Kawasaki Motors Australia press release:

Complete Parts Kawasaki Racing’s Rhys Carter and Aaron Tanti both displayed top five performances in today’s fifth round of the 2018 MX Nationals at Murray Bridge, South Australia, to record top 10 results overall.

Qualifying in ninth, New Zealand’s Carter put on a stellar display in race one, storming to fifth in the highly-competitive field. It was a confidence-inspiring race that rewarded him with a result to match his capabilities on-board the KX450F.

Race two didn’t pan out as planned after losing a number of positions in the opening laps and ultimately having difficulty in latching onto the pace of the lead group. In the end, he wound up ninth for ninth overall, equal on points for eighth. He now sits eighth in the championship standings.

“The first moto was real good – I wanted to be in the top five and that’s where I was,” Carter explained. “The second moto I got an awesome start, but then I just got flustered in the following turns and tightened up.

“I tried getting into a groove following that. The finish wasn’t the greatest, but the first moto was really good. It’s going to be good to have a month off, I’ve been going since October, so it will be nice to relax and recharge the batteries.”

Tanti experienced a trying opening moto as he was forced to recover from an early incident, salvaging 10th in a spirited effort. He returned to form in the final outing, negotiating his way through the field to earn fifth position and grant him eighth overall. He’s currently P4 in the point-standings.

“It was an up and down weekend,” Tanti admitted. “The first moto wasn’t really what I wanted, I had a poor start and ended up getting caught with some riders and went down. I got a better start in the second moto, but I had to fight my way back to fifth.

“I need consistent motos, I can’t be doing these races where I have one good and one bad moto, however the points are tight between second to fourth so it’s going to be a fight for the championship all the way until the end of the season.”

Team manager Jay Foreman acknowledged it was a challenging weekend for outfit, however he’s adamant on putting the upcoming break in the series to good use, with further technical developments planned for the team’s KX450F and KX250F.

“It was challenging weekend for us,” Foreman reflected. “Aaron struggled a little in the first moto, but in the second he rode better in tough track conditions. It was all about track position from the start to run the speed of the front guys.

“Rhys was similar in his second race – he dropped off the from the first couple of guys and struggled in touch with them. It will be good to have some time to work on the bikes over the break to apply what we’ve learned during the first five rounds and we will look to finish strongly.”

The Complete Parts Kawasaki Racing team will be out on track next at Conondale in Queensland, marking the sixth stop of the MX Nationals series following the extended mid-season break on Sunday, 1 July. Head to www.mxnationals.com.au for further details on the series.

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