Massive MX1 round up from ProMX Round Three in Wodonga

The Penrite ProMX Championship, presented by AMX Superstores, returned to Victoria for the third round of the title chase at the track of the Albury Wodonga Motorcycle Club. Sitting adjacent to the Murray River and Hume Freeway, smack bang between the two river sister cities, it’s locale is a real anomaly in this modern age where tracks get pushed further and further away from population centres, and an extreme contrast to the last round at Mackay in the middle which was staged in the middle of a 3000 acre cane field!

It was the first time since 2011 that a round of the nationals has been held in the border cities and the crowd that turned out reflected how much the district has missed top flight motocross racing. The place was awash with fans and they were rewarded with some of the most intense and dramatic racing seen this year.

The venue also has a speedway track that doubled as the pits, with all areas open to the public. Some described the track as somewhat of an outdoor supercross track that is normally used for mini-bike racing, but the club has to be commended for the venue it prepared. Vastly different in character to the two previous rounds, it produced the closest racing of the year in all three classes. It wasn’t a run in the park either as the track rutted up severely, testing the talent of all competitors.

The Thor MX1 championship has taken on a vastly different complexion after two dramatic events; the first of which was defending champion, Luke Clout’s (CDR Monster Yamaha Racing Team) crash in the opening moto at Mackay. Clout was leading the race there by a handy margin but on the third lap was caught out in a rut, his body then slammed backwards into an up-ramp, breaking his tibia and fibula in his lower right leg in the fall, and his title defence in tatters.

MX1 rookie, Kyle Webster (Team HRC Honda Racing) – who lost just one race in the six races of last year’s shortened Pirelli MX2 title – had been the other pace-setter across the opening two rounds, but his season was literally shattered in a training accident a few days after the Mackay event.

As much as it must have hurt to be there watching, Webster was in attendance at the event and seemed happy to be there as he pushed himself around the pits on a “knee scooter”. His left leg is in a cast and while his right leg is also damaged he can put some weight on it.

Clout’s exit from the championship allowed Kyle Webster to gain the title lead – and the Red Plate for leading the championship – after a win and a second at the round in the tropics and he looked set to capitalise on Clout’s season demise, but it was not to be.

If Clout’s exit was a punch in the guts for the championship, Webster’s exit was a massive king-hit as the two red plate holders are now out for the season. With that pair of pace-setters out of the title chase the rest of the field has lifted a notch as many riders now have more of a chance at that title. The majority have been banging bars against each other for many years and it continued at Wodonga.

At day’s end three-times champion Dean Ferris (Team HRC Honda Racing) won the round from 2019 champion, Todd Waters, with rising star Aaron Tanti (CDR Yamaha Monster Racing) third overall.

The racing in all three classes was keenly contested with brilliant close quarter contests, and a few surprises thrown in, on a well-prepared track that required inch perfect precision to gain the advantage as the ruts that developed during the day could have swallowed a mini bike!

Clout and Webster were undoubtedly missed, and the absence of the two early season combatants did take away from pre-event expectations, especially for the locals who have been starved of top flight motocross in a district that has a strong following in off-road activities, but it certainly didn’t detract from the on-track shenanigans.

With the exit of the title favourites from the chase, the rest of the field ramped up considerably as it had given many other riders a chance of claiming a championship belt and subsequently the intensity of the racing lifted to another level.

Penrite ProMX Championship
THOR MX1 Combined Qualifying
Top Ten Shootout

Kirk Gibbs came out on top in the Top 10 Pole Position Shootout to claim the $500 AMX Superstores gift voucher, and the important first gate selection ahead of Aaron Tanti and Brett Metcalfe, (GO24 KTM).

Todd Waters (Husqvarna) was next quickest ahead of Matt Moss (BBR 120 Motorsports) and Hayden Mellross (GASGAS) while local gun Joben Baldwin (Ride Red Honda) displayed his local knowledge to go seventh quickest ahead of Dean Ferris.

Penrite ProMX Championship
THOR MX1 Combined Qualifying
Top Ten Shootout Results

Penrite ProMX Championship
THOR MX1 Moto One

The first moto was a bottler. Matt Moss claimed the $250 Holeshot award, fastest qualifier Gibbs crashed on the first lap to be stone motherless last, with Tanti hitting the stricken rider and coming down as well.  Tanti remounted quickly with the pair on the attack to climb the leader board.

Ferris jumped into the lead half-way through the opening lap to make the others chase as he settled into a rhythm experimenting with different lines of the challenging layout, a trademark of his style as Moss, Todd Waters and Metcalfe followed line astern.

Moss was the first to make a slight mistake and dropped out of the top four, but Waters and Metcalfe wouldn’t let up in their chase of Ferris, the gap between the trio never more than a few seconds.

Waters eventually muscled his way in front of Ferris and led for over three laps, but Ferris played a waiting game, checking out his opponent’s lines, trying some new ones of his own at the same time, while “Metty” was trying to get right amongst it. The KTM rider was tantalisingly close but just couldn’t pull off that pass.

Ferris regained the lead but it wasn’t straight forward as the trio threw everything at each other, as they have done so many times over the years.

The track was also playing its own part as everyone had to be right on point as there was a variety of different lines contradicting what the lay-out appeared to offer. 

