Marmont upstages Reed in Townsville SuperX

November 24, 2008

Yamaha's Jay Marmont remains the only rider capable of defeating Suzuki's Chad Reed in the Australasian Supercross Championship - SuperX - after a brilliant upset win at the penultimate round in Townsville (Qld) on November 22.

Marmont has been in superb form throughout the inaugural SuperX campaign without tasting victory, but his resolve was finally rewarded when he defeated Honda's Daniel McCoy in the 'man on man' format - where 16 riders were gradually whittled back to two after a series of two-lap quarter and semi-finals.

Marmont is now the first rider other than Reed to win a SuperX round, and he did so in appalling conditions after Townsville - like much of Queensland - received a huge amount of rain over the last week.

"It was tough and fun racing tonight," said Marmont. "The track was really slippery and there were huge puddles everywhere, but I just stuck to my race plan and got the win. The championship is still alive now and as we saw tonight anything can happen.

"It's pretty exciting that it all comes down to the final round in Brisbane next week."

Marmont has now pushed onto 131pts, behind Reed (145) and well in front of Cheyne Boyd (Yamaha, 101) and McCoy (99).

However, all the odds are still stacked in favour of Reed winning the championship. Even if Marmont wins the final round in Brisbane this Saturday (November 29), the dual world champion only has to finish ninth or better in the 20-lap final -- which should be easy prey for someone of his calibre.

Reed was beaten by Marmont at the semi-final stage in Townsville, and he then defeated legendary American visitor Jeremy McGrath (Honda) in the run-off for third position.

Boyd was fifth overall, while Honda's Dan Reardon was again fast before being eliminated by Gianni Dalle-Molle in the first round of man on man after succumbing to the slick circuit.

In the Lites final, 16-year-old KTM star Tye Simmonds overtook Matt Moss (Suzuki) in the final stages to claim the spoils, although the latter is now champion-designate with a massive 42pt championship lead.

"I'm stoked to have taken the Pro Lites win for Motorex KTM, the team has put in a huge effort to get me here," said Simmonds.  "The KTM 250 SX-F held up awesome in the crappy conditions, it was seriously a mud bath out there. 

"Matt Moss had started to lap a lot of the field and when I caught him, he didn't know I was actually in second.  I made a pass on him on lap 12 and pulled away.  I looked behind me a couple of times to see if he was pushing hard to catch me, but it still mustn't have registered with him that I was now leading the race.

"I congratulate him (Moss) on taking the No. 1 ranking. "He has raised the bar for all of us in the Pro Lites Championship to improve on our speed, and I for one look forward to continuing to break his winning streak for some more competitive racing."

Meanwhile, Moss made it a double celebration in Townsville.

"To wrap up the championship is just a great feeling, not only for me personally but for everyone at Team Shift Motul Suzuki," said Moss. "I knew that if I kept my head down I was a contender this year and I think my consistency has really paid off. It's hard to describe how good a feeling it is to be the first winner of the Pro Lites SuperX title for Suzuki."

The RM-Z250 has been amazing to ride and it's played a huge part in this Championship, hopefully I can have some more succes in the next Motocross season and be back to defend this title for Suzuki in 2009."

Moss has now rocketed to 141pts, while Simmonds (99), Ryan Marmont (KTM, 94) will now battle it out for second in the championship now that Kawasaki's Luke George (90) is a scratching for Brisbane with an injured leg.