A selection of riders detail their day at Wanneroo’s fifth round of the 2016 Motul MX Nationals. Team and privateer competitors can submit comments to [email protected] prior to the Wednesday after events for inclusion in the post-event Quotebook feature.

MX1

Image: MXN.

Kade Mosig (National Pump Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team) – 4th overall:
I came into this round prepared and believing in myself as I love riding sand, but I was disappointed I made a mistake on the opening lap of the first race. I regrouped for the second race and got up front and had some good battles on my way to fifth, which was solid, but not where I really want to be. The last moto was chaotic and I just tried to hang in there and tick my laps off. It’s encouraging to finish the first half of the season on a good note, but I feel a little frustrated with how it’s gone as a whole. We’ll reset, reassess and make some improvements before the second half of the championship swings into action.

Matt Moss (National Pump Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team) – 2nd overall:
I really felt like I got my mojo back in that last race. I was penalised, had a big crash and had some tough battles, but it really brought out the best in me. I’m happy with the result, although I felt like I could have gained better placings in the first two races. It’s good to bounce back with a podium for the whole team and go into this mid-season break on a positive note.

Jessie Dobson (KTM Motocross Racing Team) – 5th overall:
I feel a bit bummed that I didn’t do better today, but I just got a bit fatigued, and that’s just due to a lack of bike time. I’ve ridden the bike six times since I’ve been back from injury, and then raced this weekend. So the tongue came out a little bit, got caught in the chain and Mossy and Mosig ended up getting by me – I feel like I let that one slip. I’m I had a big crash in the first one when I was trying to pull a tear-off and I didn’t get my hand back on the bar while I was trying to get it fifth. That would have made the difference on the day but what can you do, sometimes I just have to learn from my mistakes and that’s what we’re doing. The results are showing that we are getting better and that’s the main thing.
Coming into this mid-season break it’s going to be good to get some more bike time in, and come into the second half ready to fire.

Kirk Gibbs (KTM Motocross Racing Team) – 1st overall:
I’d been getting great starts but I was always a little bit wider than Dean, so he was always holding the inside, but in the last one I pinched him a little harder and stayed more inside around the first turn. I went off the first tabletop and I scrubbed but jumped straight. I felt something hit the back of my bike and I guess that was Dean, it was a pretty close call for me but I just kept going, and then saw him down the next lap. I went over to the CDR boys later and said ‘sorry, but it was just a racing incident, I couldn’t do anything when I was out front’. Even Dacka said to me that it wasn’t my fault, which made me feel a little bit better – you always feel bad when someone goes down from hitting you. But obviously it was out of my control and I couldn’t do anything about that. I’m just happy to come away with a solid day. Dean was riding really well in those first two, but I was able to finish off the day strong in than last moto and get the overall. It’s nice to be where we are in the points but it is a long year and we’ll just try to keep going and having a solid second half to the year. It’s really good to get my second race win, we didn’t start the first two rounds at 100 percent, so I definitely feel like my speed has got better.

Todd Waters (Wilson’s Coolair Motul Factory Suzuki) – 3rd overall:
It wasn’t really my weekend, everything I did seemed to go wrong, but that aside, I was feeling really good in free practice on Saturday and I had the bike and my setup working well this weekend. I had a bit of a crash this morning and it corked my leg really bad, so I just raced through the pain and the second moto actually went quite well. In the third moto I felt good, but I had a crash and had to come back from around 19th to fifth. The team are happy, but I’m not completely content with today’s result. In saying that, we did move up a position in the championship and we now have the mid-season break to regroup and focus. I’m just going to spend the next few weeks getting myself and my body right and head in to the second half of the season fresh and healthy.

Luke Wilson (Wilson’s Coolair Motul Factory Suzuki) – 20th overall:
This round wasn’t as good as the last round for me. I kept it to myself but I’m not a real big fan of Wanneroo to be honest. I came here to get through this weekend, and to move on to the rest of the season – it was a hard round for me. I started off okay, I was pretty happy with 13th in moto one, but from there it went not so great. In the second race I got a decent start, but I had a crash and hurt my back again, so in the third race I was in a bit of pain and I just got through it. I’m just happy to have gotten through this weekend healthy enough to move on to the rest of the series.

Jay Wilson (Crankt Protein Honda Racing Team) – 9th overall:
Round five was tough for me. The track seemed to have a harder base than the other times that I’ve raced there, and a lot of those sharp edges and braking bumps aggravated my wrist a lot. The goal at round five for me was just to get as many championship points as I could before I head in to have surgery, and we managed to achieve that. The mid-season break will be good for us – I need some time to heal up and regroup and hopefully in the second half of the season I can start getting myself into a better position in the championship and put some better results on the board.

Dylan Long (Crankt Protein Honda Racing Team) – 6th overall:
I was relatively happy with the weekend. I raced well in the first two motos, but in the final race of the day I crashed and that effected my overall result for the day. The track at Wanneroo was very rough and deep on the weekend. We had a look at the circuit at the end of the day and it was crazy to see what we were racing on. We are improving every weekend we go racing and I’m fit and healthy, so I’m happy to head in to the mid-season break sitting in sixth in the championship and looking forward to coming back in the second half of the season swinging.