After 16 laps of the 25 minute + one lap moto, less than two-seconds separated the trio with Ferris saluting the chequered flag by just a few bike lengths from Waters with Metcalfe right on his back wheel for third.

A long 40-seconds behind the trio was Haydne Mellross (GASGAS) as Tanti fought back to finish fifth. Kirk Gibbs showed plenty of fortitude to cross the line in seventh place, just behind local lad Joben Baldwin in sixth who put in an impressive performance on home dirt.

Penrite ProMX Championship
THOR MX1 Moto One Results

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THOR MX1 Moto Two

The last race of the day was the back-to-back leg on a very battered brown ribbon of dirt with two, 13 minute plus a lap heats, with the points from each heat scored on the Olympic points scores; first place gains one point, second place two and so on with the rider with the lowest points after the two legs grabbing the 25 points for the race win.

After the chequered flag is shown to the winner of the first leg, the clock starts ticking for a 10-minute countdown before the gates fall again for the second leg.No refuelling or bike swaps are allowed, although mechanics can make some running repairs if they have time.

When Part One kicked off veteran Ferris stormed the holeshot to pick up another $250 with Metcalfe on his tail. Gibbs faring much better this time around in third ahead of Tanti and Moss.

The track was so rutted that no one stuck to one line every lap, all the leaders tried different ways to lead while the pursuers got creative while trying to keep in touch. Metty was in fine form and hounded Ferris, so much so that at times the pair were side by side

Waters then made a mistake which saw him go down and he had been relegated way down to 20th before he was up and running again.

The track was taking no prisoners, Metcalfe came down next, but remounted quickly after only dropping to fourth behind Tanti and Gibbs.

Ferris still led the way while Waters had muscled his way back to fifth, but there were now masses of steam bellowing from the radiator of Metcalfe’s fourth placed KTM.

Fortunately for Metty, the chequered flag was shown and all riders rushed back to the gate. It turned out that the radiator cap of Metcalfe’s bike had taken a knock which called for some bush mechanics to get him back in the race.

THOR MX1 Moto Two – Leg One Results

THOR MX1 Moto Two – Leg Two

Ferris grabbed the holeshot again when the second leg got underway with Tanti right behind and followed by, Gibbs, Waters and Metcalfe.

Tanti overtook Ferris on the third lap and looked as if he may hold on for his first win of the year, but Ferris had other ideas, the Honda man reclaiming the lead with a few minutes to go before going on to claim another victory.

Tanti finished second ahead of Waters and Metcalfe.

Hayden Mellross claimed fifth after a disappointing 15th in the first leg.

THOR MX1 Moto Two – Leg Two Results

THOR MX1 Moto Two – Legs Combined

On the combined Olympic points system that gave Ferris the Moto Two win from Tanti, Waters and Metcalfe and as such the championship battle has really tightened up.

THOR MX1 Moto Two – Legs Combined Results

Thor MX1 Round Three

With two victories the overall on the day went to Dean Ferris with a perfect haul of 50-points and with both Clout and Webster on the sidelines, the championship points table now looks very different.

Webster had led the championship from Tanti when they arrived in Wodonga, but as they now pack up, ship out and look towards the next battle in South Australia late this month, it is Todd Waters leading the championship by a single point over Aaron Tanti; 118 plays 117.

Courtesy of his victory in Wodonga, Dean Ferris has rocketed back into championship contention after his first round shocker at Wonthaggi. The 31-year-old had only taken 13th place at the opening round for 16-points, then started his march forward at Mackay with second for that round and a 41-point haul that promoted him to sixth in the championship. Now his 50-points from Wodonga has propelled him to third in the championship, only 11-points off championship leader Waters.

Ferris has faced some challenging moments in recent years including a broken neck, but a good man won’t stay down. The plague didn’t help matters for anyone and the opportunity thrown his way by Honda is now starting to pay dividends. With the exit of his team-mate Webster from the title hunt, added responsibility has been put on Ferris but if that’s the way he responds to pressure, his rivals should be extremely worried for the remainder of the season.

It may well turn out to be the year of the veterans! With relative youngsters Webster and Clout out of the running, Brett Metcalfe, Kirk Gibbs and Todd Waters are all prepared to stake a claim on the title ahead of Tanti if the CDR Yamaha man falters.

Metcalfe actually finished equal third for the round with Tanti but it was Tanti that was on the podium thanks to his better result in the second moto.

Hayden Mellross put on his best showing of the season thus far for 30-points which pushed him one place further up the championship ladder to eighth.

Joel Evans claimed sixth for the round to move two places up the championship leader board to ninth.

It was by far the best showing so far this season from Joel Wightman. His seventh for the round taking him from 13th to 11th on the championship table.

Jayden Rykers was the highest finishing Kawasaki rider with eighth for the round and the West Australian remains seventh in the championship standings. It will be interesting to see if he can break through in the latter half of this season to become more of a force as the championship really still is wide open.

Local rider Joben Baldwin no doubt benefitted from some track knowledge to card his best points haul for the season thus far to make it into the top ten on the points table.

Thor MX1 Round Three Points

Penrite ProMX Championship
Thor MX1 Championship Points