It was a convincing MX2 comeback for Nathan Crawford at Coffs Harbour with the KTM Racing Team rider stating second overall in his ProMX return was a ‘big weight lifted off my shoulders’.

Crawford admitted he was between ’70 and 80 percent’ overall, ahead of round six following months of rehabilitation from a crash in March that broke his femur.

Coffs Harbour marked his first national motocross race in over a year and the 250 SX-F rider showed he immediately meant business with a hard charge in moto one. The number 199 worked his way into third before falling and dropping back to P7. He was able to recover and finish the bout in fourth.

An even stronger showing in race two saw Crawford finish second and was ultimately 1.2 seconds from victory after a spirited charge throughout the race.

“It’s a big weight lifted off my shoulders, Crawford explained. “It was a like a six-month build-up, with an injury like that, when you are sitting on the couch, the anticipation builds and you want to come back.

“Basically, today was all of that weight off my shoulders. It felt really good and I want to give a massive shoutout to Kyle Blunden and the whole team at KTM, my mechanic Luke – they have been so patient with me over the last six months and I couldn’t ask for a better way to repay them.

“In the second moto, I got a reasonable start and by the end of the first lap I was in second. I tried to tag on to Wilson [Todd] in front of me, he’s obviously got some really good sprint speed and he took off on the first four laps. For the last 20 minutes of the race, I hunted him down, and I was right on him in the last 10 minutes of the race. I was sitting there learning, gaining some confidence for the upcoming rounds in Queensland.”