Smarty’s Race Reports
2018 A4DE – Cessnock
Despite the 2018 Yamaha Australian Four Day Enduro in Cessnock featuring some of the toughest terrain in the events history, Daniel Milner completely dominated all four days of competition including the final motocross race to win the Overall and the E3 class.
Milner was the fastest man over the first three days and day four was no different, clinching his first final moto win and his first E3 Australian Title while Daniel Sanders’ return to Australia has been instantly justified after clinching the E2 title after taking out the final moto and Luke Styke’s transition from motocross to enduro has taken another step forward after he clinched the E1 title with his predictable final moto win on day four.
Overall
Milner took the overall win by just over a minute from Sanders who in turn had an almost three minute lead over the final podium place getter Green but Styke’s 4th place finish is an amazing effort for his first attempt against what is a world class field.
Final A4DE Provisional Overall Top 20
1. Daniel Milner – 2:00:48.454
2. Daniel Sanders – 2:01:57.804
3. Josh Green – 2:04:50.584
4. Luke Styke – 2:05:14.483
5. Lachlan Stanford – 2:06:01.626
6. Wil Ruprecht – 2:06:19.332
7. Fraser Higlett – 2:06:34.727
8. Michael Driscoll – 2:07:03.881
9. Broc Grabham – 2:07:39.257
10. Jack Simpson – 2:08:13.284
11. Chris Hollis – 2:08:33.635
12. Stefan Granquist – 2:08:33.800
13. Jeremy Carpentie – 2:08:45.344
14. Scott Keegan – 2:09:21.668
15. Tom Mason – 2:09:46.354
16. Kane Hall – 2:10:23.467
17. Geoff Braico – 2:10:52.188
18. Ben Grabham – 2:11:03.040
19. Andrew Wilksch – 2:11:10.397
20. Joshua Brierley – 2:12:13.398
Link to extensive major class report/results here
Vintage A4DE
The opening day of Vintage competition saw pre-race favourite Geoff Ballard take the lead over Queenslander Ricky Madden but on day 2 the big news was that Ballard was out with a mechanical failure so from there on Madden won every day including the final motocross on his Honda XR350 while Andrew Dennett and Ashley Sprenger rounded out the podium.
Despite the DNF of Darren Smart on day one, the Queensland team which also included Madden and Sprenger won the State Vintage Challenge while the UK Classic Enduro Team won the Vintage Club Teams class over the NSW Classic Enduro Riders and Udy Retro Moto Team.
Vintage (all finishers)
1. Ricky Madden – 1:28:45.706
2. Andrew Dennett – 1:36:15.155
3. Ashley Sprenger – 1:36:18.628
4. Andy Elliott – 1:39:29.847 – UK
5. Jeff Dawson – 1:42:09.597
6. John Liddell – 1:43:48.745
7. Deeds Raymond – 1:44:05.049
8. Craig Ralph – 1:46:25.676
9. Jamie Harrison – 1:46:32.663
10. Chris Bullen – 1:46:52.405
11. Brendan Walsh – 1:57:53.576
12. Terry Allen – 2:02:24.011 – UK
13. Bryan Noble – 2:02:34.458
14. Martin Baker – 2:11:22.965 – UK
15. Sean Hamilton – 2:12:01.057
16. Steve Juzva – 2:16:35.627
17. Allan Rich – 2:21:34.018
18. Noel Schulz – 2:30:16.716
19. Spencer Harrison – 2:31:04.830
20. Matthew Adamson – 2:33:36.908
21. Glenn Johnson – 2:40:06.649
22. Geoff Udy – 2:54:07.933
23. Grant Franklin – 2:57:15.482
24. Mark Carruthers – 8:03:10.911
Challenge Trophy
New South Wales claimed the Challenge Trophy with the home state taking out three of the four days to walk away as the premier state in Enduro racing. Victoria took out the Junior Trophy after putting together a solid day four to back up their first three days results. NSW also swept the Ladies Trophy taking out all four days to walk away convincing winners.
