KTM Australia press release:

KTM Newcastle rider Cooper Pozniak made his swansong in national junior racing a memorable one, as he secured the Australian Junior Lites championship in last night’s Australian Supercross championship finale at Knights Stadium in Melbourne.

Pozniak showed he had no shortage of pace, winning the first and second final races, but when he came unstuck off a freshly prepped upramp and crashed to the rear of the field, the 16-year-old ensured an exciting climax to the title chase was about to occur. Needing to finish fifth or better to lock up the championship, Pozniak pushed through to fourth place in time for the chequered flag.

In SX2 racing, Davey Motorsports rider Lewis Woods finished third behind Jackson Richardson and Wade Hunter to haul himself into third position in the championship, which was won by American Jimmy Decotis ahead of Richardson.

KTM Newcastle’s Dylan Wills was unlucky not to win the final round, launching from the gates and leading for two-thirds of the race until he was sidelined by a freak component failure.

In the SX1 class, KTM Motocross Racing Team had no factory presence thanks to injuries to riders Luke Styke and Kirk Gibbs. Styke, who was injured last round in Sydney, has foregone surgery on his ruptured Achilles tendon and elected new therapies as he seeks the leanest possible recovery timeline, while Gibbs, who suffered a fractured pelvis during training in late October, continues rapid improvement. The SX1 class went to Lawson Bopping from Daniel McCoy and Taylor Potter, with Daniel Reardon winning the championship.

Cooper Pozniak – “This feels awesome. I’ve been concentrating so hard for the Supercross season and it has finally started to pay off. I can’t wait til next year to get up in the under 19’s and show them what I can do in motocross and supercross.

“I won the first two last night, and then when they prepped the track before the last one, they ripped the triple up and I hit it and just over jumped it and crashed on the first lap. I need to finish fifth or better to win the championship, and I came from dead last back to fourth. So I just scraped through! “My bike has been awesome this year, I’ve had RG3 All-Pro Racing Suspension in my bike this year, and that’s been awesome, and the KTM, I’m absolutely loving it, it’s the best bike I’ve ever ridden.”

Lewis Woods – “Going into the round I was fourth, but I just had to gain a couple of points on the next rider and I was able to do that. I was getting good starts all night, my bike was awesome – KTM helped out by sending some parts and Jordan from the factory team really looked after me. We won the heat – then in the main event I was pretty solid. I only needed to finish ahead of Stapleton to take the championship third and I did.

I’m happy with how I went this season, I reached my goals. I wanted to be a podium guy and I got that win which was great, and another third including overall. We did have some bad races, there were a couple of ninth places. Earlier in the season we weren’t looking real good, with bad starts and crashes in the first turns, that sort of thing, then once we got that win it bumped me up there and as I developed the bike I raced myself into shape – I’m kind of shattered its finished!”

Dylan Wills – “I got the holeshot and pretty much checked out for nine laps and then my shock bolt snapped, I tried to keep riding to get some points but I couldn’t. I struggled a little bit in qualifying, it had that same orange dirt as Adelaide and once the night air and the moisture came, I was right on the pace. I’m stoked with a championship went this year, if I’d have won that race I’d have finished fourth in the championship, but that’s how it goes. For my rookie year, I put my name up the front, ran near the podium a few times, made some good passes and battled with some good riders. It’s great.”

For more information on KTM Motorcycles, visit www.ktm.com.au or www.facebook.com/KTMAustralia