Pirelli MX2 wrap from ProMX Round Three at Wodonga

After the first two rounds of the Pirelli MX2 Championship the question was if anyone could interrupt the charge of HRC Honda Racing’s Wilson Todd? The 24-year-old has been in stellar form on his return to Australian racing, taking out the first four races in a dynamic fashion.

His fine results are quite understandable as Todd has a wealth of international experience on top of his multiple Australian Championships, having competed in the 2021 MX2 World Championship riding for Kawasaki, his best result a fourth place in Italy.  However, with the regulations, Todd “aged-out” of the series as he exceeded the 23-years-old age limit and thus came back to Australia and took up an offer from Honda Australia. A prudent signing. 

At Wodonga last weekend Todd looked set to continue his merry run of wins in the class as he was fastest in qualifying from Serco Yamaha team-mates, Jesse Dobson and ex-Junior World Champion, Bailey Malkiewicz. Next was Rhys Budd (Yamalube Yamaha Racing), Dylan Wills (Husqvarna Racing Team), Alex Larwood (YamaLube), WBR Yamaha Team-mates Ryder Kingsford and Levi Rogers. Noah Ferguson (GasGas) and diminutive Japanese rider, Haruki Yokoyama (Empire Kawasaki) rounded out the top ten.

PIRELLI MX2 Moto One

The MX2 class opened the weekend’s proceedings with the first moto of the day. Fourth fastest qualifier, Wills nabbed the hole-shot but Todd soon blasted past to regained his usual position with Dobson, Malkiewicz and Yamalube’s Rhys Budd following. 

Budd’s teammate, Alex Larwood – who was second overall behind Todd coming into the round – crashed on the first lap to drop to last while Wills didn’t last much longer. On the second lap, he also ate dirt to crash out of second and tumbled down the order to 20th.

Just when it appeared that Todd was getting into the groove to stretch away from the field, establishing a lead of nearly three-seconds from Dobson, a larger groove brought the Honda rider down and dropped him to 12th as Dobson inherited the lead. 

The track was letting everyone know early in the day that it would be playing a big part in proceedings as Dobson’s reign at the front was also short lived when he had a minor fall that dropped him to sixth. 

These early race dramas saw Budd move into the lead on lap four from “Milkshake” Malkiewicz who was right on his back wheel, and chased by last year’s MX3 runner-up, Ryder Kingsford, in third and only a couple of seconds adrift. 

Malkiewicz grabbed the top slot on the eighth lap from Budd and Kingsford, however a brace of laps later Kingsford moved into second as Budd bounced out of a rut not quite as well as the Team WBR rider. 

Dobson climbed back to fourth place, but the Serco rider’s weekend went pear-shaped when he crashed on the 13th lap and popped his left shoulder, forcing him out of the race. 

Malkiewicz led the Yamaha trifecta and slowly distanced himself to take his first win in the class by nearly six-seconds from the impressive effort of class rookie Kingsford.  Budd in close proximity for third, while title leader Todd recovered to finish fourth and Dylan Wills fought back to finish 10th. 

The results assisted Todd increase his title lead as Malkiewicz leap-frogged Larwood into second overall after Alex’s disappointing 17th place finish.