Jacob Wright (DPH Motorsport Yamaha) – 17th overall:
I struggled with bad starts but finished with managed to finish top 10 in the first two motos. This break in the series came at the perfect time and I’ll be fit and ready for round six.

MX2

Image: Jordan Deckert (Foremost Media).

Wilson Todd (Serco Yamaha) – 7th overall:
The sand over here is tough and it’s difficult to prepare for a sand track like this, but I felt I rode the track its self well. My starts weren’t great and as a result, I ended up back in the pack and getting caught up with other riders. I have a lot to learn and each round I think I learn a little more. To be sitting fifth after the first half of the series is good, now my focus is to eliminate the mistakes and be stronger in the second half of the championships.

Wade Hunter (Serco Yamaha) – 10th overall:
It was a frustrating day for me and the results don’t show what I can do on the track. In race one I was right there and trying to pass into fifth when I hit a rider and went down then a similar thing happened in race three. My goal was to put three top five results together today and I felt I was capable of doing that so I’m a little disappointed that it didn’t happen, but we have a five week break now and I will continue to work hard and get back to my best.

Jake Moss (National Pump Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team) – 17th overall:
Today was the worst day of racing I’ve had this year. It’s disappointing as Wanneroo is one of my favourite tracks in Australia and I came in prepared and confident of a good result. I’m pretty sore after my crash, but this five-week break has come at a perfect time, I’ll be working hard to ensure I’m back to full health before round six.

Jed Beaton (DPH Motorsport Yamaha) – 5th overall:
Not a great day for me with two bad starts and a small crash. It was good to end the day on a high with 2nd in the last moto after leading for a while.

Dylan Wills (Raceline Pirelli KTM) – 8th overall:
I started off pretty well at Wanneroo. I managed to make some passes, but I just struggled with some arm-pump in the last moto. Overall, the round was sort of what I expected. You sort of had to have raced at Wanneroo to really do well, and it was my first time racing there. It really was a next level track. We took a lot of lessons out of round five and next time we race there I’m definitely going to know what I’m in for. All in all I got eighth overall, which isn’t exactly where I want to be, but we’re getting better each round and I’m working on the intensity side of things, so I’m looking forward to the mid-season break and getting back to racing at Nowra in five week’s time.

Caleb Ward (KTM Motocross Racing Team) – 2nd overall:
I lost one point to the championship lead, but I gained points on Jed and moved up to third in the championship so it was a decent day. I think I was five points up on Crawford going into the that last moto, but I sort of stuffed it up a little bit, my lower back was really sore and I just didn’t really get into a flow but hey, it happens. I just wasn’t jumping all the bumps or getting the turns nice, I was making a lot of mistakes and wasn’t riding to my potential. All in all still a decent day but it could have been a lot better if I’d have been able to flow a bit better.

Jayden Rykers (Davey Motorsports KTM) – 3rd overall:
It’s a good feeling to be back at home and in comfortable surroundings, and to get a good result in front of the home crowd, family and friends. They were stoked on how the day went. The track was completely different to when we raced there for the State titles and stuff, it’s never formed up like it did today. It made for interesting racing and really leveled the playing field. I had three top-six starts today, and always knocked off a few guys in the first couple of corners, so it wasn’t too much work going through the pack. It’s really great to move up into fourth in my rookie season, and to go with the podium into the mid-season break is really good for the confidence.

Nathan Crawford (Husqvarna) – 1st overall:
This feeling is indescribable. I’ve won rounds before but it hasn’t felt this good since I had that wildcard ride at Swan Hill as an U19 rider and won. It’s a great feeling because of how brutal the track was and how deep the class is. For me to carry the momentum into the break is great. I used to think the red plate would be a bit of a weight around my neck, but now I feel like I’m going to take every round one step at a time. Every race we rock up to, we start from zero. That’s what we’ve been doing this year and that’s been working for me, I think my worst result this year moto-wise has been eighth and other than that I’ve consistently been inside the top five. I guess that’s what got me the red plate and a 13-point lead, so I’m pretty happy with that. I’ve never actually had the red plate before in my senior career, so I’m very happy.

Kyle Webster (CRF Honda Racing) – 4th overall:
Today just started out awesome! Getting my first moto win felt so good, plus it was such a relief, to tell you the truth. Getting that first moto win just makes the desire to win again even greater, now that I have had a taste of it. We’ve got a bit of a break now before the Championship resumes, but I can’t wait to get back into it.

Joel Wightman (CRF Honda Racing) – 11th overall:
That was just a super-gnarly sand track! There’s nothing that compares to the Wanneroo track back home, so for someone like me, with little experience in that really deep kind of sand, I was happy to finish 11th overall for the day. I improved through the day as we raced each moto and brought it home tenth in the final moto, which was a solid way to end the day, plus I moved up a place in the Championship to be 11th in the standings as we head into the mid-season break. I definitely learnt a lot from the Wanneroo round for furture sand track races, but I also can’t wait to get to the next couple of rounds in NSW and at Conondale in Queensland, which is where I won a MXD class race back in 2014.