Beaton and Crawford share major ProMX spoils at Horsham

2024 Penrite Australian ProMX Championship
Round Two – Horsham, VIC

The inland Wimmera city of Horsham hosted the second round of the Australian ProMX Championship on April 7.  A well-watered 1.7-kilometre hard-packed track and cool conditions greeted competitors, many of whom were racing at Horsham for the first time.  2024 marked the first time in seven years that the Doeen complex, run by the Horsham Motorcycle Club, has hosted the Australian Motocross Championship.

Dean Ferris and Wilson Todd dominated the MX1 and MX2 classes, respectively, last time ProMX visited Horsham, but neither of those riders would score a podium this year.

Jed Beaton (CDR Yamaha) and Nathan Crawford (KTM) took a win and second place apiece.

Beaton the round winner thanks to his win coming in the second Moto, both riders scoring 47-points.

Jed Beaton

“Today went pretty well it was good to get a round win and rebound strongly from the opening round at Wonthaggi. The first race, I was just a little too cautious and didn’t make things happen when I had the chance, but hats of to Nathan as he raced well. But in race two, I wanted to get to the front and use my pace to get away much early and not after to battle in the last few laps, so it was good to be able to get that done as well. I was in a similar situation at Wonthaggi in race two and then fell, but I wasn’t going to let that happen this time and I stayed focus and strong right until the end. The team were pumped when I come off the track and it was awesome to see everyone smiling and happy. The bike was great all day and I had a lot of friends and family here to cheer me on.”

Crawford claimed his first-ever MX1 race victory after an enthralling opening moto that saw the lead change several times.

Webster led the field through the opening laps as the heavy hitters tried to muscle themselves into position around the jump-laden circuit. It was Clout who made the moves early, scrapping his way into P2, then leaping into the lead when Webster dropped his machine on the fifth lap.  Clout led Crawford and Beaton for most of the remaining race before a late mistake allowed Crawford to take the lead and a memorable race win by 1.5s over Beaton. Webster finished third, with Clout fourth and Gibbs in fifth.

Nathan Crawford

“I finished second overall on the day, splitting moto wins and ended equal on points. I’m stoked to get my first MX1 moto win – that felt really good! This MX1 class is stacked, but I felt strong all day, my starts were good and the day went really smoothly. I was top of the times in practice for a long time until the last lap, then in Superpole I finished second, then went 1-2 in the motos and tied on points for the round win. This has me really excited for the next round at Gillman!”

Terrafirma Honda Racing’s Wilson Todd grabbed the holeshot of the day’s final moto, but it took no time for Clout, then CDR Yamaha Monster Energy’s Dean Ferris, to elbow their way to the front. A mistake from Ferris a couple of laps later gave Beaton the opportunity to take over P1, and he’d go on the win and hold off Crawford by 8.1 seconds, with Gibbs putting in an inspired performance to finish third. Ferris would recover with some late fast laps to end the moto in fourth, just ahead of Webster.

Kirk Gibbs (GASGAS) and Kyle Webster (Honda) both took third and fifth-place finishes across the two contests, bagging 36-points each.  Webster had dominated the opening round at Wonthaggi to leave with a six-point leave over Beaton, however those places are reversed after Horsham, with Beaton heading to round three in South Australia with a five-point buffer over Webster.

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Gibbs took his first podium since joining GASGAS and is now seventh in the standings.

Kirk Gibbs

“It was a decent day all-in-all and a podium is always a plus! I struggled a tiny bit in the first moto, as the front group broke away and I was in my own land, riding by myself. After that though, I had a bit more fight in that last moto, which was a lot better. I got up to P3 and that put me third overall, so it’s awesome to get back on the podium and hopefully it’s the first of many more to come this year!”

Reigning champion Dean Ferris had crashes in both races that marred his day.  Race one saw him inside the top five and in a fast-moving rider freight train in the opening ten minutes. He then miscued a rut and dropped from fifth to just outside the top ten before making a few passes and getting back to a disappointing ninth. The second race and he was out to redeem himself. He quickly moved into the race lead and held string until lap four when he again made a small mistake and went down. This time he was able to scramble back to the bike and resume the race in sixth place. In the latter stages, he was able to make a couple of passes and move his way to fourth by the finish. His 9-4 results gave him sixth for the round and Ferris is now fourth in the championship.

Dean Ferris

“No podium, so I’m walking back to Queensland…  To be honest it was a bit of a struggle today, but I kept at it and put myself in good positions each race only to crash and make it hard for myself.  The team worked hard to give me what I needed, I just wasn’t about to execute on the day and need to get back on track right away so its back to work and get things in place for the next round at Gilman in a months’ time.”

Similarly, another multiple Aussie Motocross Champion found it tough going at Horsham. Todd Waters had a tough day at the office with an 8-9 scorecard and ninth overall.