Overall A4DE Senior Trophy Provisional Results
1. NSW – 12:50:47.343
2. QLD – 13:24:50.519
3. VIC – 17:17:07.414
4. WA – 26:33:55.908
5. SA – 28:46:44.481
Overall A4DE Junior Trophy Provisional Results
1. VIC – 09:09:34.720
2. NSW – 09:19:29.132
3. WA – 09:58:28.154
4. ACT – 12:41:46.888
5. QLD – 13:52:05.806
Overall A4DE Ladies Trophy Provisional Results
1. NSW – 04:52:45.626
2. ACT – 06:56:17.197
3. QLD – 08:35:07.590
4. VIC – 11:28:54.589
American Flat Track Championships – Round 2 – Atlanta
The action leading up to Saturday night’s scheduled American Flat Track Main Event at the Harley-Davidson Atlanta Short Track presented by Hellbender Harley-Davidson pointed squarely to a wild, unpredictable affair with any of a dozen riders in with a realistic shot at the win.
Instead, Mother Nature swept through with a storm system before that anticipated battle could be waged, pushing the remainder of the racing activities back a day at Dixie Speedway. And when racing did resume on Sunday afternoon, it was reigning AFT Twins presented by Vance & Hines champion Jared Mees (No. 1 Indian Motorcycle Rogers Racing SDI Scout FTR750) who stormed through like a force of nature after appearing mortal the day before.
Mees mastered the tricky, slick conditions to secure his 32nd career premier-class victory in lopsided fashion. The champ broke free early and then piled it on from there as the race evolved. With his lead never seriously challenged, Mees eased up late and still took the checkered flag with nearly two seconds in hand.
And just like that, Mees has now opened his championship campaign with back-to-back victories at the DAYTONA TT and Atlanta Short Track for a second consecutive season. That does not bode well for the competition considering how last year turned out them.
“I got out front and just tried to put my laps together and ride smart,” Mees said. “The track was very slippery and technical. I just kind of put it together. I was really worried about Kenny [Coolbeth] – he’s really good in these conditions – but we got a good start and the motorcycle was working extremely well.
“The team won this for me this weekend, honestly. They worked so hard, and they deserve all the credit. Every time I came in, it was shock changes, engine combination changes, and exhaust pipes, offsets, and rear wheels. We just turned the motorcycle upside down to give me the feel I was looking for, and finally today… Honestly, raining out last night and coming back today, just to allow me to debrief and relax, was really good for me. Yesterday, it felt like we were behind the eight-ball every time we went out. Today was like a fresh start. It felt great.”
While Mees quickly eliminated the drama expected in the fight for the win, Kenny Coolbeth (No. 2 Nila Racing, Columbia Avionic Indian Scout FTR750), Jarod Vanderkooi (No. 20 Harley-Davidson Factory Flat Track Team XG750R), and Jeffrey Carver Jr. (No. 23 Roof-Systems/Indian of Metro Milwaukee H-D XR750) more than made up for it in a thrilling dogfight for the remaining spots on the podium. The trio quickly worked past a fast-starting Henry Wiles (No. 17 Wilco Racing/Willy Built/Bandit Industries Indian Scout FTR750), and proceeded to engage in a heavyweight tilt for second.
Rising star Vanderkooi made evident the vast progress Harley-Davidson has made with its still-developing XG750R by holding down second for an extended run. But despite his impressive performance he was ultimately overhauled by both Coolbeth – who has more years in professional dirt track than Vanderkooi has on the planet – and Carver.
Carver worked his way past Coolbeth and into the runner-up position late, but Coolbeth had an answer. He called upon his experience and exemplary technical skills to reclaim the spot and hit the stripe in second.
Today’s runner-up result combined with his Daytona TT eighth-place ride sees Coolbeth move into second in the early-season points standings. Having recently announced that this will be his final AFT season, the series legend appears both motivated and capable of going out on a high note as he continues to gain speed aboard his privateer Indian Scout FTR750.
