Image: Foremost Media.

Honda Racing’s Max Anstie took another step towards capturing the 2022 Australian SX2 Championship after making it three overall wins in a row at tonight’s Newcastle Triple Crown, as Jack Mather won a tight SX3 overall.

A thrilling first final of SX2 saw Wilson Todd lead from the holeshot, but it was a last lap attack from Anstie that saw him edge past and steal another race win to maintain his perfect season to date.

Anstie pulled out a second on the final few turns to make it a Honda Racing 1-2, with Cole Thompson (Serco Yamaha) comfortably third and Kaleb Barham (Husqvarna) crossing the line in fourth.

It was a P5 finish for Noah Ferguson (GasGas Racing Team), while Luke Davis (Bolt Liqui-Moly KTM) took sixth, followed by Jai Constantinou (Empire Kawasaki), Jayce Cosford (Yamalube Yamaha Racing), his teammate Rhys Budd after a crash and Jaxon Hadlow (WBR Yamaha) was the top 10. KTM title prospect Nathan Crawford had a second turn crash and DNF’d.

Final two of the 250 class was won by Anstie, striking on Budd with two to go and sprinting away from there in yet another commanding performance by over two seconds.

It was Haruki Yokoyama (Empire Kawasaki) who scored the holeshot until Anstie and Budd charged ahead, however, with Todd claiming to third by race’s end. Fourth came Thompson ahead of Yokoyama with a top five result, as Crawford, Davis, Barham, Chandler Burns (Honda) and Ferguson filled the top 10. In 11th was Cosford after he went down, as did Constantinou twice on his way to 13th and Hadlow didn’t finish after he crashed out of contention.

An emotion-charged first professional race win was earned by Budd in the final SX2 outing of the night, as a runner-up result saw Anstie clinch his third-consecutive overall for the season.

Budd remained composed to win by 1.561s over Anstie, who made a late pass on initial leader Crawford and that’s how the top three would stay. Fourth was consistent again from Todd, from Thompson, while Ferguson, Barham, Cosford, Davis and Yokoyama were the top 10.

Overall for the round it was Anstie from Todd and Budd on the podium, while in terms of the points, Anstie is in the box-seat to clinch in one week’s time at the Wagga Wagga finals, now holding a 21-point advantage in the standings.

Image: Foremost Media.

The two-race SX3 final using Olympic scoring saw Husqvarna-mounted Mather pick up his first win in AUSX, edging opening round winner Cole Davies (WBR Yamaha).

It was Davies who won the first final ahead of Mather and Ryan Alexanderson (KTM), before Mather turned the tables results-wise in race two to win the race and overall.

That saw Mather the round winner from Davies, while after finishing seventh in the opening outing, Yamaha-backed Jake Cannon scored the final place on the podium. Mather and Davies are now tied on points entering the final round at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, next Saturday, 3 December.

Detailed results