EP#62 - ProMX Wrap Rd6 at Traralgon with Danny Ham and Mitch Lees

Round six of the 2026 Penrite ProMX Championship at Traralgon delivered and epic weekend of racing, with Jed Beaton tightening his grip on the MX1 title after another dominant 1-1 performance. Alex Larwood continued his march towards the MX2 crown with a perfect day of his own, Seth Morrow broke through for his maiden MX3 overall victory, while Lachlan Turner maintained her unbeaten MXW season despite a bruising opening-race clash with Charli Cannon. (ProMX)

In this episode, we break down all the winners and losers from Traralgon, who impressed, who struggled and what it all means heading into the business end of the championship. From Beaton's vice-like grip on MX1 to the championship shake-ups across the support classes, plus the standout rides, biggest surprises and talking points, we've got everything you need to know from one of the most pivotal rounds of the 2026 ProMX season.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the ADB Podcast, where we talk all things dirt with your host, Mitch Lee. Okay, guys, it's welcome back to another ADB podcast. It is a uh ProMex wrap round six. And um apologies we haven't done one of these for a while. We've actually missed the last two rounds because um I was coming back from Alice Springs from Fink, and we've obviously had four weeks off from ProMex since then. So um yeah, we missed a couple in the middle there, but we're gonna catch up a bit tonight and talk about what's coming up for the next two rounds and obviously talk about Triragon. With me as always is Danny Ham. Hammy, thanks for coming on.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Hello, hello, it's good to be back. Of course, it has been a little bit, but uh yeah, let's rip in.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Yeah. Um, Hammy was there commentating um for for the round, and uh, mate, it looked cold. Uh it was cold everywhere. I wasn't at the round, but um, I was uh you know three hours southwest of Sydney, it was freezing cold there too. Um how and and right and you got some rain, but not torrential.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Yeah, mate. No, it wasn't too bad. We got very lucky. Uh if you saw the radar for Saturday night while we're up to dinner, it was a massive amount of rain going across Melbourne and it was heading in our direction. So we we really got lucky. It just caught the edge of that massive rainstorm. So we did get very lucky. The track itself can handle a lot of water, yeah. So that's pretty good about that place. I think we only got maybe five mil, something like that overnight. And then during the day, what rain we did get was only a little drizzles the whole way through. So we did get very lucky. Um, as I said, the track was always going to be able to handle it. But uh, if it had come down during the day pretty hard, then it would have been a horrible day for the riders. It was cold, it was extremely windy as well. So it would have been a terrible day. But I've been there, I know what it's like. No one really wants that.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

So yeah, we got lucky. Hey, it looks like the track crew did a pretty good job because you even mentioned in the commentary that they can sometimes, especially with the sand and with the rain coming, rip it maybe too deep, and then you get kind of one line. Uh, I think Hoa's referred to it as a slot car track, but it didn't do that. The track formed up, I would say, the best we've had this year.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Yeah, yeah. I think from what Taralgan generally is, if you cast your mind back to last year, but last year they had 35 mil of rain on Friday. So it was an absolute soaked track, and it was very soft because of it. That was never going to happen this time, but with the threat of the rain, the guys did do all the rips before it, they did rip it deep, they did get the water into it prior to the racing, and then they sealed it back over. So by the time myself and Lee got to do our lap, it was relatively firm. Not everywhere, there was some soft parts around the track, but it was relatively firm in preparation for the rain, expected rain. And I think they did a great job. I think they did the right decision because no one would like to have ridden that if we got more rain and it was open. It would have been an absolute soup pip if they'd had it open. So I think they did the right decision. Yes, it didn't get as wallowy, deep whoop style sands as you would expect with a sand track, but I still think it challenged the riders, and yes, they were able to move around. I kind of like that a lot now. I I think I prefer it a lot more than just crazy ruts because yes, crazy ruts are hard to ride. Yes, the best riders can ride them better than the not so good riders, but it really divides the field a lot, and we lose a bit of that close racing atmosphere, I guess, from them being just stuck in those lines where on the weekend they could move around, they could explore. Some lines work better than others. Actually, there was a lot of alternate lines that worked pretty good. There was not too many where you go, oh, you've just got to use that one line, and that's all you can use. I think there was a lot of options out there, but at the same time, the writers still had to execute whatever line they were in. So I think they did a really good job.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Um, last question before we rip into each class. Tarogan in July. Last year, I think it was round four, which was earlier in the year slightly earlier in the year. This is like smack banging the coldest time of the year. It's gonna the weather's gonna be gnarly. Um, I mean, Hogs, Hogs being a Victorian, would always say to me whenever we go down to do testing of bits and pieces, it's like, oh, you can just write July off. It's always wet, cold, the tracks never dry out. Do you think Chiraugan in July is an okay time to hold that round?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

No, no, I'd like to see it at a different time, but how do you manage that when you've got, you know, we're getting to the end of the championship, so you can't really put it at the tail end because we're going to be in Queensland, which is obviously a long, long way away. You can't split the Queensland rounds up. You can't have it at the start of the series because it's too close to one thaggy. Yeah, I think it's a a track that needs to be on the circuit, but where do you fit it in so that it works properly for everyone? I'm not sure. I don't think July is the best time for it. Uh, it would be much better if it was warmer, no doubt. And last year it was a lot warmer and a lot better.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

But it's a tough one for these guys to try and organise to where they put all these. Either that they extend the series out so we go further into the year. It's no one wants that. I think, yeah. I think it's a tough one. July's never any good in Melbourne.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Yeah, it is tricky. And I think um, this is the concept, the one of the problems, obviously, of having a motocross series that runs through winter. All the other series around the world, they run through summer, we run through winter. We couldn't run through summer because there's a good chance we'd have riders, you know, dropping off their bikes left, right, and centre on uh some of the days we get all over the country in our summers. So I guess you're like you said, you've got they've got to you know do the best they can with what they've got, and we have to run a series during during winter. So you can't completely exclude the southern uh states for two or three months. Um, but yes, you're right, it did bring on some awesome racing. I I feel like watching the broadcast, it actually was some of the best racing uh that we've seen all year, and the closest racing we've seen all year, and I think that's credit to the track crew because, like you said, it didn't get too deep and gnarly that it pushed out the top one or two or three guys. Um, we'll start with MX1. Uh, if you just looked at the results, you'd just go, oh, it's another Jed beaten special. And he's just gone one-one and dominated. Uh, you know, he's used to this kind of stuff. He he trains down to Victoria, you know, uh, he's this is his part of the world. Um, but he didn't have it all his way. In fact, Hammy, I was gonna say to you, I think you cursed poor old uh Webster six minutes before the end of Moto 1. Well, I think you mate, you and Hugs made a comment something about um, you know, the only thing that's gonna change anything now is someone makes a mistake, and then surely enough, Carl Webbo, like a minute or two to go, he he tucked the front. Yeah. Um was it was that because of the track with track being maybe not as deep and as they were expecting, tire choice. What was it a bit unusual for Webster, I reckon? That late.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

