Suzuki QDT battle out Hervey Bay

by Dave · February 5, 2008

Suzuki QSDT Round one of Shell Sunshine State Series saw the Queensland Suzuki Development Team (QSDT) riders battered and bruised.

File Image CourtesySuzuki

Round one of Shell Sunshine State Series saw the Queensland Suzuki Development Team (QSDT) riders battered and bruised.

Round one of the Sunshine State Motocross Series roared to life at Hervey Bay over the weekend. After heavy rain on Friday and Saturday nights the rough sandy Hervey Bay circuit was tougher than normal. With sandy whoops a metre deep the circuit looked liked a mine field after 500 plus riders had torn it apart. KTM, Honda and Yamaha sent up their factory team riders for some pre season testing to add to the flavour.

Nathan Crawford Jr – Team Moto Suzuki had a day he’d rather put behind him. The rookie 85cc rider had a tough time on the chopped out sandy circuit. Nathan struggled with his starts and found himself racing his way through the field every moto to finish 10th DNF and 11th in the three moto’s to end round 1 a distant 13th position overall.

Joe Hobson – Springwood Suzuki showed brilliant speed in the pro Lite’s class to run strong against the factory boys. Joe spent plenty of time practising on sandy tracks leading up to the Hervey Bay event with great results. Those hours of pounding out the laps in hot conditions paid off as he matched the lap times of Todd Waters and Ryan Marmont all day and ran an awesome 3rd and 4th in the two moto’s to finish the day 4th overall.

The pro open class was not such a pretty picture for Joe as a high speed crash in moto one left him with a busted shoulder and blank score card for the day.

Zak Newsome – Fairways Cycles also had a tough day at the office. Zak blasted out of the gate in moto one of the expert Lite’s class to grab an early lead in the forty strong field only to get jumped on before the end of lap one. He remounted and raced his way passed 32 riders to finish 8th.

Moto two saw Zak out in the lead again and starting to open a lead when he cross rutted on a tabletop jump and went down hard. He got a good taste of Hervey Bay sand, a black eye and a broken nose for his efforts. Zak ended the day 14th overall. The next event for the Motul, M2R, Queensland Suzuki Development Team will be round two of the Sunshine state series at Coolum in two weeks.