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Motorex KTM turns it
on in Wild and Woolly Wollongong
A strong crowd braved diabolical
weather at Wollongong’s ANZ Stadium to support local heroes Jay and
Ryan Marmont on Saturday night. The Wollongong based siblings led
their respective championships, Pro Open and Pro Lite, going in to
this round and were out to extend their lead in front of their home
crowd.
Last weekend’s scheduled event at Gosford was called off days before
the meeting due to heavy rains. This time Mother Nature waited until
race day to let loose. It didn't hail, and it certainly didn't
shine, but there was definitely plenty of rain as WIN Stadium was
overshadowed by thick grey rain clouds. These dreary offenders
dumped their contents incessantly throughout the afternoon and
evening, turning the track in to a deep quagmire.
With a heavily waterlogged track it was obvious lap times were going
to be slow. As a result the regular schedule of events was modified
to cater for the conditions.
The semi-finals were cancelled along with the Pro-Open Superpole
event. The Pro-Open and Pro-Lite riders would instead run ten minute
+ one lap heats, with the top six in each heat going through to the
final. Both the Pro-Open and Pro-Lite finals were scheduled for 10
minutes + one lap.
One thing was clear from the outset, this round would come down to
more than just skill, machine preparation and a level head; a
healthy dose of gratuitous luck needed to be thrown in for good
measure in order to come away with the win.
While championships can’t be won in a round, they can be lost in an
instant. It was with this in mind that the Motorex KTM riders
approached the rain sodden event.
Ryan Marmont scored the holeshot in the first Pro Lite heat but was
soon overhauled by New Zealand’s Cody Cooper. Jay Johnston also got
the better of Ryan later in the race as the Motorex KTM rider
settled for third place and automatic selection for the Pro Lite
final.
By the time the big boys came out for the first Pro Open heat, the
track had deteriorated even further. AMA Supercross regular Greg
Schnell was pulling double duty this weekend by competing in both
the Pro Lites and Pro Open classes onboard his Red Bull KTM. He was
the only man to briefly challenge Jay Marmont in this first heat.
But Marmont went on to lap most of the field on his way to another
convincing win for the Motorex KTM squad.
Motorex KTM fields two riders in the Pro Open class. Melbourne based
Cheyne Boyd is the other weapon in the Motorex KTM armoury and the
21-year-old has recently proven to be a serious challenger to
Marmont. Boyd started the season behind the eight ball while
recovering from serious injuries, but has come on strong through the
rounds to move up to third place in the championship points.
Boyd started quickly in his Pro Open heat before an early tangle
with Troy Dorron cost him some ground. He quickly recovered to start
closing on the race leader Troy Carroll. Halfway through the race
Carroll made a mistake through the whoops section which allowed Boyd
through to the lead. He capitalised on this advantage to take a
strong heat win from Dorron.
The battle for the Pro Open final looked to be shaping up as a
three-way KTM fight between Jay Marmont, Cheyne Boyd and Greg
Schnell, with Honda’s Troy Dorron also looming as a serious threat.
But before the Pro Open boys could take to the track for their final
the even more closely fought Pro Lites competitors lined up at the
gate for their eagerly awaited main event.
Heading in to this round Ryan Marmont led the Pro Lites Championship
by three points from Daniel Reardon. But Reardon could make no
impact in the slippery conditions at Wollongong and failed to
qualify for the final. This would be Ryan Marmont’s chance to extend
his championship lead to a healthy advantage. But it was not to all
go Ryan’s way.
Ryan got away well with Cody Cooper but a fall on the bridge cost
him dearly and put him a lap down. Fellow KTM rider Greg Schnell
fell at exactly the same spot and suffered a similar fate.
New Zealand’s Cody Cooper went on to completely dominate the event
and took the win from impressive privateer rider Jay Johnston.
Greg Schnell recovered strongly from his early fall to battle his
way back up to sixth place while Ryan Marmont managed to salvage
11th place after his two falls.
Ryan Marmont had this to say, “I got away to a good start behind
Cooper and took what I thought was a small underwater rut on the
approach to the up-ramp, but it turned out to be bigger than I
thought and I lost the front on the way up. I then had to watch
everyone go by as I slipped down to the bottom again.
“I finally managed to get going again as Cooper put me a lap down, I
tagged on to the back of him for a while and was carrying some good
speed before I went down in the whoops.
