HURLEY CONTINUES MX DOMINATION
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.
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