Team Shift Motul Suzuki’s Daryl Hurley took a race win and second place overall at round six of the Australian Motocross National series at Newcastle’s Barleigh Ranch in New South Wales at the weekend. Hurley, who leads the Championship by nine points, has held the series lead for six consecutive rounds since the series opener.
The New Zealander was in fourth place in the opening moto behind Daniel Reardon, Craig Anderson and Cody Cooper until each of the three leading riders suffered unrelated misfortunes. Reardon was the first rider to drop from the lead when rear tyre issues took him out of contention in the mid-section of the race. An error saw Anderson crash while heading the field, handing the lead to his team-mate Cooper, with Hurley elevated to second place. Subsequent issues for Cooper allowed Hurley the opportunity to pounce for the lead in the final five minutes of the race, his RM-Z450 crossing the finish line a comfortable 9.3-seconds ahead.
Race two saw Hurley’s yellow machine round the first corner in fourth place before the Suzuki star mounted a massive charge for the lead. He came through mid-race to pass Reardon for second then climbed on the back of Anderson and began applying intense pressure to the race leader.
In the closing laps, Hurley made a passing move for the lead, but his advantage was short lived as he over-jumped the triple offering Anderson the opportunity to regain his position.
Daryl Hurley: “Those flat tyres and Ando’s crash really played into our hands in the first race… it’s nice to have a bit of luck on your side sometimes. When it comes to luck, we’ve all experienced both sides of the coin and you have to take it when it goes your way.
“Newcastle isn’t one of my greatest tracks, so I’m happy with a race win and second overall.”
Jay Foreman – Team Manager:“Daryl took a little while to get going in both races today, but when he did turn up the wick he was clearly able to reel in the other guys and show everyone why he’s the series leader. We only conceded one point to Craig Anderson today, so the damage to our title defence was minimal.
“Nonetheless, we will be chasing two race wins at the next round at Toowoomba to give Suzuki some breathing room in terms of championship points. We need to do work on our starts to get Daryl to the front earlier and get him to pull away and really dominate in the way he did at the start of the season.”
Pro Open Overall Results: 1 Craig Anderson 47,
2 Daryl Hurley (Suzuki RM-Z450) 47,
3 Cody Cooper 36,
4 Ford Dale 28,
5 Danny Ham 28,
6 Daniel Reardon 25,
7 Craig Carmichael 25,
8 Darryll King 34,
9 Lee Ellis 22,
10 Nathan Brochtrup 22
Pro Open Championship Points (after 6 rounds): 1 Daryl Hurley (Suzuki RM-Z450) 268,
2 Craig Anderson 259,
3 Daniel Reardon 197,
4 Cody Cooper 196,
5 Darryll King 182,
6 Shayne King 171,
7 Craig Carmichael 139,
8 Cheyne Boyd 130,
9 Peter Boyle 123,
10 Timmy Weigand 104.
Related Linkswww.suzuki-racing.com
