DNF Puts Smith back to 6th

Australia’s premier ATV race event the Australian ATV MX Titles were held on the weekend hosted by the Maffra/Sale club at their Newry complex. 139 entry’s were received from as far as the Pilbra region of W.A. to the top end of the N.T. and Qld in fact riders entered from every state on mainland Australia and were spread over 13 classes.

After his dominant display at the recent Vic titles in August Western Australian Ryan Lancaster come into the event hot favourite to take this years title from two time winner Chris Brenton also from W.A. Victorian riders Paul Smith, Aaron Ovens, and Anthony Delios were also keen for national glory.

The Pro class got turned on its head in the first of five 20 min moto’s for the weekend when Brenton snapped an axle, Lancaster’s bike seized Oven’s also DNF’ed and Smith managed to salvage 5th when his gearbox failed. The win went to the relatively unknown in ATV circles and home town hero Josh Ross, a top Victorian two wheel rider, riding on a borrowed quad for the weekend.

With his heartbreaking DNF behind him Ryan Lancaster dominated the rest of the weekends racing, comfortably winning the remaining four races leaving the rest of the field to fight for the remaining places.

Barry Francis/Suzuki’s Paul Smith had more bad luck retiring his race bike after the first moto he managed a 3rd in the second race on his spare quad but DNF’ed the third with a broken A-Arm ball joint, he finished the weekend with 5th place in the last two races of the event for 6th place overall for the titles.

When all was done and dusted the consistency of Big Ant Yewers from Perth paid off when the last years 2nd placed rider made the step to the top of the podium for his first Australian Pro Class title. He won by 2 points over Lancaster with Ross only 1 point behind him for third. It was the closest title since 2004 when only one point separated Paul Smith and Waldo Hussey for the top spot at Outrim. Two make Ant’s win even more impressive was that he also competed in the Vets over 35 class and clean swept that as well.

Suzuki’s Smith said after the event “I’m disappointed to of had some bad luck this weekend but that’s the way things go sometimes. We have had a really good year and I’m happy with my results, 6th with a DNF is still a good result in the end. Now we have to look at next year and start preparing for it soon. Our 2008 program has already began to take shape and we will come out bigger and better and ready to take on any race that comes our way. ATV racing in this country is getting better all the time and the teams are becoming more and more professional every year, this will only help grow our sport and I’m looking forward to seeing this happen”.