CRF Honda Racing press release:

Australia’s top dirt bike racers and a star studded line-up of international heavy hitters descended on Auckland, New Zealand, for the S-X Open event staged on Saturday night (November 16) upon the expansive infield of Mount Smart Stadium, home of the New Zealand Warriors rugby league team.

The event, which played out as round four of the 2019 Australian Supercross Championship and the opening installment of the two-event FIM Oceania Supercross Championship, drew a huge crowd of Kiwi fans who all enjoyed a massive night of international supercross competition

Penrite Pirelli CRF Honda Racing team riders KYLE WEBSTER and RHYS BUDD made the transTasman trek to continue their Australian Supercross Championship campaign in the hotly contested SX2 division.

Runner-up in the MX2 class of this year’s Australian MX Nationals, KYLE WEBSTER was keen to boost his current standing in the SX2 championship standings, and took to the Auckland track with gusto.

“Qualifying in the afternoon was really good and I posted second fastest time, just 0.02 seconds behind Chris Blose (Penrite Honda Racing),” Webster explained.

Webster carried that form into his opening Heat race, where he soon grabbed the lead in a close tussle with some of the SX2 class championship front runners, including Blose, defending SX2 champion Jay Wilson (Yamaha), Aaron Tanti (Yamaha) and Regan Duffy (KTM).

“The Heat race was going great and I was leading, but then I came up short on one of the jumps in a rhythm section,” said Webster, “and I hit my head hard enough that Racesafe said I had to sit out the rest of the night.”

It was an early and disappointing end to the event for Webster, who took some solace from the fact his 6D helmet helped to prevent any more serious injury.

Meanwhile RHYS BUDD emerged from the Auckland event with 13th overall in the SX2 class, after an eventful night that wrapped up on a high with a seventh placing in the third and final moto in the Triple Crown format event.

“The day started off quite well,” relayed Budd, “as I’ve been riding quite well lately and managed to qualify in ninth place in a class filled with talent. Then my Heat race was good, and I was running third for a few laps before dropping one position to finish fourth at the flag.”

When it came to the Main events, things got a little tougher for Budd, who was making his first-ever visit to NZ.

“In the first Main on the very first lap, I crashed and got run over, which made the rest of the night pretty tough,” Budd explained. “I was grazed and sore, but luckily there were no major injuries.”

Budd regrouped to finish 14th in race two, before wrapping up the night with a stronger result in the third and final Main.

“I got seventh in the last race and was pretty stoked with that,” Budd explained, “which put me in 13th for the night.

“We’ve got one round to go in the Australian championship in Melbourne in a fortnight at the AUS-X Open and it’s going to be a huge event and I can’t wait to get there.”

For Penrite Pirelli CRF Honda Racing team principal Mark Luksich, the Auckland event was a challenging one.

“Kyle was leading his Heat race with one lap to go when he made a mistake, which cost him dearly,” Luksich explained. “That will be a tough lesson to learn, for sure. Meanwhile Rhys continues to show potential and keeps taking big steps in his supercross future.

“We’ll regroup now and look forward to the final event of the year, the AUS-X Open event at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne (Vic) on November 30.”