YAMAHA RACING:

Yamaha riders have finished on the podium in both Super X Open and Lites classes at tonight’s third round of competition, held at Perth’s Burswood Dome.

Jay Marmont rebounded to finish third for CDR Rockstar Yamaha on his YZ450F, with teammate Cheyne Boyd close behind in fourth.

Kyle Cunningham continued his run of third-place finishes in the Lites class, overcoming a bad start to fight back to the podium.

The solid showing sees Marmont hold down a top three championship placing, with Cunningham’s consistency elevating him to second.

Super X Open

With the disappointment of missing the podium for the first time in 18 months fresh in their minds CDR Rockstar Yamaha bounced backed in the best possible way at Perth’s Burswood Dome with reigning Motocross Champion Jay Marmont third in tonights Super X Open final and teammate Cheyne Boyd fourth.

Marmont endured a tough road to the final, stalling his YZ450F in his second heat race then starting the ten lap final from the eighth grid pick.

The round one winnner got a good start and was second out of the first turn. He rode a consistent 10 lap final but said he didn’t quite have the pace to match race winner Dan Reardon or second placed Chad Reed.

“I didn’t feel good all night tonight,” Marmont explained. “It has been a big week emotionally for me with my baby daughter back in hospital for an operation, so I found it a bit tough to concentrate out there.

“I was second in my first heat then stalled the bike and finished sixth in the heat two.  In my third heat I finished second to Chad and ended up with the eighth gate pick for the final which was not ideal.

“Third was a good result for me tonight given the circumstances but I can promise I will come out stronger in Canberra,” Marmont vowed.

Teammate Cheyne Boyd finished the final fourth after a string of top three results across his three heat races.

Boyd admitted he was down on confidence but said he felt he had improved significantly between practice and the final.

“I have been down on confidence lately and to be honset I didn’t feel comfortable at all throughout practice,” he said.

“My heat races were better. I went 2-2-3 and then had a pretty good final race.

“Fourth is ok but I expect a lot more of myself and I know I have a  bit of work to do,” Boyd recognised.

Team Principal Craig Dack praised his riders for their dedication and admitted it was a tough time for the team.

“We are going through a little bit of a rough patch at the moment but both riders are working incredibly hard on their results,” Dack said.

“With what Jay is going through personally, I am very, very proud of what he is achieving and while Cheyne is down a bit on race confidence he is working hard to overcome it.”

While the teams transporter and bikes will head straight to next event at Canberra Stadium the riders will return to their practice tracks mid-week to fine tune their racecraft ahead of the series fourth event.

Super X Lites

Serco Yamaha’s Kyle Cunningham continues to be the picture of consistency within the Super X Lites class, recording his third consecutive third-place finish at Perth’s Burswood Dome tonight.

Cunningham and teammate Kirk Gibbs rallied within the top 5 in seeded practice before qualifying 2nd and 6th respectively for their separate semi-finals.

The YZ250F-mounted Cunningham took an easy victory in semi-final 1, holding out his closest rival by close to 6 seconds over 5 laps.

A disastrous start to the final saw both Serco Yamaha teammates drop to the back of the pack.

Cunningham staged a solid comeback to climb to third and said he simply ran out of time to make up any more ground.

“It’s nice to be on the podium again tonight, it could have been a much worse result considering the start,” said Cunningham.

“We were held for a long time at the gates then I went down on the whoops and had to spend the whole race fighting back through the field.

“With a 32-second lap time the race was far too short to make up any more positions.”

Cunningham adds another 20 points to his season tally, placing him second after three rounds of competition.

Gibbs was unable to recover from the opening lap incident and ended the Lites final in 9th.

“I had a few bad crashes in practice and my heat which left me pretty sore,” said Gibbs. “I got a slow start in the final but managed to cut up the inside into fourth for a few laps.

“I started to struggle breathing and rode tight lines, a few guys got past me in the final laps.”