Image: Foremost Media.

A late fall in moto one at Toowoomba cost defending Penrite ProMX champion Aaron Tanti valuable points, with a false neutral the cause of the CDR Yamaha Monster Energy rider’s incident that dropped him out of P2.

Tanti entered round six third in the MX1 standings, just nine points down from former red plate-holder Jed Beaton (Boost Mobile Honda Racing).

The YZ450F rider qualified fastest at Echo Valley before securing third gate pick in the top 10 shootout. In the opening moto, Tanti was second on the final lap until disaster struck and he crossed the line fifth after the fall.

A determined performance in race two saw Tanti saw him take the lead from Dean Ferris (Brisbane Motorcycles Yamaha) in the early stages, before a moment at the top of the circuit saw the number 111 reclaim P1. Tanti ultimately finished moto two in second position, securing third overall for the round behind title rivals Ferris and Beaton.

“Unfortunately I was battling a bit of sickness all week with the flu, everyone seems to have this time of the year,” Tanti said to MotoOnline. “So yeah, a lot of rest and recovery but came out here today and felt good early on, after the first moto I battled hard.

“Unfortunately had that crash on the last lap due to a false neutral, going over the bars. I was pretty haggard, my body was pretty fatigued after that and I gave it all I had in that last moto, salvaged a P2 and ended up on the podium again – just keeping myself in the fight.”

With two rounds remaining, Tanti is third in the MX1 standings and 20 points from Ferris at the head of the championship battle. The penultimate stop on the 2023 ProMX calendar at Queensland Moto Park (QMP) doesn’t take place until 13 August, as Tanti’s attention now turns to the opening round of this year’s World Supercross Championship (WSX) this Saturday at Birmingham, where he will compete in SX2 with CDR.

“Supercross… I love it,” Tanti added. “It’s awesome and I had such a good time in the world supercross last year, so I’m looking forward to getting back over there. It is just such an awesome experience, to get all of the fans and the different countries.

“It’s refreshing to do a bit of supercross in our season, we have a lot of pretty decent breaks in between our races and you can get pretty stale if you are going out there pumping motos on the same tracks all the time. It changes it up and keeps it exciting.”