Hurley Jumps Up To 2nd In Oz Mx
Team Shift Motul Suzuki’s Daryl Hurley charged into second place in the 2007 Australian Motocross Championship aboard the RM-Z450 in round two at Penguin (TAS), today.
After qualifying strongly in third place, Hurley was fourth out of the gate in the first of two 30-minute motos and by the end of the opening lap had hustled his way into second place where he chased Daniel Reardon to the chequered flag.
Fifth off the start in moto two, Hurley was up into third at the five-minute mark before becoming embroiled in an epic battle with Jay Marmont that began at half-distance and finished with Marmont eventually securing third at the 25-minute mark.
Hurley crossed the finish line in fourth place behind Marmont to launch himself up from fifth to second in the championship overall.
Piloting the Team Shift Motul Suzuki RM-Z250 in the Pro Lites class, Luke Burkhart also began the day strongly, qualifying in third place.
Burkhart’s fortunes took a turn for the worse in race one after a slow start saw him caught behind a multiple-bike pile-up at turn four on the opening lap, rejoining the 40-strong field in last place.
The young New Zealander began a fightback through the field, climbing to 12th place by the end of the 30-minute moto.
Making a much stronger start to race two, Burkhart was third out of the gates and quickly slotted into second place on lap one.
Maintaining position to the halfway mark with strong pace on the Suzuki 250, Burkhart was eventually passed by Mitch Hoad and Cameron Taylor, meeting the chequered flag in fourth place.
The current New Zealand Supercross Champion now sits sixth in the Pro Lites Motocross Championship.
Team Shift Motul Suzuki aims to test prior to the upcoming race action of round three in Conondale (QLD) on Sunday 6 May.
JAY FOREMAN – TEAM SHIFT MOTUL SUZUKI TEAM MANAGER
"This is a good result with Daryl climbing into second in the championship; he’s still gaining in speed and confidence after such a long break, and he’s starting to look more and more like his old self on the bike again.
"We still have a lot of work to do improve the bike as Daryl gets faster. We had very limited opportunities for testing pre-season, so we will really need to ramp up our development program over the coming rounds.
"A bad start left Luke in the wrong place at the wrong time and he had a battle on his hands to claw back some points in race one, but he had a much better run for the second moto and did a good job to salvage sixth in the series today in what could have been a disaster round."
