Racing: Magical Moss wraps up lites Super X title

Super X already has its first championship winner for 2009 -- Matt Moss.

While Chad Reed humbled the open class field at Parramatta Stadium (NSW) last night, the Rockstar Motul Suzuki-backed Moss wrapped up the lites title, successfully retaining the silverware he first won in last year's inaugural season of Super X.

"We had last year's model ready to go and I knew it was a winning machine," said Moss. "But we got an early shipment of two 2010 bikes, like a week before the first round. I pretty much did three laps, pulled in and said: 'Jay this is what we are gunna race.' We put in some suspension, went racing and won that first round."

That first round win at Launceston has been followed by wins at Geelong, Perth, Canberra and Parramatta giving Moss and the fuel-injected 2010 model RM-Z250 a perfect racing record in its debut season.

Five-time 500cc motocross world champion Roger De Coster has now signed Moss to Team Rockstar Makita Suzuki for the 2010 AMA season.

Moss also won this year's Australian Motocross Championship, but he's taken his dominance to another level in Super X on the new fuel injected Suzuki.

The lites riders competed in the Quad Challenge finals format in Parramatta, over four five-lap sprints. There were some great battles and four different winners - Moss, Brendan Harrison (North Star Yamaha), Lawson Bopping (Shift Motul Suzuki Development) and Luke Styke (Yamaha) -- but it was Moss who rode consistently well to take out the round and the championship.

America's Kyle Cunningham (Serco Yamaha) was second overall from Harrison.

Moss' 2009 blitz now has him on an unassailable 127pts, while Cunningham (97), Bopping (94) and Ryan Marmont (JDR Motorsports/MX Rad Yamaha, 89) will fight over the minor placings in Brisbane on December 5 (the New Zealand round next Saturday is a non points affair for the lites riders).

In the open class, Reed was back to his crushing best, defeating American seven-time world supercross champion Jeremy McGrath (Woodstock Honda Thor Racing) in the Survival format decider, with crowd favourite Jay Marmont  (CDR Rockstar Yamaha) a close third.

The Survival format pitted 20 riders against each other in four, six-lap sprints where the bottom five was eliminated after each race. The first sprint saw young gun Tye Simmonds (Motorex KTM) take the holeshot, and only a small mistake on the whoops just before the finish line saw Reed make the pass and take the first win.

From then on Reed was totally in the zone, culminating with his victory in the final six-lapper. Simmonds and Daniel McCoy (Pacific Ink Coastal KTM) saw out the top five, while Dan Reardon (Woodstock Honda Thor Racing) and fellow big gun Michael Byrne (Rockstar Honda Maxima Racing) didn't not make it past race two of Survival.

"I felt great on the bike tonight and I was going for jumps that I haven't been attempting at the other rounds. The atmosphere and crowd tonight were fantastic and it's so good to have Jeremy out here racing," said Reed. "I'm confident that I have my head around the bike now and I'm hoping to come away from New Zealand with a win as we head to Brisbane."

Reed is now only 1pt (108 to 107) behind new leader Marmont, followed by Reardon (98), Simmonds (86) and the McCoy (78).

The Monster Energy Super X will now make its way across the Tasman for the first time for the penultimate round of the championship on November 21 at Waikato Stadium, Hamilton.