So it's a tricky track when they're in these conditions because it does have that very hard base. Uh, and a lot of the times you don't actually see that hard base. So it caught a lot of guys off guard on the weekend. It's something that you've just got to be prepared for. Webster, look, they're just silly little mistakes, and yes, they're not the usual stuff that he does. So it was a bit weird that it happened. I wish it didn't happen because it was really setting up to give us a good second moto as well. Um, so it really would have been nice if he could have finished that one out for his confidence for us watching, it would have been better because it would have made the second race a lot more uh interesting as far as the anticipation of it because you know someone finally got up there and beat Jed. But he's got to take away the positives out of it, and that is that he genuinely was gonna beat uh Jed in that race. I don't think, I truly don't think that Jed would have got him. I think Webster would have been able to hold on. Um, so it was a shame. It really was. But no doubt Webster was back in form that we were used to seeing. Um he looked comfortable as well when he was out the front. So real shame that just a small mistake like that caught him out.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Yeah, I think he held a 2.3 second gap for pretty much that last quarter of the race, and it didn't shrink, and it coming into those closing laps, it wasn't getting any tighter. So I'm with you. I reckon Webster probably would have held him out. I spoke to Yareev Konsky about how's Kyle feeling. Um, he said he's a bit banged up, but he's all good. But he said he had ridden once between Appen and Triaugan. So he had that you know he's he's obviously coming off a few injuries and a few crashes earlier in the season that kind of banged him up a bit. Uh, and then yeah, he rode once between Appan and um and Triaugan. So the fitness he said wasn't quite there. He's obviously his bike strength, all that kind of stuff. So for Kyle to do what he did for that long to hold Jed off, and Jed's stalked him. I I imagine when you're riding at that level, and Hammy, you've been there where you've got someone, you know, so close and so fast, and they're not going away. You can't drag it out to five, six, seven, eight seconds where you get a little bit of a chance to breathe. For Kyle to hold on with that kind of pressure, having ridden once in a month and still sore and not up to full fitness. I think that's confidence enough.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Yeah, absolutely. He he uh he definitely went into that. Um, you know, struggling. Sometimes it's weird that when you have some time off the bike like that, you just rely. I think I said on the broadcast, not exactly about this, but sometimes you just rely on your instincts and your natural ability rather than overthinking stuff. And I'd say that's how he's gone into it. You know, the injuries that he's covering at the moment certainly would have played against him. His fitness, definitely being off the bike for so long, deep in the moto. Um, not saying he's unfit, but it's just that intensity through the entire race might have suffered just a fraction. Um, I think, as I said, I think he was doing well. I don't think he would have been able to hold on. But at the same time, when you aren't on the bike, you lose that fine-tuning that you get from being on the bike all the time. So maybe that played into his small mistake and why he might have ended up on the ground.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yeah, and Beaton, he has a pretty decent points buffer, and so I'm sure he probably felt comfortable sitting two seconds behind Kyle right to the end, just put keeping the pressure on because you know you never know. The old that it's not over till the fat lady sings, you never know what's going to happen right until the end if you can keep applying that pressure. And uh, Jed doesn't need to win out from here. He he certainly doesn't after this round, and he didn't need to before this round, so there was no pressure for Jed to be trying to pass Kyle in that last five minutes. Um, and then Moto 2 happened, and poor old Kyle just had two crashes. One of them was big. That second one was a biggie, but it like I said, a little bit sore, but uh Konski reckons he's okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Um, it looked like his foot came off the foot peg or something, and it it was a weird one because we only caught the very edge end of the crash's potential. Like Lee said that it it may have started off camera just a little bit before it, but from what we saw on the camera, he was already in a situation where he was sort of losing maybe the front wheel and balancing to the left. He wasn't in an upright position. Uh, and also at that point, he was shifted weight over the front of the bike. So maybe he's taken a bit of a boot on a um uh braking bump off the back side of that tabletop, and in doing so, it's just weighted the front wheel. And once it started, it just it was basic, it was a pretty simple front wheel washout until it hit the breaker bump at full lock, and then it went pretty extreme after that.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yeah, yeah, down twice for anyone who couldn't didn't catch it, down twice in the second moto was poor old uh Kyle. And he was doing well up until then, and he still finished uh in pretty impressive position. But uh yeah, uh that kind of gifted it to um to Jed. So bit of a shame there. But hey, look, other cool thing was um, while it looked like you know, Jed even said kind of afterwards that he didn't feel like it was his weekend to win, you know, he he didn't feel 100%, he didn't feel like he raced his best. I mean, there's that's scary words for the competition to hear, but it's also good uh, you know, this is Kyle and and Jed are uh mates off the track too. So he kind of knows when he's probably not um, you know, gonna wasn't gonna catch Kyle on the first one and got a bit lucky with that crash, you know, that he kind of knows it. But it was good to see Aaron Tanty, Nathan Crawford taking it. It wasn't until maybe the last five minutes when Jed and Kyle started to push out the six, seven, eight second gap in that first moto anyway. Um, up until then it was pretty tight. They kind of traded positions a little bit and it looked like they could run the Jed and Kyle speed. Do you think that was track related, or do you think we're getting to a point in the season now where Aaron and well Crawford's on a whole new setup? So that's that's uh you know another thing to talk about, but they're finally getting enough race fitness to stay with Jed and Kyle.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Yeah, uh I think they've got race fitness. I think it's the intensity of it that midway through some of these races we start to see Aaron just drop off a little bit. Um it's it's a tough thing because watching their lap times as well, they don't drop a lot anymore. It's it's a bit gone of the days, especially here in Australia, where you'll see a couple of fast laps at the start, and then they'll slow it down and settle into a pace, and then at the end they'll wick it up. They're only dropping like one or two seconds for the entire moto. That's the the consistency and the intensity all the way through is just insane at the moment. The level these two guys have been riding at all year. And I think it's just the boys have edged closer. Definitely, Tanti, like we've mentioned many times, is every time he's been on the track, he's getting better and better. So he is learning and and putting himself back into that position of being able to be able to run up there and be a winner as well. So I think it's a bit of a combination. The track being a little friendlier to everyone, the fact that Tanti's getting better and better each time. I think that's the main reasons why we saw him up there. And he looked great, especially that second one. The first one, it looked like he was a little bit out of sorts, yeah. Um, didn't look as comfortable, but the second one, he looked great. And I can tell you where he crashed, that is so easy to do. When I did my lap coming into that, it is completely blind. You need to know how the track lands, and because they're carrying so much momentum over the top of that, they're landing into what is the berm, but it's the track edge marker, so it didn't take much to just go slightly too far. So again, it's a shame that that happened. Tanty thought he might have been able to hold on to it. Maybe, maybe Jed had something more, but with the way Tanty was riding at the start and all the way up until that point, anytime Jed got close, it didn't really rattle him. So there's the possibility maybe he could have held on to it, but until he shows us and proves it to one himself, two to us, it's still a question mark. So, no doubt he's getting better.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Um, it was a spectacular dismount. He got no dirt on his gear, but it was only lucky he did well. He kind of sprung to his feet and was able to kind of run away from it. Um, the do you think uh when you guys are out there and you're you know you're looking at the the pit board as you come past from your team, Jed didn't need to win that second moto. Um, is he getting that kind of information and advice in those dying stages when he was chasing Tanti down?

