Image: Jeff Crow.

The first round of the 2015 privateer North Cup kicked off at Coolum last weekend, providing the chance for riders who aren’t supported by a factory team to kick-start their own battles.

The North Cup will now take place as the MX Nationals series moves from the Southern states, into New South Wales and Queensland for the final rounds of the series.

In the Motul MX1 class is was privateer Ricky Latimer who claimed the opening series honours, taking his TLR Yamaha to 14th in each of the two motos and finishing the round in 14th overall. He won ahead of Darcy Jones and Mathew McEntee.

“It was a good weekend to learn from and something to build off as it was only our first race for the year,” he said. “Considering I missed the first half due to injury, so it was good to get it done and finish where we did.

“The Privateer Cup is hugely important and there probably needs to be more things like it in other series. I think it is awesome – it’s absolutely fantastic.”

For the Pirelli MX2 class it was Geordie McGrath (DMR Racing) taking maximum points in the Cup, with a 15th and 27th in his two races to finish the round 20th overall. Behind him was Dylan Wills and Peter Ferguson.

“I felt like I went pretty well in the first race, but in the second moto I had a bit of bad luck and dropped it a few times,” he said. “It was a little bit disappointing in the second race as I was on track for a good overall result.

“The support for privateers is huge. I work an average 45 hours a week and am paying for all of my own stuff, and it’s good to have that extra bit of support.”