While Vanderkooi showed the progress being made with Harley-Davidson’s new machine, Carver demonstrated that there’s still plenty of life left in the manufacturer’s venerable XR750 platform as well. He said, “We brought out the Gary Goodwin/Roof-Systems XR750. Harley still has a good power plant. Jarod showed the new bike is going good, but we thought coming to some of these slick tracks, the XR750 would be the best bet.
“It was really exciting. We had to come from a few spots back and chase the racetrack. These are the tracks I like – you have to work around and find good lines and take risks. I know I bounced off the wall a few times coming down the straightaway. I hope all the Harley fans out there are pumped up about it.”
Vanderkooi crossed the line 0.126 seconds back in fourth. He said, “It’s bittersweet. The lines were changing persistently out there. 25 laps is a long time, and there’s a lot of veterans out there that know what they’re doing. I’m getting there – this is my fourth year in the class. I was just running the same line. I should have changed it up a little bit, but it got me there so I stuck with it. The Harley-Davidson Vance & Hines XG750R is amazing. The team did a whole ton of work over the off-season, and I think it’s paying off. We’re putting it towards the front and making changes as we go. Now we just need to get the riders up to speed, and we’ll be good.”
Short Track master Wiles and part-time series ace Johnny Lewis (No. 10 Richie Morris Racing Indian Scout FTR750) took fifth and sixth aboard their privateer Scout FTR750s. In doing so, they bumped the second and third members of the Indian Wrecking Crew down to seventh (Brad Baker (No. 6 Indian Motorcycle Racing backed by Allstate Scout FTR750) and eighth (Bryan Smith (No. 4 Indian Motorcycle Racing backed by Allstate Scout FTR750) one year after they helped execute a works Indian clean sweep of the podium at Dixie Speedway.
Jake Johnson (No. 5 Estenson Racing Yamaha FZ-07) and Kayl Kolkman (No. 98 Kolkman Racing/Stamp Concrete Development Yamaha FZ-07) came home in ninth and tenth, leaving heavy-hitters Briar Bauman (No. 14 Zanotti Racing Kawasaki Ninja 650) and Sammy Halbert (No. 69 Harley-Davidson Factory Flat Track Team XG750R) outside the top ten.
Roadracing ace JD Beach (No. 95 G&G Racing/Rickdiculous Racing/Team95 Yamaha FZ-07), who finished as runner-up at the DAYTONA TT and topped one of Saturday’s qualifying sessions, was eliminated from contention in the Semis due to a flat tire.
AFT Singles
Following a rather difficult opener, last year’s AFT Singles title contenders came back strong in Atlanta, led by dominant race winner Brandon Price (No. 92 Parkinson Brothers Racing/DPC Racing Honda CRF450R). Price was the class of the field on Sunday, recovering from a poor start to quickly seize the lead. He then doubled down by reclaiming his spot at the front following a subsequent red flag and restart.
Price, last year’s AFT Singles championship runner-up, ultimately took the checkered flag with a near identical margin of victory to that of Mees in the Twins Main (1.667s vs 1.668s)..
Next Up: American Flat Track will travel to Fort Worth, Texas, to tackle its first Half-Mile of the season, the Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys at Texas HM presented by Dallas Honda, on Saturday, April 28.
AMA Supercross Championships – Round 13 – Seattle
The mud infested circuit offered plenty of drama throughout the evening but Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac and Yamaha’s Aaron Plessinger have won the 450 and 250 main events respectively when round 13 of the AMA Supercross Championship hit Seattle last weekend.
450 Report
The main event was shortened to 12 minutes thanks to the conditions and it was Marvin Musquin who grabbed the holeshot with Jason Anderson and Tomac right behind but as the field slipped all over the place Anderson quickly asserted himself as the rider to beat as he attacked the atrocious conditions and built a handy lead from Tomac in second, while Musquin slipped back to third ahead of Broc Tickle and Chad Reed.