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Um it's unknown. Okay. I I I would you would like to think that I think Jed's a smart enough rider as it is to know that he didn't need to win it. Um and he's smart enough to know that he's in good position in the championship, so not to do anything stupid. Yeah, but I think Jed at the moment just has the mindset that he just wants to win everything, yeah. Uh and it's showing every time he's been on the track the way he rides, I think it's it's just incredible to watch right now.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Yeah. There's also money involved, bonuses, bits and pieces, like you know, correct these guys are out there to make a living, and um, if pushing within your comfort zone a little bit harder to take a win is the difference, it's thousands of dollars difference. Well uh you know, kind of why not. Um some other guys probably worth mentioning too that had some good rounds. Reese Budd finally had a pretty solid round. He was coming kind of that position between fourth and seventh, sixth, seventh, eighth that whole time. Um, and then even Ryan Alexanderson, uh, he seemed to have a quite a good round, probably his best round he's had so far. Um so yeah, a lot of these guys kind of were able to prove themselves. And even Sammy P, Sammy Precia, that it's funny, we we follow him obviously in the off-road scene, and so we know what he was doing over in uh the US, uh, especially with the desert stuff. He likes going fast over there in the more open bits and pieces. But when he was announced he was going to race a Honda here uh for Hatter and then ProMex, I was wondering if anyone at ProMex would know who this Sammy P guy is. Did you guys get much of a brief before the day on who he was?

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Only no, only the uh the off-road side of it. That's that's the the bread and butter in the background of it. Um, and of course, he's had a results, so we knew that much of it. Um, but yeah, outside of that, not a lot. We didn't really have a writer's list or anything leading into the race. We didn't really know till we turned up that he was going to be there. So yeah, didn't get much of a chance to look into it. But it's good to see that we've got other riders like that still out there having a bit of a blast around. Yeah, it's good. Uh definitely well within the mix of it all as well.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Yeah, I think it would have been a case of asking Konsky have you got a spare bike and why not if they've got the bike kind of there? Uh he just finished Hatter, he may as well race one. Um, coming back up to his other teammate though, Nathan Crawford. Yes, so he's he's had three pretty good rounds in a row, four, five, six. He's recorded the same amount of points, 40, 40, 40. Uh, it's a significantly better result than his first round and earlier in the year on this Honda. Do you from what you're seeing at the track and what you're watching, does it look promising? Are you does he look comfortable? Does the bike look settled? What does it look better?

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Um I think if you take the so we look good in the races. If you take the whole shootout, if you watched that, uh we could see the times. Obviously, no one else at home could see the times. Yeah, and we were we had vision of him at the time. He was doing a hot lap and he was looking a little over the edge, making some mistakes, but very fast. He was actually faster than the fastest time by like two point 0.26 of a second through the first sector.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

So he was well up on Webster and Beaton's time.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

So to answer the question, is it working? Yes. We're starting to see that Nathan Crawford that we've been expecting for so long as far as the speed. Um, I think he's still got a little bit to work through with the bike. He said he was, I did get to speak to him before the weekend. He said they did a week of testing, and pretty much straight away they were on the money. Now, a week of testing and getting everything right is one thing. You go and race, then you realize, oh, we may need to do some more tweaks. Yeah, that's gonna come with doing more and more of these races. I think we've got Nathan Crawford on the right track. Yeah, and as I said, this is the Crawford that we've been hoping for to see for so long because he has proven that he is a rider that can run with these guys. He's proven that. So that's what we want to see. And I think this most recent step is starting to show us that, yeah, he probably can do that. Getting back onto some harder stuff as well over the next couple of rounds. Maybe this might help him. So, watch out in Queensland. This we might see a different result up there as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Yeah, I totally agree. I think he's gonna be strong up in Queensland. That's obviously where he's training up in Queensland, isn't he, too? So yeah. Um, now I tell you what else is impressive about what Nathan Crawford has been able to do is that we see often um, you know, a factory rider will crash or fall out of a championship, and so that brand will then go looking for the next best privateer on the same brand and bring them under the factory truck. Uh rarely, very, very, very rarely, do you see someone in the top five change brands throughout the season and be successful towards the end of the season? And not only change brands, but go from a brand that's very different, so it's not a Japanese bike, he's going from a completely different setup onto a whole new setup, and to be able to do what he's done podium uh in the championship is pretty impressive, and I think it is exciting to think of what he'll be able to do with another six to nine months under his belt testing and developing the bike for 2027. Um, it'll be interesting to see what Yareev does about that team too, because obviously Kyle's it's it's hard to if Kyle wants to go again, Kyle gets to go again, essentially. And Nathan Crawford's proving himself, you know, what he does with Wilson Todd, whether or not Wilson Todd drops down to a 250 or moves somewhere else. Nathan Crawford is making Konsky's uh Yareev Konski, that's the team manager, he's uh his team owner, that's making his decisions very difficult, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Yes, yeah, I would think so as well. It's definitely gonna be a full team once again when they get to that point. Uh will we see Wilson Todd back again? I don't know. I don't I I really don't know his position and situation at the moment. Um, it's a shame that we haven't had a chance to see him back out there again because he's another one of those riders that is extremely talented that can run up the front with those guys. So yeah, definitely disappointed that um, or disappointing that he's unable to be back at the races. But how it will progress, yeah, I don't know. That's gonna be, like you said, a tough one for you, Reeve, to try and figure out moving forwards.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Yeah. Um, if you add 10 points, 10 to 15 points per round to Nathan Crawford's finishes, especially at round one and round two, and then if you give him 10 points in round three, he's actually, you know, pretty much tied on second with Kyle and Kyle Webster and Aaron Tanty in in points for the championship. He's currently fourth, uh, but like I said, those first two rounds were a bit uh weren't really good for point score for him. So it would be it will be interesting next year, especially if all those guys stay there to see um for riders going at it, because like you said, Tanty seems to be improving every week. Um now, a couple other guys that are doing really well as well over the weekend, like we discussed, was um Reese Budd, he came through the pack and proved you know he's got the speed to go. Um, and then you also had um Ryan Alexanderson who did really well too. The rest of the top ten currently, as it stands, with two rounds to go, is Todd Waters, Luke Zelensky, Zach Watson, uh Wilson Todd, Levi Rogers, Regan Duffy. Hey, Regan Duffy had a big one. Jeez, he's lucky that was yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

That was very lucky, yeah. You're right. That was very lucky that that didn't turn out to be any worse than it was. I don't I didn't get to speak to him afterwards. Uh it looked like it might have hurt a little bit from the footage that we saw, but that was a pretty wild comparison. It's yeah, something you don't expect to see. He just got a really good buck off one of the bumps uh and it really threw him off balance. And then once he was whiskey throttled, that was the end of it.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Yeah, and he always came off the back. It was a bit I was watching it going, he's his um stomach and his nether regions got very close to the back wheel as he kind of whiskey throttle off the back. So he seemed to be moving afterwards, so we hope he's okay. Um, we know Reagan's had a bit of a history with uh uh crashes and injuries, so we certainly don't want to see him down. Um, all right, that's 450s. It's gonna be exciting coming into the next two rounds. Look, I think it's almost a foregone conclusion. Jed can just cruise around and finish where he wants.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Um mathematically, he's there's he's just basically got to get through this next race. Yeah. Um, and I think, I mean, he's got to get through two races. There's a very good chance that he gets uh the championship after the first motor. Yes, correct, correct. Uh the next round, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Yeah, that's right. He's got a 63-point gap, uh, so he doesn't need to do much in the the next two rounds. Uh they're both up in Queensland, they're back to back. Um, and I'm sure with what we've got, with what Jed's got planned over the next three months, he's doing some time in the US for those that don't know. Um, I'm sure he will want to wrap that thing up as soon as he can and then start focusing on what he's gonna go and do overseas. We're gonna get Jed on the podcast at some stage, probably between the last two rounds, to talk about uh Primex, but also about what his plans are for the US. Um, so it's gonna be interesting. I mean, it's a foregone conclusion pretty much for Jed, but look, the other guys, it's kind of wide open, which is really cool between um at least between Kyle Webster and Aaron Tanty, it's one point in it. And don't count, like you said, Nathan Crawford out. If he has a cracker and the other guys, you know, have a few issues, there's no reason why he's just got to claw back 40 points, and that can come quite quickly in well, how many points we've got left? We've got 25, 40, 100 points left.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yeah, correct. If he goes out there and does something crazy like a win, picks up five, it's gonna be, yeah, it's gonna need a little bit of luck going his way. Yeah, but certainly there is a chance that he can do it. It's just a bit of a long shot at the moment. But I think all he wants to do at the moment is get these results, prove to himself, prove to everyone else that he belongs up there, yeah, and then move into supercross pretty confident. Yeah, I think that's pretty much the goal that they're probably got at the moment. So at the moment he's ticked one box, he's already got up there and shown that he's he's definitely fast enough. So keep an eye on that. I'm sure it'll be a good one the next couple of rounds.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Well we'll get we're gonna get Yreev Konski on the podcast too. I've texted him a few times to come on, and we've tried to tee it up and we've just missed each other by seconds. But I want to know how he gets all these fancy new sponsors every round. The latest one was Toyota, he's got the big tundra. Uh Kyle Webbs is cruising around in a tundra, which is pretty cool. Uh, and did I see Charlie Charlie Cannon as well?

