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2005 Australian Motocross
Championship - Round Three - Toowoomba - KTM Report April 25th, 2005 - By, Trevor Hedge |
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2005 Australian Motocross
Championship - Round Three - Toowoomba - KTM Report April 25th, 2005 - By, Trevor Hedge |
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| The biggest crowd of the
series thus far turned up to witness thrills and spills aplenty
at Toowoomba’s Echo Valley circuit over the Anzac Day long
weekend for the third round of the 2005 Australian Motocross
Championships. The hard packed and hilly Queensland circuit proved a happy hunting ground for Motorex KTM teamster Ryan Marmont who took his first ever outdoor motocross round win at the controls of KTM’s new 250 SXF Pro Lite weapon. Daniel McCoy got the holeshot in the opening Pro Lite moto and had built up a solid lead over the first five laps before being caught out on a large uphill triple jump. McCoy hit the ground very hard and was wearing some marks across his face from an impact with his bars. It took a little while for McCoy to compose himself and lost a lap but did manage to finish the race, albeit out of the points. That was quite a blow for the Camden youngster after holding down such a dominant position in the race but he bounced back in the second moto for a podium finish to take some reasonable points for the round that sees him only a handful of points away from the top five in the championship. Marmont also had not had a fruitful start to the day with a fall in the first moto leaving him to battle his way back through the pack for 5th. He made amends for that in the final bout by dominating proceedings and led every lap on his way to a clear victory over Queensland local Daniel Reardon. The combination of those two results was enough to give Marmont the overall Pro Lite round win from Troy Carroll and he will try to back that up at Coolum this weekend in an effort to overcome Cameron Taylor for the outright championship lead. Such was Marmont’s pace in the second Pro Lite moto that his laptimes were quicker than all but three of the bigger engined Pro Open competitors around the long Toowoomba track. Lee Ellis was scintillatingly quick in practice and also nailed the starts in the Pro Open category. Ellis ran with new championship leader Daryl Hurley for some time in the opening bout before getting cross-rutted on a very fast downhill section. A sickening impact with the ground left the Victorian winded and nursing the wrist he damaged earlier in the season. Ellis bounced back in the second moto with another great start and was running in 3rd place before the pain from his wrist slowed his pace. His suffering allowed Hurley, Carmichael and Ham to push him back to 6th place as the race wound down to add insult to the injury. Motorex KTM Team Manager Rob Twyerould was impressed with the pace shown by Ellis before that race one incident and is confident that it is only a matter of time before the results start coming for Ellis. “Lee’s pace was great and he nailed both starts today but that impact at the fastest part of the track in the opening moto really made him suffer. He battled on to take some reasonable points in the second moto but if not for that race one impact I am sure we would have seen some great results from Lee today. “The boys will test this week before we head to Coolum where hopefully all of our riders can keep their machines upright so we can take away some top results in both classes.” Rider Quotes Ryan Marmont – “The track was really muddy in practice and I couldn’t really get a clear lap and thus got a poor pick of the grid. That cost me in the opening moto as I was running around 9th early on in the race before I went down after coming together with another rider. Thankfully the bike remained running and I managed to rejoin the race in 14th. From thereon I concentrated on trying to just put together some clean laps to work my way forward and managed to salvage 5th for that race. I knew my pace was good and I just had to get a decent start in the final moto for me to able to put that pace to best use. “I did manage to get that good start in the second moto and pretty much rode the whole race by myself. I got a little bit of pressure in the closing stages from Daniel Reardon but it was nothing major and I went on to take the win reasonably easy.” “Next up we go to Coolum which is a track I quite like and we know what to expect there. I head there with plenty of confidence and am determined to try and put together some back to back victories so I can start narrowing the gap to Cam Taylor.” Daniel McCoy – “I had to lift really hard to try and make the biggest triple on the track but came up a little short and got hammered. My head impacted with the bars pretty hard which left me a little dizzy. I did manage to finish but didn’t score any points unfortunately. “I got squeezed out a little in the start of the second moto but quickly made my way up to 3rd. I did then take a little tumble which lost me a couple of positions but I got straight back on and managed to get back up to 3rd before the race wrapped up. “We are going to stay up here this week and continue with some testing on the new bike and hopefully I can keep it on two wheels at Coolum this weekend so we can have both Motorex KTM Pro Lite riders on the podium come this time next Sunday.” Lee Ellis – “I went really well in qualifying and set the 2nd quickest time and capitalised on a good gate pick by actually managing to nail the starts but unfortunately then everything else went wrong. “I got a great start in the opening moto and was running with the race leader over the opening laps before going down real hard. The impact was pretty severe and along with winding myself I managed to give my already injured wrist a good whack which put me out of that race. “Again got a good run off the line in the second moto to be running a strong 3rd but as the race wore on my wrist really started giving me hell and thus I drifted back a little as the race went on and ended up taking 6th. I also split the webbing in my hand and had to go to hospital to get that stitched up. “We did manage to take some points but it is a little disappointing that we had such great pace only to be brought undone by that really fast section in the opening moto. Our speed is really encouraging though and now it is just the matter of keeping it altogether in order to score some consistent top results.”
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