HURLEY JUMPS TO 2ND IN AUSTRALIA
 Team
Shift Motul Suzuki's Daryl Hurley charged into second place
in the 2007 Australian Motocross Championship aboard the RM-Z450
in round two at Penguin in Tasmania on Sunday.
After qualifying strongly in third place, Hurley was fourth
out of the gate in the first of two 30-minute motos and by
the end of the opening lap had hustled his way into second
place where he chased Daniel Reardon to the chequered flag.
Fifth off the start in moto two, Hurley was up into third
at the five-minute mark before becoming embroiled in an epic
battle with Jay Marmont that began at half-distance and finished
with Marmont eventually securing third at the 25-minute mark.
Hurley crossed the finish line in fourth place behind Marmont
to launch himself up from fifth to second in the championship
overall.
Luke Burkhart - piloting the Team Shift Motul Suzuki RM-Z250
in the Pro Lites class - also began the day strongly, qualifying
in third place. But his fortunes took a turn for the worse
in race one after a slow start saw him caught behind a multiple-bike
pile-up at turn four on the opening lap, rejoining the 40-strong
field in last place.
The young New Zealander began a fight back through the field,
climbing to 12th place by the end of the 30-minute moto.
In the second moto, Burkhart was third out of the gates and
quickly slotted into second place on lap one. He was eventually
passed by Mitch Hoad and Cameron Taylor, crossing the finish
line in fourth place.
The current New Zealand Supercross Champion now sits sixth
in the Pro Lites Motocross Championship.
Team Shift Motul Suzuki aims to test prior to the upcoming
race action of round three in Conondale, Queensland on Sunday
6 May.
Jay Foreman - Team Manager:
"This is a good result with Daryl climbing into second
in the championship; he's still gaining in speed and confidence
after such a long break and he's starting to look more and
more like his old self on the bike again.
"We still have a lot of work to do improve the bike
as Daryl gets faster. We had very limited opportunities for
testing pre-season so we will really need to ramp up our development
program over the coming rounds.
"A bad start left Luke in the wrong place at the wrong
time and he had a battle on his hands to claw back some points
in race one, but he had a much better run for the second moto
and did a good job to salvage sixth in the series today in
what could have been a disaster round."
2007 AUSTRALIAN MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP - ROUND 2:
PRO OPEN: 1 Daniel Reardon 100, 2 Daryl
Hurley (Suzuki RM-Z450) 72 , 3 Jay Marmont 69, 4 Cody Cooper
61, 5 Kade Mosig 55, 6 Cheyne Boyd 42, 7 Shane Metcalfe 42,
8 Justin Carafa 39, 9 Nathan Crawford 37, 10 Darryll King
34.
PRO LITES: 1 Jake Moss 90, 2 Mitch Hoad
75, 3 Adam Monea 68, 4 Danny Anderson 64, 5 Michael Phillips
61, 6 Luke Burkhart (Suzuki RM-Z250) 52, 7 Cody Mackie 52,
8 Kyle Tobin 48, 9 Cameron Taylor 47, 10 Louis Calvin 47.
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