Yamaha Motor Australia press release:

CDR Yamaha’s Dean Ferris and Dylan Long maintained their good form at round two of the Australian Supercross Championship, taking second and fourth positions respectively, in another positive night for the CDR Yamaha team.

Now with his motocross commitments over for 2018, Ferris has been able to focus directly on supercross and his riding showed improvements since the opening round three weeks ago.

On a hard pack and technical track in Bachuus Marsh, Victoria, Ferris charged to a heat race win over US Import Justin Brayton and was confident of another good result heading into the 20 lap, MX1 main event.

As the gates dropped for the main event of the night, it was exactly what the large crowd wanted as Ferris and Brayton were bar to bar exiting the first turn. In a frantic few opening laps, Ferris and Brayton swapped positions multiple times as they cleared out from the pack. Ferris would jam his YZ450F inside of the US rider on every turn, only to see him fight back and regain the lead on the following section.

But as the race settled down, Brayton pulled on all his US experience and began to edge away from the two-time Australian Motocross Champion. Ferris kept him honest and well within sight. With a race duration of over 21 minutes, making it one of the longest finals in Australian Supercross, Ferris crossed the finish line in second place, just under eight seconds behind Brayton.

“Another good round for me and some positives to take from it,” Ferris explained from the podium. “I enjoy racing with Justin and I’m desperate to beat him so I will continue to work hard and try and get a little closer every round.

“He was a little better than me in the whoops tonight and he is very consistent with his lap speed, so those are the two things I need to focus on before we get to Adelaide in two weeks’ time.

“Thank you to the CDR Yamaha team for their support. At each round we are making things better and the 2018 YZ450F has been an awesome platform to develop the bike so we are really happy with the progress being made on and off the track,” Ferris ends.

Dylan Long again stepped up his performance to take a very respectable fourth place in the main event and also an impressive heat race win during the evening racing. Long as slowly been building momentum since his return from injury and now appears to be regaining his best form as he moved his way forward throughout the 20lap final to take fourth place and just miss the final podium spot.

Maybe the most pleasing thing for Long was his strength and fitness in the later stages of the race. He was involved in a tight battle from the opening lap but continued to get stronger as the race went on and moved into fourth around the halfway stage. His best lap came deep into the race on lap 14 and is evidence of Long working hard behind the scenes.

The talented Victorian now sits fifth in the championship after two rounds.

“Today was a better day then the opening round and another step closer to my goal of getting on the podium,” Long said. “The track itself was a great layout and great to ride but it went really hard pack and slippery as the day wore on so you really had to be smooth and precise with the throttle.

“There is still plenty of work to do but I’m really enjoying racing at the moment, love the 2018 YZ450F and hopefully that podium position isn’t far away,” Long finishes.

The third round of the Australian Supercross Championship now moves to South Australia on October 28.

For a full list of results: https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/1471542