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Yeah, they all there's three tundras out there, and they've all got wraps on them. Charlie's is nice, it's got a bit of a purple wrap to it, and they've all got their names very small on it, so it's not overdone. And uh a few other little graphics on it too. They do look very, very cool, and I was very on the jealous thing drive around.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

So am I, mate. It's really good. So am I, mate. I'm getting around to 2016 Mitsubishi Triton, so I'm uh I I look at these things and get very jealous. Um, we're gonna get to Charlie Cannon in a second. We're gonna talk about MX2. Uh Lawood, again, it's a bit the same as uh MX1. It looked like just on this, if you looked at the results sheet, that Lawood had it easy and had it all his own way. But um, well, it was a Honda lockout for Moto 1, and then Cade Kingsford kept him honest and then charged in those last two laps in Moto 2 to try. I mean, I know Lawood was probably managing that little gap there, but um yeah, it was actually a battle that MX2. Even they even had to come through. Kate Cade was out front, Lawood had to come through, and then Cade stayed with him pretty much the entire Moto. Um, but Lawood's still kind of a step above everyone else, wouldn't you say? It's it's it's not as easy. The points aren't as big for some strange reason as as it is in the MX1 class, even though it feels like Lawood's been more dominant than anyone else in each of the classes. Um, but he's still a peg above everyone else.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Correct, yeah. So the there was those couple of rounds where Lawood had um a little bit of dramas with what was it, gear lever, the gear lever that got bent under Canberra. Yep. So those ones hurt that massive lead that he probably should have. But it was cool to see that we had K King stood up there battling it out. Ryder was up there as well on the first one. Do you have the results in front of you? Where did Ryder get in the second race? Because I've got a feeling he disappeared.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

He DNF'd. Uh, so I asked Konsky what happened, and uh Konsky said that they had an internal, an aftermarket internal. I'll read you out what he took what did he tell me? He said an aftermarket internal piece fail that was less than three hours old, and it that's why he DNF'd. Yeah, which is pretty disappointing. Obviously, like he said, they locked out first, second, third in Moto 1, and it was cool to see the brothers up there. Um, we we obviously couldn't see the Moto 1 um uh broadcast because it wasn't broadcast, but you were you were there, so yeah, he had an internal piece on the bike fail, it was less than three hours old. Uh it is what it is. Ryder that kind of yeah really did hurt his weekend because he scored no points in the second moto, which put him, I think he finished 11th or 14th. Uh let me have a look uh overall, which you know, not ideal, I guess, if you're trying to make points up. Where did he finish? Here we go. He finished 11th, yeah. So bit of a shame. Third in the first moto, then a DNF in the second.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Yeah, it is a shame because uh he was looking pretty comfortable as well. Um, still still not quite there with the other two Honda boys as far as overall pace, but he was there at the start, so it was cool to see that he was up there as well. But yeah, unfortunate for him disappearing in that. But the MX2, just in general, is a pretty good class at the moment. It's been pretty exciting to watch. There's always seemed to be a battle somewhere within the field. Um, yes, Lawood has been the dominant one, and when he's done it, he's always looked so comfortable in doing it that has never really putting himself on the line or out of control. Hey, a couple of small little things here and there, but he's he's still surprising me. Yeah, um, I think he's doing an exceptional job to be jumping straight up in there for his rookie year in in MX2. I don't know. I still I think I said it after the first round. I didn't expect to see him up there, thought it might have been uh or didn't know if it was just the first round, got a you know, bit of luck his way or whichever it was. But he's shown his grit, he's had the injury, he's shown his grit, he's still got the speed there. Uh, he's really proven himself to be one of the main players, no doubt.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Yeah, he's looking fast, and um, like you said, first year in that class is pretty impressive. Um, so yeah, Lawood holds a decent lead, it's not a huge lead. There's still a lot of uh hundred points to go, and he's got what's that, a sixth year, uh 27 per 26 point lead over Cade. Uh, then they're a fair way off to Byron Dennis, who's uh back in third. So I think you know, Lawood, he can just podium pretty much all the way out from here. Um, but yeah, if he has another bent gear shifter, uh like your camera or something.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

That's it. It only takes one race to throw this thing on its head. Yeah, one bad race, and yeah, it'll be completely thrown around. That goes for Kate as well. Um, anything can happen, and we've seen it over the years. So yeah, that one certainly is not a foregone conclusion just yet.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

Yeah. Um Byron Dennis had a good round, he was fast. I liked that he was making life difficult for La Wood, I think it was, trying to get past in that second moto. Um that was good. Showed some fight, he's young, Byron, so he'll learn from that. Uh, and you know, he rode a wide bike, which was good. Was that easier to do on that track to kind of block and hold people off?

SPEAKER_00 31:54

I don't think so. I think there's a lot on option, a lot of options out there, a lot on offer. So yeah, to be able to do it, yeah, he's done a good job. He said he's so tall. Yeah, I I don't I don't know his weight, but it's got to be a weight disadvantage. It seemed every time it looked like he was about to make a pass on someone, he pulled up beside them, and then they just booted away from him every time. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, he he needs me on a 450, I think. I think he should just bite the bullet and go up. I think he'll do so much better on a 450. Yeah, but uh look, it's a learning, it's still a learning curve for him. He's he's proven that he's got the speed, he's got to stop laying on his head. He's done that too much this year, yeah. Um, but I mean that's just pushing it. He's just pushing that envelope so much and ends up having these small crashes, and it's a shame because I'd love to see him get a win in this before the year's out. He's certainly shown he's quick enough. But to go head to head against Larwood's gonna be tough. Yeah, like yeah, and the very front, would he get it? I'm not sure. I'd like to think he could definitely try, but he always seems to be fighting a battle somewhere, trying to get through to those positions.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

So yeah, not sure. But anyway, he's writing really good.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Yeah, a lot of raw speed. Um, it was funny, it was a bit of a battle of the teammates this weekend because the Honda boys were battling up front, then you had um Dennis and Walsh, Dylan Walsh kept for they kept fighting each other, and even the Yamaha boys kind of banged into each other a little bit. Uh the Kawasaki guys actually kind of uh knocked um was it yeah, Yokoyama had a good second moto, and um, you know, Jace Cosford wasn't far behind him. Same same, so yeah, a bit of a battle of the of the of the teammates, which is always entertaining because you don't know who's what what the tension's gonna be like when you go back to the truck. They're all racers at the end of the day, and everyone wants to win. It doesn't matter if it's one position between sixth and seventh, it's uh you're a racer and you've got to get in front of the person in front of you. So it was good battles. Um hey uh Walsh. Would you say this far into the season the experiment with Walsh has been a success? Has it worked? What does his uh line up for a signature look like? Is he drawing a crowd over to the KDM truck? Even if he's maybe not winning races, is he bringing people over to the KDM truck?

