ajs2007

AJS Motorcyle Club held the first round of the WA State Motocross Series for 2007 on the weekend March 18th. Huge amounts of riders had the pits bursting at the seems, record entries in most classes were evident come practice. The new GCR's stated all riders on the first lap of practice will ride under Yellow flags, which means they canot jump. Over the last few years its become evident that some riders have come to grief during practice, so 1 slow lap to check out the track, has become the order of the day.

It was nice to see the commentators continue on their Quad Nationals routine of revving up the riders and the crowd with specifically chosen music pieces, followed by the National Anthem, which the solo riders have finally taken it on board to stand next to their bikes. Amazingly the theme to Rocky & "Lets Get Ready to Rumble" still gives me goose bumps.

I'm afraid I'm not going to give a blow by Blow description of every race, but a run down of all the things that stood out in a day that saw 262 riders battle 40 degree heat on a torturous track that amazingly only took a few victims, it seems more victims were dealt the wrath of the Noise testing official than St Johns, and MWA showed this year they were serious in reducing noice polution in Motocross.

Pro Quad racers were missing WA #1 Graham Terry, unfortunately GT has not recovered fully to start the season from an accident at the Quad Nationals, I heard he will be back in Round 2 and we all know Kalgoorlie has Grahams name stamped all over it, its his sand box and no one will demand the holeshot more than he.

Chad McKay was the star of Round 1, it is very obvious to all who were watching that Chad has been training hard and has his eyes on the title this year. Chad put in two amazing races, that left all riders in his wake, with everyone commenting that no one had a chance of catching him all day as he was in the zone.
Chris Brenton AUS #1 was noticebly still suffering the effects of a Training crash that left him with a broken leg, Flying through the air into the quarry didnt seem to slow him up at all, and every race saw him go for holeshot. Chris has another 3 weeks before Round 2 and I'm sure will be back to his best. One of the best sporting moments of the day, was seeing Chris Brentons Honda Shop Team Mate Anthony Yewers who took second for the day, stop at the pit return at the completion of each race and applaud Chris's efforts in finishing all races knowing the pain he must of been suffering. Ant had a brilliant day finishing 3rd 2nd 1st respectively.
I was standing in the spectator area on the straight leading to the Quarry jump on race 3, where Chad made a small error in removing a tear-off ,lost exceleration and saw Ant "Freight Train" past him and leave Chad to settle for second. Ryan Lancaster was 3rd for the day having a 2nd 3rd 3rd, having competed most of his career in the North West on Hard pack tracks, its amazing to see how he has adapted to the rough sand tracks of the West Coast.
Glen Ashworth, Josh Higson, Colin Jefferies battled it out all day, with Josh having won the Intermediate class at the recent Nationals he was promoted to Pro, and can certainly hold his own. Josh is pretty much on a stock Suzuki with a pipe, you can see from the photos he must have some deal with red bull, cause he certainly has wings ! Josh is definately a rider on the rise and I cant wait to see his results from Kalgoorlies hard Pack track, where it will be more like his home track of Esperance.
This Round saw 5 Intermedaites and competing withing the pro class is no easy task, consistency seemed to pay off for Tom Stevens taking the overall win for the day, with Coby Holland who had 2 wins and a DNF finish in 4th. Taylor Milling with 4th 4th 1st took out overall 2nd for the round. Michael Harcourt with a hatrick of thirds finished 3rd for the round. Chris Sloot unfortunately had dramas with Noise and then a CDI problem totally finished his day.

Clubman Round 1 second place rider Luke Harrison is an amazing young rider that we've seen around since he was about 14 yrs old on a Honda 400EX, he seems to have taken to the 450ER with great ease and certainly pushed Dean Terry and Scott Higson to race to their potential. Scott Higson is Josh's Dad and certainly takes it to the young guys, this round he managed to win the money in first place.
There were many New faces in the clubman Class, #553 Steve Trandos got his first race win at a State round in the Clubman class, keeping the points spread across the field. Its always great at the start of the season when the clubmans provide different winners for every race, slowly over the season, some riders decide they will take it to the next level, and start to excell pushing them up the overall leader board for the year. Mason Sloot contested his first state round after what must of seemed to him like a lifetime of waiting to turn 16, along with brother Chris, these boys are certainly competitive and I would be surprised if Mason doesnt put in a podium finish really soon.

This year is set for a pearler, an amazing group of riders that I'm sure we will see at each round, with new faces dropping in to ride at their favoured tracks. It all comes down to who puts the whole series together, and who plays catch up,or drops the ball, without ALL the riders there wouldnt be a race, so lets fill those grids !!

Dont forget Round 2 will be held Easter Sunday in Kalgoorlie April 8th

Bethwyn
waquadmx.com

Results as per MyLaps.com

Chad McKay 72 points
Anthony Yewers 67 points
Ryan Lancaster 62 points
Chris Brenton 52 points
Glen Ashworth 47 points
Josh Higson 45 points
Colin Jefferies 43 points
Brett Pretricevich 37 points
Jared Mansell 35 points
Kevin Fanning 32 points
Clint Mansell 31 points
Roman Czubek 31 points
Grant Gaisford 25 points

Intermediates

Tom Stevens 66 points
Taylor Milling 61 points
Michael Harcourt 60 points
Coby Holland 50 points
Chris Sloot 0

Clubman

Scott Higson 67 points
Luke Harrison 59 points
Dean Terry 58 points
Steve Trandos 57 points
Darryle Maringonie 50 points
Ben Papas 49 points
Daniel Udell 40 points
Tom Udell 37 points
Brian Williams 31 points
Mason Sloot 30 points
Mike Allfrey 29 points
Ross Varnavides 27 points
Brendan Reynolds 26 points
James Tilbee 26 points
Neil Parry 20 points
Darren Williams 0 points