Yamaha Racing’s factory motocross teams have both made triumphant returns to Broadford’s State Motorcycle Sports Complex in Victoria for round eight of the Nokia Motocross Nationals after a six year absence with both teams enjoying podium spoils today.

Reigning Pro Lites champion, Serco Yamaha’s Cameron Taylor kept his Pro Lites title defence on target, maintaining second in the championship after finishing third overall.

CDR/Nokia/Yamaha celebrated a round of solid results with the Geelong based teams three regular campaigners all finishing the round in the top five with Cheyne Boyd shaking off his recent injury woes, returning to the podium in third place.

CDR/Nokia/Yamaha

Yamaha Racing’s Factory Pro Open team CDR/Nokia/Yamaha has celebrated its best round result of the 2006 Nokia Motocross Nationals with riders Cheyne Boyd, Darryll King and Matt Moss all finishing inside the top five at round eight of the ten round national motocross series.

While Cheyne Boyd was the best placed of the three factory regulars, finishing third for the round and enjoying his first podium of 2006, team mate Matt Moss made a spectacular return to racing after six weeks sidelined with a broken collar bone, claiming holeshot in both thirty minute Pro Open motos.

After taking holeshot in the opening race Moss went down on the third lap and was left playing catch-up while team mates Darryll King and Cheyne Boyd both rode solid races finishing second and third respectively. Moss fought back to finish sixth and 16 year old Sunshine Coast rider Ford Dale, filling in for the still injured Troy Carroll, crossed the chequered flag in 16th position after crashing heavily and breaking a finger while in fourth place.

After securing his second holeshot Moss lead the final pro open race until being passed by Daniel Reardon with only minutes left on the clock. A crash late in the race left Darryll King back in the pack and forced to settle for tenth place after he was unable to make up ground on the front runners.

While Cheyne Boyd got off to a good start in the second race he came unstuck while setting up a pass on team mate Matt Moss. A second off only moments later saw the Victorian rider fly over the handlebars of his YZ450F but a quick re-mount enabled him to come home in fourth place.

Ford Dale's misfortune continued with the 16 year old dismounting his Yamaha whilst sitting inside the top ten before finishing in 13th place.

A jubilant Cheyne Boyd basked in his first visit to the motocross podium in 2006, finishing third for the round and moving to seventh in the championship.

“I am very happy that my pace is back to normal,” Boyd said. “I changed my training program considerably as I felt I got into a few bad habits and my speed was certainly up during the week.

“In the first moto I pushed my way through the pack to finish third and I was quite happy with this result as I had a small off early in the race.

“Overall it was a good day over the last three weeks I have been changing my approach and doing a few different things, in all honesty this is the way I should have been riding from the start of the season,” Boyd concluded.

Fourth overall for the round Matt Moss said his shoulder was perfect throughout the two gruelling motos.

“I was really happy with my performance today,” Moss said. “I couldn’t have asked for more at my first race back and my shoulder was just perfect even after my off.

“My main aim now is to finish the next two races inside the top five and finish the season on a high.”

Finishing fifth overall Darryll King also retained fifth in the championship and with two rounds still left to go feels he is back to his old self.

“There are still two rounds to go and I feel as though I am back to my old self,” King said.

“I missed the start in the opening race but I was able to work my way back to second and then tried to conserve some energy for the second moto.

“In the second race I was battling with Anderson for most of the race and had a stupid crash in the later stages.

While a broken thumb threw a spanner in the works for Ford Dale the teenage sensation never gave up, racing on to finish 14th overall.

“The bike was awesome and I was right up there in the opening race before I crashed and broke my finger,” Dale said.

“I was in a fair bit of pain but couldn’t give so in hindsight I am not too disappointed with my results.

The CDR/Nokia/Yamaha team will head to round nine of the series at Newcastle’s Barleigh Ranch with renewed confidence following this weekend’s impressive top five results.
Serco Yamaha

Yamaha Racing’s factory Pro Lites team is celebrating another well earned podium to reigning champion Cameron Taylor after the 32 year old Victorian rider finished third overall at the eighth round of the series today.

Taylor’s team mates Robbie Marshall and Jake Moss also put on impressive performances to finish inside the top ten, Marshall in fifth and Moss eighth.

Following some mixed qualifying results that saw Taylor secure second gate pick and Marshall and Moss 13th and 14th respectively all three Serco Yamaha riders were rewarded with top ten finishes in race one.

Taylor worked his way from fourth to take the race win ahead of Troy Dorron and current championship leader Ryan Marmont, while Robbie Marshall recovered from a bad start to finish in sixth and Moss was ninth after dismounting his YZ250F.

After changing to a hard packed tyre for the second moto Cameron Taylor spun off the line and had his work cut out for him in catching the leaders. Team mate Robbie Marshall worked his way through to fourth while Taylor suffered a bent clutch while avoiding other peoples incidents in the early stages of the race.

Taylor was forced to settle for sixth while team mate Jake Moss was suffering with a case of deja-vu, crashing heavily in the race and coming home in ninth place.

Third for the round and currently second in the championship Taylor said his tyre choice in the second moto cost him the round win.

“While I had a great first race my second race was not so perfect,” Taylor said. “I changed my tyre to a hard pack tyre and spun off the line, I then bent my clutch and took some skin off trying to avoid other peoples' incidents,”

“By the end of the second moto I was out of steam.”

“There are still two rounds to go so the championship is by no means over yet, I am riding well and will do what ever I can to try and win the remaining races,” Taylor added.

Finishing fifth overall for the round Robbie Marshall has leapt to fourth in the championship.

“I really made up some good points today,” Marshall said.

“I am very happy with my results as well and truly achieved my goal of staying inside the top five.”

Despite his misfortunes Jake Moss still finished inside the top ten and is currently eighth in the championship.

“Even though it was a pretty tough day I will be back on the bike as soon as possible in a bid to turn things around for this weekend’s Newcastle round,” Moss said.

“Days like today are very frustrating because I know I have the speed to be up the front but a few silly mistakes are costing me dearly.”

With the penultimate round of the Nokia Motocross Nationals to be held at Newcastle’s Barleigh Ranch next Sunday all three Serco Yamaha riders will intensify their training schedules in preparation for the rocky circuit.