SPEAKER_00 34:13

I don't know. Quite honest answer. I ex especially what we saw round one qualifying, fastest guy, you know. I just expected a bit more out of him. We've seen some brilliance out of him through the year. We've watched him come, I think in the first moto, he was no second moto, wasn't it? Yeah, where he crashed off the line. Yeah, he was well and truly back, and he was blasting through the riders, but it seems when he gets a good start that that intensity just isn't quite there. It's when there's a mistake, then he comes charging through. I don't know, I don't have an answer for you on that. I would like to give you an answer, I would like to see him get a result. Yeah, that's solid. I don't no, I don't know. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 35:03

I don't yeah, it's a tricky one. I mean, uh, it's a factory seat essentially, and um look, he's this he's the second highest placed KDM there. So if they're gonna put two KD two people on a KDM, that there's you know, unless you go and pinch one of the Honda boys or possibly one of the Yamaha guys, he he's he's deservant of a spot on that team. Um like you said too even la even Supercross last year, he kind of showed a lot, uh showed a little bit of you know random speed and flashes of brilliance, and he came over with a lot of hype. And I guess I was carrying a bit of that too into the motocross season, thinking like, oh, okay, well that's what he was brought over here for Supercross. I know on a different bike. Uh but you know, was hoping to see some of that speed again, but maybe he's just missed it a little bit. Um it'll be interesting to see what KDM do. Most deals for people out there that don't know, they're mostly one-year deals a lot of the time. Um, so I imagine he'll have to uh if he wants to stay here in Australia and race, he'll have to do something special in the last couple of rounds and for Supercross in order to hold on to that seat for 27.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Yeah, that's correct. And and not dismissing him at all. If you think that's what I'm doing, no, it's not it. I just expected a little bit more out of him. Um, and I think he has the ability to give us the results that people are expecting as well. Um, but like you touched on, if it's not him, then who?

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

And that's the thing. If you don't, this is also part of my uh argument back at people that say stop giving rides to people from overseas. Well, but who do you give it to? Yep. If they can't beat that guy, then why do they deserve the spot instead of that guy? You know, I think he is definitely fast enough to be up there and a bit more consistent. I don't think he gets great starts all the time. That's probably hurt the result. I think if he had more consistent starts, we may see some more better results out of him. Yeah, but yeah, I I don't have a straight out answer for you for the question that you originally asked.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

Um some other good results. Uh Seth Birchell had a good round. Uh he finished up in fifth. And Jet Olsop too had a pretty good round too. Young Jet, he finished up in sixth. Uh Jace Cosm but seventh. Then uh Noah Ferguson. We didn't get to see Moto 1 for the 250 class, but he didn't score many points. There's only eight. What what do you can you tell us what happened?

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Jeremy well, I didn't know on the day until I was leaving. Um, hang on, I've got to get this right. I'm gonna make sure this is correct what I was saying. Say Noah lost his foot peg in moto one.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Oh, yes, you mentioned that it sheared his foot peg off or something.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

Yeah, so that would be why he didn't score too many in the first moto. I wish I knew that on the day. Yeah um but yeah, so that's that's what happened there.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

Hard to hard to win a race when you're on one foot peg.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

How do you shear a foot peg off?

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Especially in the sand, it's not hard, Pack. It's not like it's tacky and it's gonna grab and break. Yeah, he must have hit another rider. It's the only thing you can assume, right?

SPEAKER_00 38:08

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I don't know how it's happened, but apparently that's what happened moto one. Um, his motto two result. Where was that? Did he end up?

SPEAKER_01 38:18

It was pretty decent. He ended up with uh what 16 points. So what was he for the fifth? Fifth, uh fourth. Yeah, fifth, fifth.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

No, it's not fourth. Yes, fifth. Yeah, sixteen points, fifth.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Yeah, so not too bad. Fifth. If he had kind of gone five, five, he would have ended up better than eighth, which is where where he was on the round. He's still positioned pretty good um in terms of the championship. He's inside the top five, he's just hanging on to fifth there. And he's probably got the potential to climb to sixth to third. Byron, Dennis, Dylan Mulch, and Noah Ferguson. There's um yeah, 20. What have we got? 20, uh, 30, 30 points that separates them, and we've got a hundred points to go. So he's still in up, he's still in it for a podium for uh result at the end of the season, which is pretty cool. Um, and then the Japanese guys, like I said, Moto 2 is anyone we've got to see on the broadcast, but they seem to go pretty good. Good old Yokoyama had a good start, and he was kind of holding on strong there, and you know, I think he kind of started drifting back a bit. And then again, he and Nakajima kind of find each other in that second moto, and they battled for a bit too the two Japanese guys. Um, it's cool. I like seeing them over here. It's fun having international riders, especially like that from Japan riding for their teams coming over here.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

I think it's been great to have them here. I mean, obviously, Haruki's been around for a fair few years, um, and he definitely brings uh another level of riding with his style and and his abilities. Um Nakajima's been good here for a writer that told us in his interviews that they don't usually ride too many ruts, it's something that he's going to be learning a lot because there's a lot of hard pack over there. So, this softer conditions again is something that he's he's having to learn as he goes. Top 10 is respectable, that's a deep field. So I think he's doing an exceptional job to be able to get up there and get these positions, and then to see them at the end of that moto just going bonsai towards that finish line. That was that was impressive to watch.

SPEAKER_01 40:14

That was cool. Um, and like you said, yes, top 10 in that class is pretty pretty impressive. So good on them for coming over here and giving it a go and proving that they can run with our boys. We know how fast our Aussie riders are, and traditionally, uh, some of the Japanese riders that have come over here have struggled to fit finish in that top 10 and certainly battle like he did at the start of that Moto 2 up the front. So that was pretty cool. Um, let's now talk MXW because I've actually wanted to talk more about this race than I have any of the other races because like Lockie, Loch Lin Turner and Charlie Cannon are giving us the greatest rivalry that we've seen in ages, even though they're buddies off the track. I've I believe they're good friends off the track, but um they want to beat each other so bad on the track, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

It is good to see. Um, brings the whole level of women's racing up.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

And yeah, it was definitely cool to see. I think they're bringing a lot of exposure, not just here, but also around the world. And I think even in you know, your European scene, they'll be definitely keeping a close eye on both Charlie and Lala. Charlie obviously was a main player at MXGP Darwin last year. Yeah. So they'll definitely be keeping an eye on that. So I think the exposure that these two are bringing is just enormous for their for the women's class in Motocross. It's been great to see.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Yeah. And their speed, those the speed those two, when they crashed and then just came charging through back to the front, like it was, I felt like it was within three laps, they were back out in front. Um, those two lines that came together. Could did Charlie have enough of a wheel on Lala to say to for Lala to surrender the position? It could have could have been avoided that crash.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

It could have been, but someone would have had to give way.

SPEAKER_01 41:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

Um, both were going for it. Um, so we got a chance to speak to Charlie after the race, after the whole day of racing. And it was not intentional. There was no deliberate takeout. Lines came together.

