Trail Bike Adventure Magazine

Coolum, Sunday

Sunday, 02 August 2009 10:18

10.20am

This is just to let youse know I'm here and I'll try and keep youse up to date.

Weather is the same as yesterday, and the track looks awesome (but rough). We just finished practice for the Pros, and the Vets and Girls have had their first moto. The Under 19s are on the track now.

Melton, Darryll King and Glen Bell - pictured, in a helmet that looks like it's from the middle of his career sometime - were going hammer and tongs when I left. I'll get the result up next post.

Check in again around 1.00pm and I'll have the first moto results and maybe some pics up.

TF

12.30pm

Pro Lites

Geebuss! Frigging Matt Moss is SO frigging fast!

Moss on his Suzuki dealt out a serious spanking to everyone in the first moto and was followed home by Tye Simmonds on a KTM and Ryan Marmont on a Yamaha.

I expect the Open Class to have the speed, but the pace of the Pro Lites was hellish. Unbelieveable. And hard-fought in the middle of the pack. Any wonder I don't ride motocross any more.

All Yamaha in the Pro Open.

The pic tells the story. Jay Marmont holeshot and led to the finish, with Andrew McFarlane and Cheyne Boyd taking the minor placings. The track is starting to look seriously challenging and quite a few of the girls DNFed their race when they dropped their bikes and were just too knackered to pick them up again.

Lunch break now. The next Pro motos happen in a rush, so I may not back here between races. Check back later tonight and I'll have final results and a heap more pics up.

TF

3.00pm Second Pro Lites moto - and the Australian Pro Lites Championship - to Matt Moss. Unbelieveable! The second Pro Opens went to Cheyne Boyd. He can take the title if he wins the next moto! Awesome!

7.30pm

The final Pro Lites moto was red-flagged after Luke George came unstuck in spectacular fashion on the openng lap. With the title already decided it was a dead rubber, but nobody seemed to be backing off.

The final Pro Opens had a few dramas as well, but nothin to prevent Jay Marmont holding on to the Number One plate.

Here's the official wrap-up from the promoter's press release:

The 2009 Australian Motocross Championship has wrapped up at Coolum, Queensland, with two massive days of racing and four Australian Champions crowned.

Jay Marmont (Yamaha) rode to victory in the Pro Opens class, taking out this second Australian Pro Opens Title in as many years with his teammate Cheyne Boyd (Yamaha) unable to break his stranglehold on the number one plate.

With a massive 75 points up for grabs the Pro Opens title was always going to come down to the wire but no one could have predicted just how close that would be.

After taking victory in two of the three motos, Marmont’s 14 point lead coming into the round was enough to keep him safe from Boyd’s onslaught.

In the Pro Lites, Matt Moss (Suzuki) rode smart and with his comfortable points lead former Champ, Luke George (Kawasaki) was unable to catch him despite winning blah of the motos

Throughout 2009 Moss, George and Tye Simmonds (KTM) haven’t merely raised the bar in the Pro Lites class; they’ve consistently pushed it into the stratosphere, with their on-track battles over-shadowing even the premier Pro Opens class throughout the season.

Despite a strong build-up, ongoing mechanical dramas and a crash in the final moto kept George out of contention allowing Moss to dominate all three motos.

Luke Styke (Yamaha) continued his domination of the Under 19s class taking two of three race wins on the weekend.

In the Women’s Championship young Tori Dare (Yamaha) has won her first senior Australian Women’s Motocross Championship ahead of 2008 Champ Kristy Gillespie (KTM).

Dare took out three of the four motos with Gillespie only managing to steal one from the 2009 Champ.

Series Promoter, Kevin Williams, was stoked with the 2009 season and is already looking ahead to 2010 and how he can make the Series better than ever.

“The 2009 Series has been one of the biggest we’ve ever seen,” Williams said.

“There’s been some great competition – in the Pro Opens class with the two Yamaha riders, Jay Marmont and Cheyne Boyd, bringing it down to the wire, and also in the Pro Lites, the battle between Matt Moss and Luke George has been something special, and the Under 19s class has produced some great racing.

“At the final round to finish off with the Vets Cup - with three previous Australian Champions back out on the race track for the crowd and fans to see was awesome and in the Women’s class, Tori Dare certainly mixed it up with Kristy Gillespie.

“I think the depth of talent in Australia now is World Class – the riders that we have here today could race anywhere in the World and be very competitive.

“The lap times are faster than last year, the bikes are better; the team infrastructure has improved so all round everyone has lifted the bar in ’09.

“I would like to personally extend a big thank you to all the clubs who have put in the effort this year to make the Championship what it is.

“It takes around 70-80 people per round to make these events work and they’ve done a great job putting in a lot of hours and a lot of volunteer labour that has been invested into the venues.

“We’ve seen all of the venues improve this year which is fantastic for the sport and the future.

“2010 will see a number of changes in the Championship and we’ll have some announcements coming out in late September 2009, but we’ll continue with the different formats, they’ll be short and sharp and they’ll guarantee that fans who come to watch the Motocross are blown-away by the all the action.”

That's me for this weekend. I'm on the Gold Coast to finish up #29, then we're all off on the Seven Hills ride on Friday.

TF