News 17 Oct 2016

Richardson roars for Serco Yamaha

Yamaha Motor Australia press release:

Jackson Richardson scored his first win of the 2016 Australian Supercross Championship with a dominant victory at round two of the championship, held at the Toowoomba Showgrounds on Friday Night.

On board his Serco Yamaha YZ250F and competing in the SX2 category, Richardson was in good form on the night as he won his heat race and then went on to win the main after after snatching the lead on the opening lap. He cleared out to a three second lead over his team mate Wade Hunter, before Hunter fell and left Richardson all alone out front.

From there, he clicked off consistently good laps to win by four seconds over Hayden Mellross in second and Geran Stapleton in third.

“I’m pumped to get the win tonight,” Richardson said from the podium. “I wasn’t even planning on racing supercross this year and then this opportunity came up with Serco Yamaha very late but I’m glad we were able to make it happen.

“I haven’t been on the Yamaha long but the team have made me feel very comfortable right away and the bike is awesome. It was good to repay everyone with a win and can’t wait to race again in Adelaide in a couple of weeks’ time,” Richardson ends.

Wade Hunter finished the night in fourth place but will rue costly mistakes he made throughout the night. He crashed several times in his heat race and again fell in second place in the final on the technical and challenging Toowoomba circuit but was still able to lock down a solid position on the night that has him well placed in the championship after the opening two rounds.

“Even though it caught me out a few times, I really liked the track tonight as it was tough to ride and kept you on your toes. The opening few laps were awesome with myself and Jackson out front but I got pretty loose on lap five and went down.

“I only lost a couple of spots and was able to get back to fourth and not far behind third at the end.

“So all up, not a bad night but I want to be back on the podium at Adelaide,” Hunter said.

It was a full house under the Serco truck with Wilson Todd returning to action after injuring his hand four weeks ago. This was the first time Todd had raced a supercross event since 2014 and although not back to 100% yet, he still managed to get through the race safely and post a top ten result in a very competitive field.

Todd finished eighth on the night and admitted he was a little rusty but the track time did him a world of good.

“Eighth isn’t great but it’s a start and I got through without any more injuries. My hand still hurts on some of the harder landings but we have another two weeks before the next round and it will continue to improve.

“It was also good just be on a race track. You can ride a practice track as often as you like but racing is where it’s at and I feel you gain more from being in a race environment so it was good to experience that again,” Todd explains.

Round three of the Australian Supercross Championship now heads for the Adelaide Showgrounds on October 29. The race for the SX2 championship is well and truly on and the Serco Yamaha team are hitting good form at just the right time.

To follow the Serco Yamaha team on social media: www.facebook.com/sercoyamaha or @sercoyamaha on Instagram.

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