SPEAKER_02 42:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

Charlie said that she went, she's been trying to be a little bit more aggressive. Yes, it was it was an aggressive move as far as trying to make the pass happen.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Um, it wasn't that in aggressive that she was deliberately trying to get into her line. And in fact, she didn't get into her line. It was just shy of it, and it was the handlebars that clipped each other that ended up tacking them down. So Charlie said that she thought she couldn't see in the peripheral vision to her left that um Lala was there. So she thought she had the pass made. And Lala, I don't know, we didn't speak to her. Whether she knew she was coming up the inside or just thought, no, I'm still going to try to go around the outside, I don't know. But either way, the two came together. Yes, they took each other down. I don't believe it was a takeout, but they did take each other down, no doubt. That was always going to happen. It's two riders that come together. It reminds me of Nathan Crawford, Wilson Todd at Won Saggy a couple of years ago, where two lines came together. Uh, and there wasn't intentional to try and take each other out, but the lines came together. I think we saw something very similar on the weekend. It was a shame because it really uh Charlie said she was in a lot of pain. She hurt her shoulder blade or something out of that. Um, so she was really struggling. She said she got no feeling in her arm afterwards just from the pain. So she she sold it on through the rest of the day. Um, but it also lit the fire on Lachlan Turner, who wasn't looking that great in practice and qualifying, didn't look that great in the opening lapse of the motor until the crash. And then it was like the monster come out. Yeah, it was just incredible to watch.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

Yeah, it was. And that's impressive. To know that Charlie had hurt her shoulder and was still able to fight through uh and run that pace because they were it was a pretty nasty crash. Like it looked like they would have hit the ground hard.

SPEAKER_00 44:11

It was the fact for Charlie. I think it was because she was between the two bikes. I think like a front brake lever or or the um the master cylinder on top, it's what hit her in the back, and that's what's caused the damage.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

So yeah, they it definitely could have been a lot worse as far as the injury side of it. It it was a big hit. Um, it's good to see that that's all that came out of it. I don't know the extent of how hurt Charlie was. I just know that she said that she was in a lot of pain out of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

Okay. Hopefully she's all good before um let's have a look. Are they racing in Connondale? Uh they are too, yeah. And then obviously uh they are uh racing in Condor. Yeah, yeah. So they've got two more rounds to go. And um, if we have a look at the the results, they're actually the the points they've there's 25 points. What do we got? Actually, so Charlie did drop that round earlier in the year, round one. So there's a she's a fair bit back, she's gonna have to make a lot of points up.

SPEAKER_00 45:10

So again, it's a bit of a yeah, not really gonna happen unless Lala has a problem. Yeah. Uh that's the only I think that's the only way that she could even be a figure in the championship itself. Um she'll be just doing the same thing, going for those race wins. It's about bragging rights now, it's about that momentum and confidence going back over to the US rounds to race over there. I'm sure she's probably going to do Darwin again. I wouldn't be surprised if we see La La La or Darwin as well. Um, so I think it's just these girls pushing themselves along, and they have improved, their intensity has improved since the last time I saw them as well. So it it's working, it's pushing them along, and it's only making them faster and faster.

SPEAKER_01 45:54

Yeah, a rivalry will do that. It's excellent uh for the sport and for their uh just you know, progressing where they're at with their racing as well. Um, do you think Lala won't will she go home between now and Cornell or will she not?

SPEAKER_00 46:08

Two weeks, maybe. I know she'd only she'd been over here for uh quite a few days, maybe closer to a week.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:15

Uh but I wouldn't think they would stay over here the entire time. They'll probably fly home, come back, and stay the next week between the two Queensland rounds. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 46:25

But that's only that's only guessing. I I I don't know for sure.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

Yeah, yeah. Um, all right, well, there you go. Uh Taylor McCutcham came in third. She was pretty solid. She's kind of cemented herself just that step behind Charlie and Lala. She's in the past has been has been able to run the same speed as Charlie, but probably not this year, would you say?

SPEAKER_00 46:47

Yeah, she's had some injuries that have held her back just a little bit. She hasn't had that opportunity to do as much on uh an international level as Charlie has. I think that's helped elevate Charlie a bit. Taylor looked decent on the weekend. She said she had a lot of problems though with the bike. They had to swap out a bike between the motors. Between might as well practice one of them completely. So she was having issues, and then on the line for the last race, she said it was even cutting out again. So she worked through some bike issues as well. Okay. Um, but she was happy with her third place from her interviews on the podium. Um, I don't know. Come these next rounds, we saw her pick up a pace at QMP a couple of years ago when she was battling it with Charlie. So maybe again we see her step it up over these last couple of rounds on a different surface.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

Yeah. Um, and Darcy Whaley, Wally, Waley, Waley, I think. Wally Wally, sorry. Uh hold shot second moto, did I see?

SPEAKER_00 47:49

Yeah. First, first and second.

SPEAKER_01 47:52

Yeah, good honor, good honor. Where does that come from?

SPEAKER_00 47:54

And how do you pull them out of your uh apparently she's a good really good starter, Leo was saying? So it's not unusual, but what was impressive for her was that she didn't just fade off out the back, she she held strong for both races. It's a massive improvement for her as well. So it's great to see her lift her level up, um, be able to race it up there with Taylor and the other girls, where last year she might have just simply drifted back a little bit further and ridden her own race, and that's been it. But big improvement there. So again, wait, see what she can do in the next couple of rounds.

SPEAKER_01 48:27

Yeah, it's cool. Good on you, Darcy. Two whole shots is impressive. Um, all right, let's talk uh MX3. Last uh class we'll talk about for Triragon. Um it was a weird one. I feel like it was flipped upside down. We had all the guys who have been leading and are in the top three in MX3, nowhere near the top three for this round. It was just kind of like Topsy Turvy. Why does that happen? Is it just because they're developing this class? They're just so young, they can't expect to have consistency.

SPEAKER_00 48:56

I think so. I think it's I you're still learning mentally how to race a championship, I guess, at that age. Um, and and mistakes come into things. You start questioning yourself, questioning the bike. I don't have a straight answer for you, but no one has wanted to just simply grab this championship and take it. Everyone's having a go at it, and and everyone else in the class is saying, no worries, have your turn. Yeah. So it's cool because it's given us a whole bunch of new riders. It's been, what is it, five or six new winners in the the series, a lot of new names, a lot of new faces that are getting up there with the results. I mean, that even second place or third, he wanted a third on the day, Ryder Matthews Taylor. Yeah, we haven't seen much of him all year. And then last race, man, I don't know what he did. He did something, but it just pulled it out of the bag and passed in the last three or four laps, passed like five or six riders.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:58

Whereas in the first race, he just simply sat behind them all.

SPEAKER_02 50:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:03

So I don't know. I've got no idea how it's changing around, but it's good. Just like we just spoke about with Charlie and and uh Lala, when you've got a big group of riders that are all challenging each other like that, it just lifts their level up so fast, and that's what we're seeing at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

Yeah. So and they're they're learning so much, they've come out of juniors. Um, none of these kids can drink yet. Uh, so it's like, you know, they're like you said, they're learning. And so for someone like Matthews Taylor, when I was watching the broadcast and I'm like, who who is who is this guy? Where is he how? Why is he so fast? And where's he come from? And where's he on the championship? And he's not in the top five, and you're wondering why is he going past everyone? I guess there'll be a little bit of that to and fro in this class all the time.

