HQVA press release:

It was a difficult day for Husqvarna’s Factory Support squad as it contested the ninth round of this year’s MX Nationals championship at the famous Echo Valley Raceway in Toowoomba.

With two of its five riders out of the picture – MX1 racer Jesse Dobson with a meniscal tear in his knee and MX2 competitor Luke Arbon with a stomach-lining virus – podiums proved elusive for two of the most highly ranked members in their respective classes, Connor Tierney and Nathan Crawford.

West Australian Under 19 championship contender Tierney has been one of the absolute standout competitors of the MX Development class all year, but he carried an ankle injury into the round and in the deep and sticky ruts of Toowoomba, gave the ankle a good tweak.

The Husqvarna TC 250 racer still soldiered on to pick up twelfth place in that race, then regrouped in the second moto with seventh place, for seventh on the day in a class won by Wilson Todd from Jayden Rykers and Jesse Madden.

In the MX2 class, Nathan Crawford shook off a first-race crash and ninth placing in the opener to power his Husqvarna FC 250 into fifth in the second for sixth on the day, behind round winner Jay Wilson, Takeshi Katsuya and Caleb Ward.

Crawford will now turn his attention towards next weekend’s championship finale, which takes place at his home venue of Coolum. The only Husqvarna Factory Support racer in the MX1 class this weekend, Craig Anderson Racing’s Aaron Tanti took his Husqvarna FC 350 to two, 14th placings in the premier division after running as high as fifth in the second moto.

Aaron Tanti – FC 350: “It was tough here. The ruts were deep, and they were a different kind with heaps of clay, and there were heaps of downhills into corners where you were really hard on the anchors a lot of the time, it was hard work. I was happier with my second moto, I got a good start from a really wide gate and just went around everyone and came out in like sixth or something. I was running good lap times at the start of the moto, but then the track just wore me out and then I just dropped back and ended up getting 12th.
Being a third year air-conditioning apprentice, it’s hard work and I don’t get the time to train. But I have to support myself.”

Nathan Crawford – FC 250: “It was a really good motocross track here that’s for sure, ruts everywhere. In that first one I got a good start, but in that second corner, I crashed in this line I found on the sighting lap that looked real grippy. I came into it hot and lost both front and rear. It was the first lap so obviously everyone has passed me, and then I was just fighting my way back and I ended up getting up to ninth. In the second moto I was in second for the first 5 to 6 minutes in a pretty tight battle, but I got passed and went backwards, and then I took too long to make my passes so I ended up getting fifth in that moto. I need to get my passes going a bit better.”

Connor Tierney – TC 250 “I’m pretty disappointed. I hurt my ankle through the week but I thought I was alright even though it meant I didn’t really get good bike time this week. I think I was top five in that first Moto, but I tweaked my knee and I think I just re-tore everything. I dropped back pretty far and just tried to get some points in that race. This track you can get caught dragging your feet through the ruts so I had to keep them on the pegs as much as I could. We’ve got one more round so we’ll see if I can recover a little bit. I won’t ride this week, I’ll rest it up, and try to get back as healthy as I can for Coolum. Try and get back to where I think I should be.”

For more information on Husqvarna motorcycles visit www.husqvarna-motorcycles.com.