HURLEY WINS AT CONONDALE
 Team
Shift Motul Suzuki rider Daryl Hurley scored his first race
win in the 2007 Australian Motocross Championship at Conondale
in Queensland today.
One of only two riders to have scored race wins so far this
season, Hurley today slashed his points deficit to series
leader Daniel Reardon from 28 to 19 points with seven rounds
remaining.
Race one saw Hurley assume the lead as Reardon crashed out
of contention in the opening stage of the 30-minute moto.
He raced away into the distance, set the fastest lap of the
moto aboard the RM-Z450 (2:31.906min) and crossed the finish
line 27.588 seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
The former Australian Motocross Champion was running well
in third place in race two and was on target for his first
round win of the season until his vision was hampered by dirt
in his goggles. He was unable to attack as aggressively at
the risk of repeating the recent eye injury he sustained in
round one at Broadford and crossed the finish line in fourth
place to seal second overall for the day, just one point away
from the round victory.
Team Shift Motul Suzuki's Pro Lites entrant Luke Burkhart
used the opening qualifying session to demonstrate the awesome
speed of the RM-Z250, setting the fastest time with a 2:35.703min
lap around the rocky Queensland circuit.
Moto one saw Burkhart caught in a first-turn pile up, subsequently
rejoining the fray in last place. He carved his way through
well over half of the 40-strong field, but his strong performance
was cut short as he was forced to retire from the race with
mechanical problems as a result of the first-lap incident.
In the second moto, Burkhart's Suzuki was running fifth and
dicing in a battle group with almost nothing separating the
second to sixth-placed riders until he over-jumped a jump
and injured his thumb. The tenacious young New Zealander rode
through his pain to finish the gruelling 30-minute moto but
slipped down the order to 10th place.
Burkhart's thumb injury will be assessed ahead of the next
Australian Motocross Championship round.
Team Shift Motul Suzuki will continue to ramp up its testing
and development program ahead of the Newcastle-based team's
home event at Raymond Terrace, New South Wales, for round
four of the Australian Motocross Championship on Sunday May
20.
Daryl Hurley:
"It's great to grab a race win, today. In the first
race Reardon got the holeshot but there was nothing in separating
us. Everything just felt right, the bike was perfect and when
Reardon crashed I was able to ride away from the rest of the
guys. I basically rode the race by myself.
"The second moto, I was third at the start and in a
good position, but I got a lot of dirt in my goggles and I
struggled with it as long as I could before I had to take
them off. I was behind Troy Carroll's Suzuki but it's really
rocky at Conondale and I didn't want to get too close and
risk a repeat of Broadford when I got hit in the eye with
a rock.
"I knew I needed to make up one more place in race two
to have the round win, so it's pretty disappointing to miss
out by just one point, but it is good to have the race win
so we'll take that and move on to the next round in Newcastle."
Jay Foreman - Team Manager:
"It's great for Suzuki to get a breakthrough win for
the season - so far it's all been Reardon, but now Daryl's
back in the mix. We've got a lot of work to do to catch first
place but we've managed to take a reasonable chunk of points
out of the gap to the championship lead.
"Luke was riding really well and was fastest in qualifying
- he's been working hard to get used to riding the 250 again
and his form on the bike was really good, but he was just
plain unlucky today.
"Across the next couple of weeks, we'll continue testing
both the RM-Z450 and the 250 to try and find even more speed
before the next round. The next race meeting is our home round
at Raymond Terrace so we'll be out to get some good results
in from of our home crowd."
PRO OPEN: 1 Daniel Reardon 134, 2 Daryl
Hurley (Suzuki RM-Z450) 115 , 3 Cody Cooper 105, 4 Jay Marmont
100, 5 Nathan Crawford 69, 6 Troy Carroll 64, 7 Kade Mosig
64, 8 Craig Anderson 58, 9 Nathan Brochtrup 55, 10 Tom Jones
54.
PRO LITES: 1 Jake Moss 140, 2 Mitch Hoad
103, 3 Danny Anderson 100, 4 Adam Monea 98, 5 Cameron Taylor
91, 6 Cody Mackie 88, 7 Michael Phillips 87, 8 Peter Boyle
67, 9 Luke Burkhart (Suzuki RM-Z250) 63, 10 Kyle Tobin 59.
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