SPEAKER_00 50:46

Yeah, we do see that, and it's it gives us a whole heap of new names. There's still your your regular guys that you do expect to be up there.

SPEAKER_02 50:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:54

Uh Jackson Devison. Yeah. Uh, you know, I don't know what's going on there. He I think he's getting frustrated as well. He had a good first moto until he didn't uh had that crash. So he was you could see when he got up just how annoyed he was with the situation. It seems like every time he feels like he's finally getting back on track, something like that happens, and then it's it's eating him. Yeah, and when you do that, you get in this big spiral that you just can't get out of. Um, he needs a result to to break that whole circle thing that he's got going on. Uh, if he can do that, then he'll be back up there. Hayden Draper uh Draper. Yeah, I don't know what happened to him on the weekend. That's what I was gonna ask.

SPEAKER_01 51:41

He's he's leading the championship and he was eighth. It's like Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:45

And it wasn't because he started in 25th either. He started basically there.

SPEAKER_02 51:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

So I don't know. I really don't. I expected that to be a track that he would have been able to really go well at.

SPEAKER_02 51:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:58

Not sure what's going on there.

SPEAKER_02 51:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:00

Hopefully. I mean, he's got a healthy lead still, but that'll disappear if you do too many more eighth places.

SPEAKER_01 52:07

Yeah, correct. I mean, if you have a look at um Fisher, who was also let me have a quick look here. You got Heath Fisher who's second in the championship. He was uh the best finisher of the top three at this round, sixth, then like you said, Draper in eighth, and Riley Burgess finished twelfth, who's coming third in the championship. So it was kind of a bit all over the shop. Uh Riley Burgess is one of um Matt Boyd, our technical editor's writers. So I'm actually just going to text him now while we finish up here and just see if um if he can tell us what happened because he didn't DNF'd the second moto. Did you hear what happened to Riley?

SPEAKER_00 52:40

No, I didn't realize that. We did see him on camera a couple of times, and I've got a feeling we saw him on camera in that second moto, but I don't know what had happened there as far as Riley Bertus. It's gonna hurt his championship, no doubt. Yeah. Uh Fisher really should have capitalized on the weekends. Yes, yes, and and really picked up a lot, he had the opportunity to pick up a lot of points. Yep. Um, and it just didn't happen. But this is the thing with young riders, they're still learning all of this. Um, they're all just going through the emotions and everything themselves. Yeah, that was that was a big drop of the ball there for him. He really could have closed down a lot and and made this a lot easier, a lot better for himself moving into the last two rounds. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

Um, yeah, okay. Because if you look at it, he's 23 points behind. Uh was he 20, set was that seven, ten, seventeen, and five. Yeah, 22 points behind. Uh, sorry, Hayden Draper. And if he had it as picked 10 points back, that puts him 12 points behind going into these last rounds.

SPEAKER_00 53:44

Exactly. You know, he only needed to get on the podium, and that would have been down to 10 points in the championship. Yeah, yeah. And even if he didn't win, which he I would have expected that he should have, then he would have been well in that fight with her first and then 10 points. There's not a lot in that, so that puts more pressure on the championship leader.

SPEAKER_01 54:04

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 54:05

So, you know, it's yeah, a lot of things could have changed on the weekend, but yeah, it is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 54:12

It is. Uh, Riley Burgess, oil oil pump failed, lost oil pressure. The bike had less than 10 hours on it.

SPEAKER_00 54:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 54:18

Bummer.

SPEAKER_00 54:19

So that's not cool.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

No, that's not cool at all, especially when you're third in the championship and you're trying to, you know, potentially they're close enough. I mean, he's still only, what is he, seven and thirteen? He's 20 points behind Heath Fisher, and he DNF'd the second motor in at motor in Jugging. So he could he could be second uh had he not had an oil pump go.

SPEAKER_00 54:37

Uh who else did we have up there on the weekend? Who was the other rider to obviously? Matthews Taylor was up there.

SPEAKER_01 54:42

Yeah, and Job Dunn. Um, I think junior. Yeah, junior coming through. You guys were talking about it. So, what is how old does that make him? 16, 15, 15, 15. Gosh, that's pretty good. He was leading there for a long time as well.

SPEAKER_00 54:57

Correct, yeah. He he did an exceptional job on the weekend. We've seen his name up there quite often. There's been a couple of rounds where he has been buried in the pack and not been able to come through. Yeah, uh, and again, this is the consistency thing that we talk about MX3, but then to do that on the weekend, that's just got to boost his confidence up massively.

SPEAKER_01 55:17

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Um, Seth Morrow actually won. We should probably should talk about Seth. He took out the Tragon round. He just had he's had a really good finish to this season from round three, four, five, six. Five was a little bit off, but uh three, four, five, six, pretty good. He just had a bad start. He he finished round one and round two with 15 and 10 points respectively. Um, young kid though, coming through. Did you like what you saw from him on the weekend?

SPEAKER_00 55:42

Absolutely. I I've got a feeling that we saw Steph's name starting to show at the end of last year.

SPEAKER_02 55:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:50

And coming into this year, I was expecting that he was going to be one of those guys that was going to be up there at the very start. To see him not do it at the start was a bit of a surprise. Yeah. What we saw on the weekend, not really a surprise to me. I expected that from an earlier point in this series, but I'm glad he's finally done it and got himself that first win in the series, his first ever. Uh, I think it's an incredible job, and he did it so comfortably. Yeah, even when he had a lot of pressure on behind him, I think it was Devison was right in behind him. Yeah, didn't falter. Uh, pass was even made on him in Moto 1 and rode back around the outside and stayed in the lead. So didn't succumb to any of that pressure, I think. Truly deserve it on the weekend. Um, I would like to see him continue that into the next couple of rounds if he can. But maybe the softer conditions went to his favour. Yeah. Um, hopefully he's able to do that in the the firmer ones at the next couple of rounds. Thumpernats. Who the hell's gonna know how to ride thumper nuts? I know, right?

SPEAKER_01 56:52

They wouldn't know what thumpernats is, would they at their age? I've probably never seen rather dig out one of the old man's magazines or something and try and figure out what it is. So if you've got fun, but a natural terrain. Um, hey, a few DNFs. Seth Thomas, uh, who's you know, he's the top five, top ten guy. He DNF'd. Um, we talked about Riley Burgess DNFing, uh Richie Lawler DNF. This is in the MX3 class. Was it a lot of, and there were a few guys further back that DNF'd as well, Drew uh Kramer and Tyson Williams.

SPEAKER_00 57:20

Was it a lot of that's yeah, Kramer was up there too in the second rotor? He was, yeah. Yeah, he was up there in like fifth. That was going to be one of his best results to the year. So that's a shame that that happened. Um, was the track bad for it? No, no, I don't think so. Like it was heavy sand stuff, but not crazy. Uh a mud race would be a lot worse than what we had there. Um uh Toowumba, the mud that we had there would have been a lot harder on the bike. So I don't think it was craziness on the bikes. I don't know how we had so many of them, but we apparently there's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 57:58

With with these guys, uh, you know, they're not getting paid to ride dirt bikes, and they're certainly not getting free bikes left, right, and center. So they'd have practice bike and race bike. We're getting to round six late in the championship. Are they uh are bikes getting older? Things gonna start failing if they're getting too many hours on them. Do they swap bikes out? How do they kind of manage these last three rounds with their bikes they've got?

