to the schedule and with that hopefully spend a lot more time up here”.
In the Yamaha Rising Star Rookies class, it was the Queensland based phenomenon Hunter Lawrence who qualified fastest, over nine and a half seconds ahead of any of his competitors. He then went on to win both races by a comfortable margin from Wade Kirkland and Cody Dyce. These results highlighted Lawrence’s ability but they weren’t what impressed me most about his performance…
Post racing, I compared the lap times of our MX1, MX2, MXD and RSR classes and found that Lawrence’s best times were faster than the entire MXD field’s and nearly topped both the MX1 and MX2 times as well – remember this kid is still only 15 years of age…
Well that’s it for my MX Nationals Round 2 Results Wrap Up, remember to keep up to date with all things moto related follow myself and @mcnewscomau on Instagram, or @mcnewscomau on Twitter and Facebook MCNews.com.au
Until next time,
Stay safe and do skids!