With just over five minutes to run Anderson spewed sideway up the race of a small jump and although he didn’t crash it was enough to allow Tomac to move into the lead and the eventual win, his sixth for the season.
“Today couldn’t have gone any better for us,” said Tomac. “This is motorcycle racing and we have to deal with the cards we’re given. Tonight were some of the craziest conditions I’ve had to race in, but I had a blast. I am pumped to get another win and now sit third in the points. I am looking forward to keeping the ball rolling into Minneapolis.”
Anderson’s second place finish was enough to not only retained the all-important championship leaders red plate but also helped him to further extend the lead over Musquin to 37 points with just four rounds remaining.
“The whole day was a little weird due to the delayed program,” said Anderson, “but practice went as well as it could have in the mud–I qualified first. I was up front in the heat race but was pushing too hard, so I pulled back. I ended up coming back to second. I was out front and riding awesome in the Main but had a bit of a hiccup. All-in-all I did what I needed to do tonight, so it was good.”
Musquin was disappointed with this third place main event finish after earlier in the night comfortably winning his heat race. “It’s not often that we have a muddy race like that in Supercross, but we have no choice, we have to go out and give our best,” Musquin explained. “The conditions were pretty tough, the mud was pretty sticky for the Main Event. Honestly, I’m a little disappointed. I got a great start, but the speed wasn’t there. My intensity – I was too timid and too cautious. I should have taken more risks but I was just trying to be consistent and stay on two wheels, and the other guys were just faster.”
Tickle started just inside the top ten before slipping and sliding his way through the pack to reach 4th place by lap two. From there, Tickle held his position and rode a consistent race behind his teammate Musquin to ultimately capture 4th place through some of the most challenging track conditions of the season.
“It’s always exciting to come to Seattle, I got my first win here in 2010, and I’ve always enjoyed the tough conditions here.” Tickle said. “Tonight was pretty good for me, I was excited to see the rain, but it ended up being really tough to ride in. I know I’m really good in those conditions just by being patient, taking my time and not getting too far ahead of myself and I felt like I did so tonight, and I was consistent.”
Cooper Webb made an aggressive last lap pass on Reed to round out the top five, with Tyler Bowers doing likewise just before Reed suffered a smoke filled clutch failure in the final turn but thankfully the finish line was positioned at the bottom of the finish line jump so he was still credited with a season-best 7th place finish.
“The thing that kind of bums me out a little bit, I guess, is I was cautious and I was aware of the bike kind of already feeling hot,” Reed told RacerX. “So, then I started to try to ride it in a way that I wasn’t so hard on it. But, obviously, I could feel it getting warm. I could smell it and all those things. So, then I’m like, I was in a pretty comfortable, pretty easy fifth. Whenever I kind of got a bit of a rhythm going, I felt like I could catch [Broc] Tickle a little bit. But I kind of had to let go of that just because every time I pushed a little bit, the bike just felt like it was getting worse. So then three laps to go, I’m like, it’s going to be close. Then on the last lap there I was wide open and it was going nowhere. Then the thing was, I was trying to limp it home and the last lap, like I said, I was wide open and it was just kind of slipping. Then I heard the crowd go off and the flame, so I knew Eli [Tomac] was kind of right there. So, I’m like, there can’t be too many people behind me. So, I’m like, f*&k it. I’m going to pin it. It doesn’t matter at that point. No one can beat me other than the two guys that I was battling with anyway. So, I just went for it and she didn’t quite make it. We almost got there. But, anyway, it was still my best race of the year. It was a lot of fun.”
