CRF Honda Racing press release:

Round three of the 2016 Australian Supercross Championship played out on Saturday night before a huge crowd of moto disciples in the City of Churches, as Adelaide’s expansive Wayville Showground hosted the latest installment in the country’s premier dirt bike stadium racing spectacle.

Once again CRF Honda Racing team riders Kyle Webster and Joel Wightman displayed the form that ranks them amongst Australia’s elite SX2 championship contenders, pushing their Pirelli-shod Honda CRF250R race machines to seventh and tenth place finishes respectively in the Adelaide main event.

Bright blue skies greeted competitors at Wayville, but the event didn’t quite start the way Webster would have hoped, the speedy Sandgroper crashing in the long and challenging whoops section no less than three times during the afternoon’s practice and Qualifying sessions.

“Luckily I managed to get one good lap in during Qualifying, and put down the seventh fastest time,” Webster explained … but the gremlins continued to strike in his Heat race. “In my Heat race I went down in the whoops again, so I pulled in to the pits,” said Webster.

“That meant I had to go to the LCQ, for the first time ever, but in that race I managed to begin to turn things around and finished the LCQ in second place behind Geran Stapleton.

“But of course that meant I had 18th gate pick for the Final,” Webster continued, “however I got a big start from the outside and managed to power drift all the way around the outside and came out of the first turn in third!

“From there I rode a bit tight considering how bad my day had been, but I eventually finished the Final in seventh place and overall was pleased with that result, all things considered for the day.”

Meanwhile team mate Joel Wightman started his day with all guns blazing, the NSW Hunter Valley ace laying down fourth fastest Qualifying time and then finishing a strong third in his Heat race, despite a bad start. But then in the all-important Final, Wightman battled with an average start.

“I just didn’t get the start in the Final that I needed to be able to run my speed and put down clean laps,” Wightman explained.

“I was towards the back of the field and amongst guys quite a bit slower than me. Then early on another rider fell in front of me and I had nowhere to go but to hit him, and I fell off.

“By the time I got back up I was so far behind, so I just tried to lay down consistent laps and eventually managed to get back up to tenth place by the finish.

“That keeps me fifth overall in the series, but I feel like I let a good result slip away, considering my speed earlier in day at the Adelaide event.”

At the halfway point of this year’s six round Australian Supercross Championship chase, Wightman continues to hold down an impressive fifth place in the SX2 standings behind front runners Hayden Mellross, Jackson Richardson, Wade Hunter and Gavin Faith, while Webster is in 14th place.

The 2016 Australian Supercross Championship continues next Saturday night (November 5) with round four at Avalon Raceway near Melbourne, before winding out with the double-header AUS-X Open event indoors at Homebush in Sydney on November 12/13.