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Australian Motocross

Riders, teams and the event organiser, Williams Event Management, have hailed Coonabarabran’s round of the Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals as the best of the year.

Despite being situated in the middle of nowhere with no phone coverage (or Internet for that matter!), the sheer size of the track was something to see as riders took over three minutes to complete just one lap at pro pace!

The series was front-page news in Coonabarabran and there was a popular truck parade that rolled through the town on Saturday morning. Overall the crowd wasn’t massive, but it was a positive beginning as the series breaks into an entirely new region.

In case you missed our mammoth coverage from the weekend, we had a set of Pit Pass images on Saturday as well as a Pre Show film, and then on Sunday by the time we got Internet coverage there was the Track Access image gallery with over 60 shots from race day.

First thing Monday morning we had the super popular Post Show, which is a three-minute film of each class featuring all the on-track action, plus the regular Race Reflection was up later that afternoon to get the rundown from a selection of the sport’s best.

It’s a huge operation we piece together at each and every MX Nationals round when combined with the results, race reports and various news pieces that we create before and afterwards, so thank you guys for the support and enabling us to produce what we have the resources to – and it’s only going to get better from here!

The confidence of Jay Marmont after winning Manjimup and the Queensland state titles had him in a revitalized frame of mind at Coonabarabran, along with the fact that he’d driven to the Goanna Tracks Complex to test and train in the months leading up to the national. He seems to have that spring back in his step, which means you certainly can’t yet rule him out of title number four on the trot. We spoke to him yesterday to get this Race Recap interview.

One thing Jay did mention in the interview was that he believes others are improving on the areas that he’s capitalized on in the past, which has to be consistency. Dean Ferris’ consistency has been unmatched and he’s leading the title so far, which is incredible when you think that he hasn’t yet won a round overall.

The top guys know that, especially in the Pro Open class, there’s no room for error anymore. Bad start or not, they need to claw their way back and score points well inside the top 10 at worst. That’s exactly what Billy Mackenzie and Josh Coppins did in multiple motos at Coonabarabran, an amazing feat when the length and width of the track is considered. This title is coming down to the wire, that is for sure.

In fact, we’ll be releasing a new Column later this afternoon called Trackside, where we’ll invite various people to pen their thoughts on certain topics they can pick up on while they’re trackside at each and every race. Today it’ll be yours truly who kicks off proceedings, but the plan is to get the thoughts of Guy Streeter, our resident film guru, plus a heap of others in various races.

The big news on Saturday at Goanna Tracks was Dan Reardon’s 11th hour decision to switch to the 450 from the 350 he’s been riding all year at JDR Motorex KTM. Starts are all important in the outdoors when there are shorter back-to-back motos, plus Reardon said his style simply suits the 450 better after racing one for a number of years.

Reardon was spotted testing over on one of the back tracks at the complex on Saturday afternoon in a bid to dial in the 450 with his team, and he was planning on remaining in NSW to complete further testing in the week following Coonabarabran.

Jay Marmont was another to ride on Saturday morning as he always does, which he says helps fight off the effects of arm-pump on race day. You could see more guys taking this approach in the future if Marmont continues his current form.

Another topical point on Saturday at round six was KTM’s electric starters on their Pro Lites 250 SX-F race bikes. Both Matt Moss and Josh Cachia had them fitted, while Brenden Harrison didn’t. According to the team, the boys weren’t riding 2012 models, but had basically bolted on the components after Moss had ridden a bike with electric starter in the U.S. recently.

PJ Larsen’s JDR/J-Star/KTM Lites bike that he rides in the AMA doesn’t have a kick-starter either, but one funny thing that Moss shared with us was that when he was in the U.S. testing after Raymond Terrace, he often went to reach for the kicker before realizing he only had to push a button. That’s technology for you!

You have to give it up for Phil Nicoletti to beat the Moss twins, Matt and Jake, on home soil at one of their favourite tracks in the Lites. Nicoletti was hired by Monster Kawasaki for this year and was expected to dominate like countryman Larsen did last year (albeit without the Moss brothers in the mix), but so far things hadn’t gone his way. Nicoletti showed he had good speed with a couple of moto wins during the season, but the overall looked like a heap of weight off his shoulders on Sunday afternoon.

An additional bit of entertainment came at Coonabarabran in the form of Australian Off Road Championship regulars Chris Hollis and Glenn Kearney entering the MX Nationals round. Hollis, who currently leads the AORC in his return to Ballard’s Yamaha, was a standout on his YZ450F, even scoring 11th in one of the motos. Kearney was disadvantaged on his TE 310 enduro racer, but he enjoyed the round and once again proved he’s a great all-rounder of Aussie dirt bike racing.

Don’t forget that WEM recently launched its all-new MX Nationals site, which is still undergoing a few refinements, but is certain to grow into a nice hub for the series competitors and spectators alike.

Upon surfing the web this morning, I noticed that a Skullcandy Hard Charger Award has been implemented for the riders who score the fastest lap of the final moto in each class at the remaining rounds. An award will also go to top privateer finisher at each round, which is a great incentive for them to win Skullcandy products.

American Motocross

It seems like so many are shocked at the form of Chad Reed in the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship, just waiting for the two Ryans (Villopoto and Dungey) to sneak up on him at any moment. Well, so far so good for Reed, who continued his dominance of moto two at Budds Creek.

Reed used his 3-1 results to take his third overall win in four rounds, a huge credit to him, his family and his team that he’s formed at TwoTwo Motorsports/Bel-Ray Racing this year. Reed’s achievements were even good enough to make The Daily Telegraph in Sydney on Monday from what I saw, a huge milestone in itself when it comes to moto in Australia.

The Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team has been unstoppable so far in the 250 Class of the AMA outdoors, winning each round so far and not looking likely to let up anytime soon. Trey Canard’s championship for GEICO Powersports Honda seems like a lifetime ago at this point in the season, already.

Speaking of Honda, it seems Kevin Windham’s time is up and he’s finished his job as fill-in rider for the factory Honda team. Josh Grant made his comeback at Budds and scored a credible 10th overall, but we’ll have more on that tomorrow in the news.

Is it just me or does Mike Alessi seem like he’s getting more and more popular as the season goes on? Sometimes people like the underdog, and when it comes to riding a KTM 450 in the AMA, many of the locals consider you an underdog of sorts. Plus, with Roger de Coster on the KTM team now as manager there’s no doubt that people want to see him succeed. It’s been interesting to watch them work their way forward so far in the nationals.

In case you were wondering where Tye Simmonds was at Budds Creek, he was forced out with pneumonia in an unfortunate turn of events. With Simmonds out and teammate PJ Larsen already sidelined with a wrist injury, the round marked the second event this year that JDR/J-Star/KTM travelled to a race only to have no bikes on the track come race day. You can bet they’ll have at least two riders in both classes for 2012.

For those who are keen to see the June edition of our ‘The Matthes Report’ feature, it’s just landed in the MotoOnline inbox and it’s another great piece. This time it’s on JDR Motorsports’ transition to the U.S, which is a great thing for Australian riders and fans. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to see it though!

World Motocross

The word out of Europe from a few sources in that Christophe Pourcel is going to replace Kiwi Ben Townley at CLS Kawasaki, at least for a few GPs. Pourcel recently split with MotoConcepts in the States and Townley is currently on a break trying to regain form and fitness, so it is a good fit for all parties if the Frenchman can focus on his racing once and for all.

That’s all we have for this week, thanks you guys for stopping by and be sure to enter our MX vs. ATV Alive online racing series that we’ll be commencing next week via our Forum in the iMoto Community.

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