With clear blue skies and a fast Appin circuit, round two of the championship went off without a hitch as a big crowd was on hand to witness race long battles in the MX1 division with Beaton posting a solid 2-2 result to finish second on the day in ProMX.
The hard based, Appin track, just southwest of Sydney, produced some great racing and again at the front of the MX1 pack, was championship rivals, Jed Beaton and Kyle Webster. Ands while they continued to assert their dominance in the championship, in both motos there was a four or five long rider train fighting for position at the head of the race.
Once the early race jostling settled down in race one, Webster had a lead over Beaton as the pair were again one and two on track. For the final fifteen minutes, it was like a chord was tied between the two riders that went as tight as half a second and stretched out to nearly two seconds, depending on lapped riders and areas of the track.
But as the final two laps started, the intensity lifted and Beaton dragged himself closer to Webster, with half a lap to go, he made a lunge around the outside of his rival in the off-camber turn. He drew even with him but made a small mistake on exit and allowed Webster to keep the lead and go on to win the race, Beaton in his shadow.
Race two and a five-rider battle raged at the front of the field. Again, Beaton and Webster picked their way through and just passed the halfway point, the pair found themselves I locked in battle for the race win, this time Beaton taking the lead.
But with three laps to run, Beaton took an inside rut in a turn, following a lapped rider. The lapped rider then made a mistake and baulked the CDR Yamaha rider, allowing Webster to sweep past.
The final few laps were frantic as Beaton desperately looked for a way back around Webster, but couldn’t make it happen and he was forced to settle for second.
“I guess I’m a little frustrated after that last one. Kyle and I went back and forwards a couple of times in that race and I was able to get ahead of him and then into the lead, so to do that and then not go on for the win is frustrating,” Beaton explains.
“The positives are we have a fifteen point gap after two rounds and myself, the bike and the team are all working well together. There are still a lot of racing laps to be done and like last year, its likely to go all the way to the final lap, of the final race in QMP in August, so will keep racking up all the points we can,” he ends.
Maximus Pervis was unable to make the start line for round two. Purvis had a fall during the week and sustained a leg injury. He tried to ride in practice and even set a decent lap time, but knew he wasn’t in great shape and the high intensity, 30 minute long races we going to be too much for him, so he elected to sit out.
“I crashed during the week and have some pain at the top of my shin, under my knee cap. I tried to ride but get some sharp pain at certain points or positions, so it was better to just sit this one out, find out some more information on what’s happened and take it from there.
“It’s a shame as I like the Appin track and raced here a few times so its one of the more familiar tracks to me. Hopefully, I can be back on track at Gilman and ready to go for round three.”
Next round of the ProMX Championship heads to South Australia and the Gilman circuit in the northern suburbs of Adelaide on April 27.
