Image: Alex Gobert (Foremost Media).

CDR Yamaha’s Craig Dack has commended the efforts of Dean Ferris and his team personnel following the defending Motul MX Nationals MX1 champion’s impressive Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship debut over the weekend at High Point.

Capturing a strong second-place finish in the opening 450 Class moto and finishing the day in seventh overall following a pair of crashes in moto two, Dack said it came as no surprise to see the level of success that his Australian CDR-developed YZ450F achieved in the US.

Dack’s Victorian-based CDR organisation has long been recognised as one of Yamaha’s premier teams globally, boasting significant success locally over its 25-year history including winning six of the last 10 Australian national MX1 championships with Jay Marmont (2008-2011), Josh Coppins (2012) and Ferris (2016).

“We took all of the parts that we run here in Australia over there, including a swing-arm, but the only thing that we didn’t take that we run over here were our Kite wheels,” Dack told MotoOnline.com.au. “Pretty much everything else that we run over here, the boys took.

“Without trying to sound cocky, I have 100 percent faith in what my guys do and the input that they have with the bike. I know the level that they’ve built that bike too, so I’m not surprised. I knew that our bike was very good, we’ve got a great base product to work from with Yamaha anyway, but I know what we do has made for a very good bike.”

Although a risky mid-season move for the current MX Nationals MX1 points leader and the entire team, it was a proud moment for the CDR Yamaha boss who honoured a handshake agreement made late last year to allow Ferris to contest an overseas event in 2017.

“To actually see it side-by-side with those factory bikes in America and see that it was as fast and handles as good, if not better, it certainly makes you feel proud that’s for sure,” Dack explained.

“Personally, being an ex-rider myself and being in this sport, although it is a job, you’ve still got a lot of passion for it. So from a passionate enthusiast type of thing, I was really happy to see it and I applaud him for sticking his neck out and having a crack, so from that point of view I was really happy for him.”

Dack also applauded the Ferris for self-funding his entire mid-season American trip, again proving his dedication and hunger to succeed in the sport of motocross.

“Dean covered all the costs involved in racing this event too, which included bringing both Brad [McAlpine] and Aiden [Meltzer] to the US – that is quite impressive to me,” Dack commented. “He continues to show us time and time again that he is determined to bring his career to the next level both domestically and internationally.”

With a matured relationship between Ferris and the CDR Yamaha team, Dack will leave Ferris’ MX Nationals second-half preparations in his hands as we near Nowra’s sixth round of racing action on 2 July: “I just sit back now and let him and the technical people work together. I have a little bit of input, just when it’s needed, but it’s just pretty much set and I leave it to him.

“If you had to do a blueprint of a rider, Dean is the one you would copy it off. He’s organised, he’s professional, he’s dedicated and he’s a super-fit athlete at a really high level, much higher than anyone else here in Australia. He just ticks all of the boxes, so apart from just the general administration or day-to-day business stuff, he’s just on his own program now.”

Ferris was accompanied at High Point by CDR Yamaha team members Aiden Meltzer and Brad McAlpine, who have played a significant role in his success alongside the rest of the squad since he returned to Australia at the beginning of his title-winning 2016 campaign.