Suzukis Hurley Retains Place in Championship

Team Shift Motul Suzuki's Daryl Hurley delivered an heroic performance as he rode with a newly-plated collarbone in order to retain second place in the 2007 Australian Motocross Championship at round eight in Wonthaggi

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Team Shift Motul Suzuki's Daryl Hurley delivered an heroic performance as he rode with a newly-plated collarbone in order to retain second place in the 2007 Australian Motocross Championship at round eight in Wonthaggi (VIC), this weekend.

Hurley broke his collarbone racing in New Zealand two weeks ago, underwent surgery last Monday and was still recovering in hospital in New Zealand on Thursday before heading to Australia for Sunday's racing. Qualifying 17th aboard the RM-Z450, Hurley was extremely tentative as he tested the limits of his injury, assessing whether he would be able to compete in two 30-minute motos.

In both races Hurley was unable to maintain pace with the leaders, but, impressively, was still capable of passing slower riders. Finishing ninth in race one, Hurley was on-target to repeat the feat in race two before two riders caught and passed him with only two laps remaining, scoring 11th for both the race and round.

In the Pro Lites class, Lawson Bopping delivered another performance to demonstrate his potential, but again was unable to translate that into race results aboard the RM-Z250. Caught up with a crashed rider directly in his path on the opening lap of his first moto, Bopping was left trailing the field with a difficult task ahead of him, but rode exceptionally well to charge through from 35th to 14th spot.

A better start in race two saw Bopping running strongly with great pace as he attempted to challenge for fifth place. Unfortunately, Bopping crashed trying to make the move, but kept going until he suddenly was forced to pull off the track to be violently ill.

As the 2007 Australian Motocross Championship heads to Lakes (NSW) for round eight on Sunday 5 August, Bopping will return to challenge for the U19 Australian Motocross Championship, while Hurley will continue to fly the flag for Team Shift Motul Suzuki in the Pro Open class.

DARYL HURLEY – TEAM SHIFT MOTUL SUZUKI

"I'm not sure how I feel about today. I'm sore; I hurt all day, but I toughed it out and got through. "I was still in hospital on Thursday and I still have the stitches in, which is really not a good build up to a race meeting. "I really didn't know what to expect this weekend; I arrived in Wonthaggi not knowing whether I would be capable of riding at all, and yet part of me is disappointed with finishing 11th.

"This was a tough track to have a busted collarbone because it was so rough, but we have held on to second in the championship which is important. Now, I'm going home to New Zealand to re-group, rest up until the next round at Lakes and then keep going till the end of the championship."

JAY FOREMAN – TEAM SHIFT MOTUL SUZUKI TEAM MANAGER

"Daryl was in a lot of pain today and he really dug deep to race this weekend. In some parts of the track Daryl really needed to pull on the bars to muscle the bike around, but he just wasn't able to do it and was losing a lot of time through certain sections. In terms of the championship, today's effort has been very valuable; if Daryl didn't ride, he would have lost second spot in the championship – in fact he would have dropped to fourth, which would have been very costly. Lawson had a rough day here, but I hope that the experience gained in the Pro Lites class help his campaign in the U19's for the next two rounds."

2007 AUSTRALIAN MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP – ROUND 8:

PRO OPEN

1 Daniel Reardon 355,
2 Daryl Hurley 295 (Suzuki RM-Z450),
3 Cody Cooper 284,
4 Jay Marmont 279,
5 Troy Carroll 222,
6 Kade Mosig 160,
7 Matt Moss 150,
8 Nathan Brochtrup 138,
9 Nathan Crawford 138,
10 Shane Metcalfe 118

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