450 MAIN EVENT RESULTS
1. Eli Tomac (Kaw)
2. Jason Anderson (Hus)
3. Marvin Musquin (KTM)
4. Broc Tickle (KTM)
5. Cooper Webb (Yam)
6. Tyler Bowers (Kaw)
7. Chad Reed (Hus)
8. Blake Baggett (KTM)
9. Dean Wilson (Hus)
10. Weston Peick (Suz)
11. Christian Craig (Hon)
12. Vince Friese (Hon)
13. Cedric Soubeyras (Suz)
14. Benny Bloss (KTM)
15. Ben Lamay (Hon)
16. Austin Politelli (Hon)
17. Malcolm Stewart (Suz)
18. Henry Miller (Suz)
19. Collin Jurin (Kaw)
20. Justin Brayton (Hon)
21. Joshua Hill (Yam)
22. Nick Schmidt (Suz)
450 SUPERCROSS POINTS STANDINGS
1. Jason Anderson–288
2. Marvin Musquin–251
3. Eli Tomac–220
4. Justin Brayton–213
5. Blake Baggett–209
6. Weston Peick–185
7. Broc Tickle–184
8. Cooper Webb-180
9. Dean Wilson–152
10. Malcolm Stewart–125
14. Chad Reed -112
250 West Coast Report
In the 250 West coast main event, point’s leader Aaron Plessinger claimed the holeshot before going on to a convincing win ahead of Chase Sexton who continued to impress while Adam Cianciarulo rounded out the podium.
Plessinger was pretty casual about the win. “It was pretty cold, yeah. But I didn’t care. It was pretty cool. I was pretty soaked. It was a gnarly race. We got down to the plywood. It reminded me of GNCCs. It was fun. A lot of standing up.”
Chase Sexton was wrapped with his second place. “First time riding a supercross track in the mud was definitely new to me. I was looking forward to it in practice and then went out there and qualified like 16th, so I was a little bummed. The heat race was good. I threw it away in the last lap and the main event, obviously, was good. I got a good start and just pretty much tried not to fall.”
“I really want to get my first win of the season, but in a night like tonight I’ll take a podium,” said Cianciarulo. “We get another couple weeks off and my goal is to finish strong. We’re 17 points back and we’ll do everything we can to be in contention at the end.”
Poor ol’ Joey Savatgy came into Seattle second place in the standing and he started the main event scond place behind Plessinger but the Kawasaki rider crashed into a mud bath and ended the night back in 12th so Plessinger now holds a 17 point lead over Cianciarulo who moved ahead of team-mate Joey Savatgy in the standings, after Savatgy could only manage a 12th place finish in Seattle.
Aussie Hayden Mellross did us proud by qualifying to the main directly from his heat race before battling through the slop to finish a credible 10th place which is also where he sits in the championship with two rounds remaining.
250 MAIN EVENT RESULTS
1. Aaron Plessinger (Yam)
2. Chase Sexton (Hon)
3. Adam Cianciarulo (Kaw)
4. Shane McElrath (KTM)
5. Mitchell Harrison (Hus)
6. Justin Starling (Hus)
7. Mitchell Oldenberg (Yam)
8. Kyle Chisholm (Yam)
9. Justin Hill (Suz)
10. Hayden Mellross (Yam)
11. Phillip Nicoletti (Suz)
12. Joey Savatgy (Kaw)
13. Dylan Summerlin (Hus)
15. Brandan Leith (Kaw)
16. Chase Marquier (Hus)
17. Dakota Alix (KTM)
18. Jess Pettis (Yam)
19. Chance Blackburn (KTM)
20. Keele Russell (Hus)
250 WEST POINTS (ROUND 8 OF 10)
1. Aaron Plessinger (Yam)–177
2. Adam Cianciarulo (Kaw)–160
3. Joey Savatgy (Kaw)–153
4. Shane McElrath (KTM)–146
5. Chase Sexton (Hon)–132
6. Justin Hill (Suz)–119
7. Kyle Chisholm (Yam)–110
8. Christin Craig (Hon)–106
9. Mitchell Harrison (Hus)–100
10. Hayden Mellross (Yam)–81