Todd Waters

“It was a super-difficult for me personally. I couldn’t get a feeling and gnarly hardpack tracks aren’t really my game. I cleaned up my starts, but I’m super-disappointed that I fell backwards during both races. I’ve got a lot of work to do, so we’ll keep chipping away. I can’t thank the Raceline Husqvarna Team enough for the work they’ve put in this week. I take my hat off to Rhys (Budd in MX2), who rode unreal, and we’ll keep working and try and get ourselves back up where we belong.”

Thor MX1 Race One Results

Thor MX1 Race Two Results

Thor MX1 Championship Points

Pirelli MX2

A perfect day for Team HRC Honda’s Brodie Connolly saw him take maximum points from Horsham, and establish himself as the clear leader in the Pirelli MX2 championship. Connolly was flanked by Raceline Husqvarna Racing Team’s Rhys Budd and GASGAS Racing Team rookie Byron Dennis on the overall podium.

Noah Ferguson started his day on the strongest possible footing by topping the MX2 qualifying sheets, with the Boost Mobile Honda Racing rider’s fastest lap being 0.229s quicker than his nearest rival, Yamalube Yamaha Racing’s Ryder Kingsford, while Budd also finished within a second of the leader. Connolly finished fourth-fastest from Yamaha privateer Bailey Malkiewicz.

It was a comfortable win for New Zealand’s Connolly in the opening moto. Western Australian Husqvarna rider Brock Flynn led the MX2 field through the first turn, but two multi-rider pile-ups on the opening lap saw the running order shuffle dramatically. Ryder Kingsford was one of the riders caught up the incident.

The crashes benefitted Connolly, who quickly found himself tearing away at the front of the pack, leading Malkiewicz and Budd around a circuit that was in perfect racing condition.

Connolly relentlessly built his lead to finish 22 seconds ahead of Malkiewicz, with Budd crossing the line a further 4.5 seconds behind. A solid performance by both KTM Racing Team’s Kayden Minear and Honda’s Haruki Yokoyama saw them finish fourth and fifth respectively.

It all came undone for pole-winner Ferguson in the opening moto, where he crashed twice and finished down in 17th, just behind Kingsford in P16.

In the final MX2 outing, it was another solid wire-to-wire victory for Connolly as he took maximum points from Horsham. However, the Honda rider was kept in check throughout the race, and only finished 0.27 seconds ahead of his team-mate Ferguson, who’d blasted his way from a top 10 start to finish runner-up by the barest of margins.

Kingsford finished behind Ferguson, as Dennis – who’d also charged from outside of the top 10 early on – claimed fourth, ahead of fifth-placed Kaleb Barham (Yamalube Yamaha Racing).

In the MX2 points, Connolly already holds a comfortable 26-point lead over Ferguson, with Kingsford a further six-points back.

After taking third in the opening moto, Rhys Budd was seventh in the second and final encounter, which was still enough to secure him second overall for the round. That 34-point haul elevated him to fourth in the MX2 championship standings..

Rhys Budd

“Overall, it was a fairly positive day here. My 3-7 moto scores were good enough for second overall and obviously I’m pretty surprised by that – I guess I was more consistent than other people. We were on the box, which is our goal, and I’m happy to walk away from the day with some good points and some hardware. I can’t complain too much, but I want to be more towards the front at the next round in both motos.”

Last year’s MX3 champ, 17-year-old Byron Dennis had recovered from an early crash to work his way through the pack to finish a hard-fought sixth position. Dennis again had to come through the field in moto two, setting a series of rapid laps on his way to finish the race in fourth position and to stand on the round podium in P3 overall for the weekend which promoted him to sixth in the championship chase.

Byron Dennis

“It was definitely a good day out here at Horsham. I ended up P3 for the day and took my first MX2 podium, so I’m super-pumped on that! I didn’t achieve the best moto results, but we got it done in the end. I took a lot of things out of today and I’m looking forward to heading to round three to keep learning and chasing the results we’re looking for.”

Kayden Minear took sixth for the round which promoted the Western Australian to fifth place in the championship standings.

Kayden Minear

“Today was an up-and-down day. I finished P4 in the first moto and was really happy with how I rode. In the second moto I got off to a good start, but unfortunately got a rock stuck in my rear brake. Overall though, I’m very happy with my riding and I’m taking lots of positives from today. I’m happy with where I’m sitting in the championship coming into Gillman.”

After going down twice in the opening moto, Ryder Kingsford leapt from the gates and slotted into second place on the opening lap of the final contest. He pulled up behind race one winner, Brodie Connelly, and kept the pressure on him for the next twenty minutes as the pair were often less than a few seconds apart. Later in the moto and with just a couple of laps to go, Kingsford dropped a spot and came across the finish line in third. His 16-3 gave him ninth for the day but enough to hang onto third in the championship.