SPEAKER_00 58:21

Yeah, that's a that's a tough question without getting inside all the the degree with all these riders, it's it's hard to say, but you would have to think that, like you said, there's not a lot on offer for many of these riders. Maybe some of our doing this whole championship on just one bike.

SPEAKER_01 58:37

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:38

Uh it's not cheap anymore by bike. So um, I I wouldn't think so. I wouldn't expect that it would be if you're staying on top of the maintenance of it. I don't think it should be, but okay, who knows? How do we know how much practice they're doing on the bikes if they are using that same bike? It could be massive hours on them. I'm not sure. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, there's always that possibility that we are getting late in the series, and maybe these bikes just aren't made to go the hundred hours that maybe they're putting on them.

SPEAKER_01 59:08

Yeah. I mean, to put to give all the MX3 guys uh jealousy, we spoke to Ty Simmons a week ago, uh, two weeks ago, and we asked him um we for a podcast, and we went wanted to do his whole career and then everything after his career, but it's just too long. So we've got part one, which is all of his motocross career. And at the age of 15, I think it was, um, he was offered a contract from KDM to race in the same whatever it was back then, the equivalent to the MX3 class. And I think he said it was sixty thousand dollars cash and about four or five bikes a year. Uh no one's on that now.

SPEAKER_00 59:44

I saw that clip and uh it made me hate him because I never made that.

SPEAKER_01 59:50

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_00 59:51

Well no, all the money came in just after I finished, yeah, and that that just completely cemented that thought. Uh pretty crazy, hey, to have that kind of money at a young age like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:04

Um, but at the same time, he could get in there and race in MX2 and be up the front.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:13

We don't see that now. Yeah. We don't see someone come as very rare. Someone come straight from juniors and be up there winning in the second grade down, the second class down from the premier class. Yeah. You know, it just doesn't happen. It was quite often that happened through my era. I I I did it. I won my very first national motocross that I entered on the 125, and I would have been very similar. Chad Ree certainly was. Yeah. Your McFarlands and and and Burners were all capable of going straight in from juniors and being competitive straight away. So I that it's a little bit different now as far as when you talk about that kind of money. That was the path that we took. So yeah, at that young age for MX3, I mean, is there anyone getting paid in MX3 right now? I don't know. Well, I wouldn't doubt it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:04

Yeah. Yeah, I doubt it. Not from what we've heard, it doesn't sound like um I mean, look, Riley Burgess, we kind of know well-ish. He, like I said, bought body spin spanners for him, and he'll often be out at Briggsie's track while we're out there testing stuff too. And and he's certainly not getting on a contract from KDM, put it that way, and he's coming third. So yeah, it's a bit different back in the day, but hey, things things always change. And um, yeah, like you said, Caden Minier is probably the only other purse kid I can think of who kind of popped out of juniors and did pretty well apart from that. Maybe Blake Bahanan will be our next one to do what was done more often, maybe 10-15 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:39

We're not gonna see him here. No, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:42

No way. He's gonna be overseas. No, speaking of podcasts, we've actually we're talking to him tomorrow afternoon, me and Briggsy and his old man Tim, because he's too young. We're not sure legally if we're allowed to put him on a podcast on his own at that age. So Blake and Tim are coming on tomorrow to talk about what happened over in the World Championship and everything else. And from what we've heard, yes, he has had uh Tim's phone has hasn't stopped ringing, it's melting. I wouldn't be surprised. And and you know what's probably helped Blake too is he's on a Yamaha, and there are a lot of Yamaha cashed up Yamaha teams around the world that want riders like of Blake's ability. Um we see that with Star Yamaha in the US, they've pulled a Kiwi and an Aussie over there to race in their team, and they're both doing really well. Um so yes, it'll be exciting to see where Blake goes. Sadly, I'm with you. I don't know if we're gonna see him race here uh too too much longer, but anyway, it's awesome for him. Um all right, cool. That pretty much rounds out Taraugan. Um Conondale and then QMP back to back. We've got week off weekend off this week, so everyone can get up to Queensland and get themselves set up. Then we go, what are you expecting out of Connondale? And and who's gonna suit that Connondale track?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:50

It's like I made in the comment before Thumpin' Nuts. It's honestly a different style of racing when you get to those natural terrain tracks where your lines are gonna form up throughout the day. Yeah, and it's a bit of an unknown because the track's probably not the same as whatever anyone else has ridden before it. So it's going to be different. Who would suits? Anyone that can ride a hard pack surface is going to do pretty good. Uh, if any of the Queenslanders that have ridden Connondale will do well, if they've never ridden Condondale, it might be the Achilles heel for some of these people.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:25

Um, I'm sure Jed's going to be able to do it. I'm sure he would have come across some natural natural terrain stuff in Europe when he was there.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:33

Um, but it is a different, definitely a different layout and a different style of riding. So it might catch some people off guard, it might go in the favor of some people. It's a little bit of an unknown. Um, but I'm pretty keen for it. I haven't been to Connondale since I raced it in 2004, I think from the last time I was there.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:53

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:54

Um, and uh I was a roadblock to Daryl King at the time who's listening to this. I'm sorry for back then, but I was a good roadblock and you didn't like me for it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:07

Um you're expecting, I mean, we've already talked about it. No major upsets from the two premier classes. I'm guessing it should not be uh pretty much business as usual.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:16

The the only the only one might be I don't believe this is gonna be an upset. We may see something out of Crawford up there over these next couple of rounds. Maybe it comes at Connondale. I don't know. He certainly would have ridden Condondale a bit in his time, so I think he's gonna have a good amount of knowledge for it and how to get around there. Um I don't know. Webster has ever has there ever been a championship round up there where Webster possibly could have ridden it?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:47

Yeah, I can't think of it. I don't think so. No, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:50

It's been was uh what was the last time we were there for a national? It'd be 2019, I think.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:56

Yeah, before Prime, yeah, MX.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:59

Yeah, so a lot of a lot of these guys would never have done that.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:03

So isn't gonna be an interesting round. I don't know if it's gonna change championships anywhere. Um, but it's gonna be an interesting round nonetheless.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:12

Yep, yeah, they got two weeks to get themselves right. Uh Kyle needs to bounce back from his two offs. Hopefully, the body's all good to go. And um, with the MX2 guys, there's nothing really in terms of physical body fitness stuff. It sounds like it was all just mechanicals for poor old rider to to bounce back. And then yeah, even the same for Riley Burgess, he seems fine, it was just a mechanical, so it should be a full full ham for the last two rounds, I reckon. They should go out at each other. They've got some first place might be settled in those first two classes, but um certainly not in MX3 and even MXW. Lockie uh Lala's out of fair way, but Taylor and Charlie have uh they've got a heap of points that they can make up over the next couple rounds, so it's gonna be good.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:52

Yep, yeah, it's gonna be good. Can't wait.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:54

Cool, mate. You'll be out there commentating, of course.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:56

We'll be there, we'll be there early, uh, doing our track previews, which will be cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:02

Um any nostalgic stuff happening with graphics kits or anything for Connondale that you know of?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:07

No, nothing I know of. I don't think they've done gone down that road this year. They have done in the past for Toowoomba, but it just seems like it's been left behind at the moment. I just think everyone wants to get through the year and that'll be it. Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:21

Um, all right, cool guys. We'll we'll catch up with Hammy probably after uh Condale, and then um, like I said, we're gonna try and speak to Jed uh for uh between Connondale and um and QMP. So that'll be good too. Uh all right, legend. Thanks, uh thanks, Hammy, and we'll speak to you soon.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:37

No worries, thanks, guys.