HURLEY 2ND IN AUSSIE MX SERIES
 Team
Shift Motul Suzuki's Daryl Hurley delivered a heroic performance
as he rode with a newly-plated collarbone in order to retain
second place in the 2007 Australian Motocross Championship
at round eight in Wonthaggi, Victoria at the weekend.
Hurley broke his collarbone racing in New Zealand two weeks
ago, underwent surgery last Monday and was still recovering
in hospital in New Zealand on Thursday before heading to Australia
for Sunday's racing.
Qualifying 17th aboard the RM-Z450, Hurley was extremely
tentative as he tested the limits of his injury, assessing
whether he would be able to compete in two 30-minute motos.
In both races Hurley was unable to maintain pace with the
leaders, but, impressively, was still capable of passing slower
riders.
After finishing ninth in race one, he was on-target to repeat
the feat in race two before two riders caught and passed him
with only two laps remaining, scoring 11th for both the race
and round.
In the Pro Lites class, Lawson Bopping delivered another
performance to demonstrate his potential, but again was unable
to translate that into race results aboard the RM-Z250.
Caught up with a crashed rider directly in his path on the
opening lap of his first moto, Bopping was left trailing the
field with a difficult task ahead of him, but rode exceptionally
well to charge through from 35th to 14th spot.
A better start in race two saw Bopping running strongly with
great pace as he attempted to challenge for fifth place. Unfortunately,
he crashed trying to make the move, but kept going until he
suddenly was forced to pull off the track to be violently
ill.
Daryl Hurley:
"I'm not sure how I feel about today…
I'm sore; I hurt all day, but I toughed it out and got through.
I was still in hospital on Thursday and I still have the stitches
in, which is really not a good build up to a race meeting.
"I really didn't know what to expect this weekend; I
arrived in Wonthaggi not knowing whether I would be capable
of riding at all, and yet part of me is disappointed with
finishing 11th.
"This was a tough track to have a busted collarbone
because it was so rough, but we have held on to second in
the championship which is important. Now, I'm going home to
New Zealand to re-group, rest up until the next round at Lakes
and then keep going till the end of the championship."
Jay Foreman - Team Manager:
"Daryl was in a lot of pain today and he really dug
deep to race this weekend. In some parts of the track Daryl
really needed to pull on the bars to muscle the bike around,
but he just wasn't able to do it and was losing a lot of time
through certain sections.
"In terms of the championship, today's effort has been
very valuable; if Daryl didn't ride, he would have lost second
spot in the championship - in fact he would have dropped to
fourth, which would have been very costly.
"Lawson had a rough day here, but I hope that the experience
gained in the Pro Lites class help his campaign in the U19's
for the next two rounds."
Results: 1 Daniel Reardon 355, 2 Daryl Hurley (Suzuki RM-Z450)
295 , 3 Cody Cooper 284, 4 Jay Marmont 279, 5 Troy Carroll
222, 6 Kade Mosig 160, 7 Matt Moss 150, 8 Nathan Brochtrup
138, 9 Nathan Crawford 138, 10 Shane Metcalfe 118.
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