Image: Jeff Crow.

The final round of the privateer-specific MX Nationals South Cup was staged at Murray Bridge over the weekend, with both the Motul MX1 and Pirelli MX2 championships awarded to deserving privateers.

The three-round championship, which provides the opportunity for riders who don’t have major backing the chance to compete for their own titles, was wrapped up with Daniel Banks and Riley Graham taking this year’s honors.

For Banks (KTM), taking out the 2015 Motul MX1 South Cup is an outstanding achievement and he shared how important these initiatives are at the MX Nationals.

“Its definitely a good feeling to win the South Cup championship as a privateer,” he said. “Williams Event Management is doing a great job with giving the privateers some exposure – I’ve been improving my results every round and its good to get something back out of doing it.

“The privateer championship is a good option for riders who don’t have the support the factory guys do, which gives them something to aim for within the series.”

KTM-mounted Graham, who has consistently finished inside the top ten in the main MX2 competition, also shared his excitement in wrapping up the Pirelli MX2 South Cup at Murray Bridge.

“It feels pretty good to wrap this one up. I’m working driving trucks 60 hours a week and I’ve only rode twice since Broadford, so its definitely hard work being a privateer,” he said.

“The tyres that we get through winning each round really does help. Tyres are expensive and every little bit contributes to going racing for sure.

“It’s great to have a championship like this at the MX Nationals, it helps to give us privateers a bit more exposure and keeps us going racing.

“After Coolum I’m actually going to stop working and focus everything on racing for the last half of the year – hopefully with some more bike time and some training I can get some results and maybe look at something for next year.”

Behind Banks in MX1 was Scott Green, while finishing behind Graham in the MX2 series was Joel Green and Tomas Ravenhorst.