Team Shift Motul Suzuki's champion rider, Daryl Hurley won round three of the Australian Motocross Nationals Championship in a nail-biting finish at Wonthaggi (VIC), today.

The 30-year-old Suzuki rider further extended his series advantage to 26 points to hold on to the leader's red plate for the third consecutive round.

Coming through to claim third place in difficult circumstances in race one, Hurley was in a class of his own in the second 30-minute contest, winning by almost 12 seconds to seal the race and round win.

Still nursing a wrist injury sustained at the Perth Supercross round, Hurley's team-mate Luke Burkhart put in another tenacious ride to claim eighth spot in race one before succumbing to immense pain and dropping a lap to finish 18th in the second race.

Despite scoring 17 valuable points and finishing 12th for the round, Burkhart slipped just outside the top ten for the first time this season.

The young New Zealander will seek further medical advice regarding his wrist injury prior to the upcoming round at Connondale.

Looking to consolidate their series lead, Team Shift Motul Suzuki heads to round four of the 2006 Motocross Nationals Series in Connondale (QLD) on Sunday 7 May.

DARYL HURLEY - TEAM SHIFT MOTUL SUZUKI
"The first race didn't go to plan, we had the wrong bike set-up for the conditions, but we made some changes for race two and the RM-Z450 was working brilliantly.

"Connondale is my favourite track, so I'm really looking forward to the next round, but I don't want to get too confident yet.

"It's a long season and anything can happen so you can never relax, but if I can maintain consistent results then hopefully the number one plate will still be on my Suzuki at the end."

LUKE BURKHART - TEAM SHIFT MOTUL SUZUKI
"I'm still carrying this wrist injury - it's really difficult to hang on to the handlebars and after a couple of 30-minute motos it's excruciating.

"With such a full race calendar I haven't had time between events to mend - I just hope I'm not doing greater damage.

"I'm staying in Australia between this round and the next and I'm going to take the opportunity to see a specialist about my wrist.

JAY FOREMAN - TEAM SHIFT MOTUL SUZUKI TEAM MANAGER
"Daryl was gaining momentum throughout the day as the other guys began fading and that's a testament to all the hard-work and training that he's been putting in.

"As a team manager, it's very rewarding to have riders that put in as much effort training and working on themselves as we do with preparing the race bikes. hopefully that commitment from the whole team can deliver us the title again in 2006."

2006 AUSTRALIAN MOTOCROSS NATIONALS CHAMPIONSHIP

Pro Open Overall Results - Round 3
1 Daryl Hurley (Suzuki RM-Z450) 45, 2 Craig Anderson 44, 3 Cody Cooper 41, 4 Darryll King 34, 5 Daniel Reardon 33, 6 Shayne King 31, 7 Cheyne Boyd 30, 8 Craig Carmichael 25, 9 Matt Moss 24, 10 Timmy Weigand 19

Pro Open Championship points - after Round 3
1 Daryl Hurley (Suzuki RM-Z450) 137, 2 Craig Anderson 111, 3 Cody Cooper 95, 4 Darryll King 92, 5 Daniel Reardon 92, 6 Shayne King 91, 7 Cheyne Boyd 88, 8 Timmy Weigand 71, 9 Craig Carmichael 65, 10 Peter Boyle 65