Marmont on track for a three-peat

Yamaha's Jay Marmont is one step closer to taking out his third consecutive Australian Motocross Championship after winning the penultimate round in Moree (NSW) yesterday.

Marmont now heads into the final double-header weekend in Coolum (Qld) on July 24-25 with a 40pt buffer over second-placed Dean Ferris (Honda) in the championship standings.

"It's good to get a bit of a monkey off my back and win some motos straight up," said Marmont. "This is my first round win for the year and I had to work for it.

"The team and I have worked hard in the past month and it's a good reward for everyone to come away with a win today and increase my lead in the championship.

"I felt pretty good in the opening races, but just wasn't getting the starts I needed, so we moved to a different starting position for the final two races and got much better starts and I was able to make the most of it by winning the last two motos.

"This was just the kind of round I was looking for before heading into the double-header at Coolum."

The last rider to win three Australian motocross titles in successive years (and in the same class) was Stephen Gall, who was the uninterrupted 250cc champion from 1980-1983.

Moree started slowly for Marmont, who qualified outside the top five before rallying for a pair of third places in the back-to-back opening motos.

He then trampled the opposition with emphatic victories in the final two motos to win the overall from Ferris (2-1-3-3), Cody Cooper (Suzuki, 1-2-2-11), Cheyne Boyd (Yamaha, 6-5-4-5) and Kawasaki's Billy Mackenzie (5-7-10-4).

Things didn't go to plan for the super fast Mackenzie, who was unable capitalise on pole position.

And also hoping for a better round was Bourke local Tye Simmonds. The KTM rider struggled with an injury sustained earlier in the week, with his best finish a second in the final moto en route to sixth overall.

Ryan Marmont (KTM) won the Pro Lites class in Moree, with Yamaha rider Ross Beaton taking out the Under 19s class.

Consistency paid off for Marmont, who with a scorecard of 3-2-7-5 hoisted himself into second place in the championship standings.

Marmont's team-mate and US rider PJ Larsen still retains his championship lead despite uncharacteristically crashing a number of times and unable to dominate as he has in previous races.

KTM's Josh Cachia has retained his Under 19s title lead, albeit by only 11pts.

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