Ryder Kingsford

“Moto one was rough. If I had only crashed the once in the first turn, I would have been ok and able to get myself well inside the top ten but the second crash cost me plenty of time as I got mud on grips and had to get myself out of some sticky dirt. But it was a good rebound in moto two and at least salvage something for the day. So far, I have gone 4-2-16-3 so it’s been a pretty good start the year and the bike and team are working well.”

Kaleb Barham was just outside the top ten on the opening lap and some distance back from the leaders when things started to flow for him out on track. The pace picked up, the intensity increased and suddenly Barham was taking huge amounts of real estate out of the riders in front him. He picked his way past riders at will and made his way to fourth with two laps to go before the rider behind him was able to sneak by resulting in a fifth-place finish for him. His 10-5 results gave him seventh for the day and he left feeling positive about his riding.

Kaleb Barham

“I qualified well today which is a first for me, then had a crash and didn’t ride so well in race one, but was super strong in race two and felt the best I have at a ProMX in some time. This is how I have been riding during the week, so it was good to translate that to a ProMX round and battle with the boys up the front. The challenge is there to do it week in, week out, but I feel I have made good progress, and the results are just around the corner.”

Team-mate Jayce Cosford was dealing with his own issues and doing what he could to stay on track. He finished in fifteen place as he dealt with the pain and his 8-15 results gave him eleventh for the round.

Jayce Cosford

“It was a tough weekend for me, and I just tried to survive it more than anything else. I had a good crash on Thursday before I came down and hit my arm and elbow pretty hard. I had it checked out and there is no damage in there but it is really swollen and I just did the best I could. We have a bit of a break before the next round so I have time to recover and get back on to of it and come out swinging in Gillman.”

Pirelli MX2 Race One Results

Pirelli MX2 Race Two Results

Pirelli MX2 Championship Points

Maxxis MX3

KTM Racing Team-supported rider Jet Alsop proved the most consistent racer around the tricky Horsham track, with his 2-3 result proving to be enough to stand atop the round MAXXIS MX3 podium. The class caters for riders between the ages of 14 and 18 ,on board 250cc four stroke machines, and it’s a wild ride watching these young guns duke it out over two, twenty-minute races at each national round.

In the opening MX3 moto, WBR Bulk Nutrients Yamaha’s points leader Koby Hantis got the better of an intense late-race battle with Alsop to take the race win.

Hantis, who’d worked his way from seventh into the lead earlier in the race, initially fell behind an on-fire Alsop, but remounted a challenge and made a thrilling last-lap pass to regain the lead and race win.

Early race leader Jake Cannon (Honda Racing) finished a distant third, ahead of WBR Bulk Nutrients duo Kobe Drew and holeshot-winner Kayd Kingsford.

Heart-in-your-mouth racing continued in the second MX3 moto, as holeshot winner Kingsford and KTM-mounted Deacon Paice went head-to-head for a full 12 laps.

Koby Hantis

“I had to work hard today as my starts weren’t great and it’s a tough track to get by. I was desperate to get that win in the first race and just some bad luck in the second, but I’m pumped to keep the red plate and take another podium.”

A mistake on the second-to-last corner from Kingsford guaranteed Paice his first-ever MX3 victory, while Alsop finished third. Burchell and Cannon would complete the top five, while Hantis recovered from an incident midway through the race to finish seventh.

Hantis will still carry the red plate into Gillman’s third round, with six points separating himself from Kingsford and Alsop, who are both tied on 76 points.

Maxxis MX3 Race One Results

Maxxis MX3 Race Two Results

Maxxis MX3 Championship Points

Fox Racing MX85 Cup

A statement second-moto ride from Yamaha rider Townley saw the young Kiwi take overall honours at the first round of the World Junior Motocross Championship (WJMX) qualifier series. First-moto winner Heath Davy finished second overall and Cooper Danaher completed the podium.

It didn’t take long for GYTR Yamaha Junior Racing’s Davy to leap to the front of the first Fox Racing MX85 Cup race and he claimed the win by 2.4 seconds ahead of a fast-finishing Townley, with Danaher third, Bodie Court (GASGAS) fourth and Cooper Bowman (Husqvarna) fifth.

The second moto was all about the son of former world champion Ben Townley, who made a series of rapid-fire passes on the opening laps to take the lead and finish an incredible 33 seconds ahead of Davy. Bowman crossed the line in third, ahead of Danaher and Seth Thomas (GASGAS).

The second of the WJMX qualifier series will be held at Gillman when the third round of the 2024 Penrite ProMX Championship converges on the South Australian circuit on Sunday, May 5.

Fox Racing MX85 Cup Race One Results

Fox Racing MX85 Cup Race Two Results

Fox Racing MX85 Cup Points