The opening round of the NSW Bridgestone Supermoto Championship was played out under sunny skies at Sydney’s Oran Park last weekend.

Making his debut with KTM at the Oran Park round was Camden rider Daniel McCoy. The 20-year-old piloted a KTM 450 SMR to victory in the All Powers Challenge ahead of fellow KTM pilot Stuart Bennett.

The tables were turned in the S2 category however with reining Australian S1 Champion Bennett getting the better of McCoy for the overall victory.

Young Alex Gobert piloted a KTM 525 SX to victory in every S1 race to make for a weekend of complete KTM domination. KTM riders won every single S2, S1 and All Powers race!

A new dirt section had been laid at the Oran Park venue to produce a circuit consisting of 900m of tarmac joining with the new 180m dirt section. A tabletop and step down jump added some flavour to the dirt section while a steel ramp was laid on a fast part of the tar section to add some air-time above the tarmac.

The dirt section of the track was watered after dust became an issue and while it did its job of curing the dust problem, it also added some more variation for the riders. The watering made the dirt section quite slippery and the slick shod Supermoto machines were afforded little traction.

After winning three out of the five races he contested Stuart Bennett now heads to Queensland for the final two rounds of the 2004 Maxxis Australian Supermoto Championship. The finale will be played out in a Saturday/Sunday double-header at Toowoomba this weekend.

“This weekend coming is the big one,” remarked Bennett.

“Yesterday at Oran Park was the quickest I think I have ever been on a Supermoto bike, we have really got the KTM working brilliantly now.

“We are at the halfway point of the championship but with two rounds this weekend the game is still wide open.”

Bennett is currently second in the championship, 13 points adrift of S2 leader Shannon Johnson and six points ahead of third placed Mark Avard.

“Toowoomba is a tight little track and outright power is not as important there as it is at some of the other venues.

“The dirt section is also fairly short, which may suit some of the road race guys.

“There are also some parts of the track where you back it in on the tarmac from a long way out which makes for spectacular viewing for the crowd.”

Daniel McCoy is the newest member of Team Motorex KTM and is already fitting in nicely. What better way to start the association than with a win first time out!

McCoy has always been around motorcycles. With a cousin like road race GP star Garry McCoy it would be pretty hard not to be!

Daniel enjoyed a successful junior motocross career which culminated with victory in the Trans Tasman Supercross Challenge and Supercross Masters race wins throughout 1999.

He then had a brief flirtation with road racing, contesting selected rounds of the 2001 Australian 250cc Production Championship. He also took fourth overall in the NSW 250 Production Championship.

Then Daniel returned to his dirt roots and was picked up by the Serco Yamaha Team. He was promoted to the CDR Yamaha squad for 2004 where he experienced top results in the Australian Motocross and Supercross Championships.

Daniel will contest the 2005 Australian Motocross and Supercross Championships. He will join established incumbent Ryan Marmont to spearhead the Pro-Lite contest in the 2005 Australian Motocross Championship aboard the all-new four-stroke 250 KTM that has already earned huge success in World Motocross. The new four-stroke also took Nathan Ramsey to victory in the opening round of the World Supercross Championship held in Toronto last weekend.

McCoy will ride the Pro-Lite four-stroke in the Motocross rounds but will move up to the bigger Pro Open class for Supercross events.

Victoria’s Lee Ellis will ride for Motorex KTM in the Pro Open class in both Motocross and Supercross.

While Bennett now heads up to Queensland to contest the final rounds of the Australian Supermoto Championship McCoy will stay in NSW and contest the NSW Supercross Championship at Bulli this weekend with team-mate Ryan Marmont.

Ryan continued his adaptation to the tarmac with top five results at Oran Park last weekend in S2 Supermoto but is back into the supercross with a vengeance come Saturday night. Ryan aims to not only take out the Pro Lites class but will also shoot for the Pro Open win as he pulls double duty across both classes.