Jay Marmont has improved his position in the rankings of the Australian Supercross Championship after a second consecutive fifth-place finish at the third round in Wayville, South Australia.
After an eighth and a fifth from the first two rounds of the championship, Marmont continued to accrue solid points in his supercross comeback, after this time spending much of the race battling for a podium finish aboard his Husqvarna FC 450.
Justin Brayton won the SX1 event ahead of Daniel Reardon and Kyle Peters, while Marmont moved smartly into the top five early on and continue to contest the podium with Peters and Wil Hahn as they drew clear of the pursuing pack.
The result sees Marmont well positioned in fifth place in the premier SX1 category, at the halfway point in the Aussie championship.
“It was a really good night, I started off the day a little bit rough, just didn’t get into my groove and didn’t qualify the best, but I kind of knew that my qualifying time would be the race pace,” said Marmont.
“I made a few changes to the bike, and we got it a little bit more race ready, and the Husky performed really well all night. In the heat race we came out and straight away we were on race pace with the guys. I finished top three and you probably could have thrown a blanket over us. That gave me a decent gate pick for the main, but I didn’t get the best of starts; probably rounded the bend in around eighth, but I made some quick passes and got myself up to fifth, and from their battled basically for the podium with Peters and Wil Hahn, and just kind of checked out from the rest of the pack. Unfortunately I didn’t make any headway, but in saying that we were actually battling for third rather than just sitting back in fifth this weekend and getting closer towards that pointy end of the field. I was pretty happy to walk away with a good result, obviously a podium is what we are striving for, but right now it’s stepping stones.”
In the SX2 category, Nathan Crawford may have been having his second Supercross outing, but the determined Queenslander isn’t one to patiently wear the L plates for long.
Finding himself fifth early in the SX2 final, Crawford was pushing up towards the fourth and third placed riders when he crashed heavily after tucking the front tyre on an upramp.
After a small delay as the relevant systems came back online, Crawford continued and pushed his way to the finish to pick up 13th place points on the night.
“In the final I was in fifth and I was catching fourth and third with probably six or so laps to go and then had a pretty decent crash which took me a while to recover from, so I just made it to the finish and that was about it,” explained Crawford.
“I was pretty good at that bit of track and I was catching a lot of people there, but I think I pushed the issue a little bit too hard and the front wheel washed on the up ramp. I fell on my shoulder and winded myself a bit. This is my first proper season and I just want to get through the whole thing uninjured. I think last night would have definitely been pretty good if I hadn’t have crashed, I was in fifth and catching the front guys, so I would have been really happy with that. I’m just learning and spending the time riding Supercross and getting my confidence up, but we’ve still got another three rounds so we’ll see what we can do come next round.”
Another relative novice at Supercross, Connor Tierney finished right behind in 14th, after an opening lap fall left him with plenty to do.
In the Junior Lites category, Riley Dukes moved into the championship lead, despite finishing second on the night to a fellow Husqvarna FC 250 racer, Callum Norton, at the halfway point in the championship.
“I’m taking the positives each night and just trying to learn without getting too frustrated with myself. I qualified 16th for the main and got a not-too-bad start, but made an error on the first lap and had a bit of a crash in the back section so I made it hard on myself again,” said Tierney.
“I got through to 14th , which was okay. There are no expectations in my first year of Supercross – I’ve never done it before and I just want to get better each round. It’s strange, I feel like I should be up there, but I’ve got a way to go, a lot to learn. Supercross is a whole new level, It’s almost like learning to walk again.”