“My goggles were just so full of mud by then I couldn’t see a thing,
just had to salvage what I could. Everyone struggled tonight in the
thick mud; the ones that managed to keep it upright are the ones
that scored major points.
“Now I am just going to put this one behind me, next weekend will be
a different story.
“I will go away and train hard this week and maybe do some more mud
riding.”
No such dramas befell Ryan’s older brother Jay as the 21 year old
Motorex KTM pilot hit the front early in the Pro Open final and then
pulled away from the field with ease. He managed to lap most of the
field including factory Yamaha rider Cameron Taylor and factory
Suzuki rider Danny Ham on his way to a convincing win.
The battle for second was waged between Troy Dorron and Cheyne Boyd
for most of the race before Dorron managed to pull away from Boyd to
secure his second spot on the podium. Boyd clinched the final podium
spot.
Jay Marmont now leads the Pro Open Championship by 27 points over
Dorron while Cheyne Boyd consolidated his third place on the table.
Jay Marmont, “I woke up this morning and looked outside to see the
weather and immediately thought that the conditions were definitely
not what we were after.
“But we got out to the track and they said they were going ahead
with it come rain, hail or shine. I was not real confident with the
mud and deep water on the track but I figured that if I can win on a
normal track, I can win in mud.
“In preparation for the final I discussed the set-up of the bike
with my mechanic John DiStefano and we decided to go with some
higher gearing so we could pull second without bogging. We also
changed the clutch before the final just in case the muddy heat race
had put too much strain through it earlier on.
“I didn’t get the best start but muscled my way through to the front
quickly enough and managed to pull away to a convincing win in front
of my home crowd.
“I have a healthy lead over Dorron now and I want to wrap up this
championship as early as possible. I can then look forward to the
Australian Motocross season before I head over to the United States
for their upcoming supercross season later in the year.”
Marmont’s dominance down under has not gone unnoticed and this has
led to a few offers on the table from strong American Supercross
teams. While no final decision has been made, it is possible that we
could see Jay on KTM’s new 250cc four-stroke in America later this
year.
Cheyne Boyd was happy to take third place in the Pro Open final
considering the terrible conditions.
“In my heat race I just wanted to make sure I could make the final
as I decided not to go out too hard. In mud like this things can
turn ugly real fast if you make a mistake, but I managed to win my
heat with a little speed in reserve.
“I didn’t get away to the best start in the final and slotted in to
third place behind Dorron. I couldn’t get past him, I kept losing
vision when I got close and didn’t want to risk making a mistake, in
the mud here tonight it wouldn’t take much of a mistake to go down
and lose a lot of places.
“I pushed for a while in an effort to get past but just couldn’t see
where I was going so had to settle for third place.
“I didn’t lose too many points to Dorron tonight though as he only
scored two more points than me and there are plenty of rounds to go.
I am confident that I will make it up to second place in the
championship in the next round or two.”
Motorex KTM Team Manager Rob Twyerould was very happy to see Jay
take the win in front of his home crowd, “A terrific night for Jay
with his home town victory.
“He went straight to the lead and stamped his authority to prove
again he is the class of the field.
“I think this is something Jay has always dreamed of, a convincing
win in front of his home crowd, this has really been something
special for him here tonight.
“Boydy was a bit unlucky with the lappers tonight but still managed
a strong third place and with that scores some valuable points.
“The disappointment for tonight was really in the Pro Lites where
Ryan really had a chance to pull away from Reardon in the
championship.
“His goggles filled in and he made a mistake which cost him any
chance of a top points finish.
“It is a shame that we missed that opportunity to capitalise on the
fact that Reardon failed to qualify.
“But luckily it didn’t cost us too much in the race for the title as
the riders that finished in front of Ryan tonight are not really
serious contenders for the #1 plate. Ryan will come back strong in
Newcastle next weekend and I believe we are still on track for the
double this year.”
By the double Rob refers to the fact that Motorex KTM are favourites
to win both the Pro Open and Pro Lites Championships this year. It
also seems highly possible that Cheyne Boyd will manage to eclipse
Dorron in the Pro Open points to make it a Motorex KTM 1-2 finish in
the Pro Open Championship which would really make 2004 a very
special year for the Motorex KTM squad. |
