Gavin Faith will carry a nine-point lead over Ryan Marmont heading into Newcastle's season finale. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

Carlton Dry Honda Thor Racing’s Gavin Faith has maintained his SX Lites series lead heading into Newcastle’s final round of the 2012 Terex Australian Supercross Championships.

Faith endured a tough night at Toowoomba’s penultimate round, winning his heat race before being disqualified because his transponder fell off of his Honda.

Faith won the last chance qualifier to progress to the main event where he finished up the race in third place, conserving championship points with one round remaining.

“It wasn’t the best night that’s for sure,” said Faith.“My transponder fell off in the heat race so I was disqualified and had to race the LCQ.

“After being left with the second last gate pick I didn’t get a good start but managed to get up into third on the opening lap.”

Faith opted to be smart and think about the championship in such tricky conditions.

“The track was becoming really sketchy so after a while I just sat back and thought about the championship,” he added.

Faith currently leads the SX Lites championship by nine points over JDR/KTM Factory Racing’s Ryan Marmont in the standings. He finished last year’s championship in second place and wants to go one better this year.

“I definitely want to win this title, it’s unfinished business for me,” said Faith. “I felt that I didn’t really ride to my potential in Toowoomba – I settled for third as the track was getting really tricky.

“I won’t be doing anything really risky on Saturday but I will still be going for the race win. It would be nice to finish the series with both the final race win and the title all going to plan.”