Woodstock Honda Thor Racing’s Daniel McCoy and Craig Anderson took a triumphant 1-2 victory in last night’s Stroke Supercross Summer Nationals Pro Open class at Dubbo Speedway (NSW), also sealing first and second in the series with Anderson the overall winner.
McCoy got the upper hand over his teammate Anderson right from the start of the night, leading both of the opening two motos from start to finish.
The third moto saw Anderson fighting back with a start to finish lead aboard the Woodstock Honda CRF450, while McCoy came home in third place behind Brent Landman.
The sizzling fourth and final Pro Open race saw Anderson snare the holeshot from hard-charging Landman and McCoy.
On a mission, McCoy rocketed from third to assume the race lead from Anderson, pulling away into the distance and leaving his teammate to squabble over second spot with Landman who again split the Honda duo, this time with Anderson in third place.
However, Landman’s interference didn’t impact on Woodstock Honda Thor Racing’s dominance in either the round or the series.
The event was not nearly as positive for the Woodstock Honda Thor Racing Pro Lites riders, Kade Mosig and Dean Ferris.
Riding very well in only his second ever Supercross event, Ferris came to grief in the night’s biggest incident on the opening lap of the third race when he was hit midair and thrown off the track, bringing out the red flag to stop the race.
Taken to hospital as a precautionary measure, Ferris was later released sore and bruised, but essentially uninjured.
Mosig was also caught out in the same incident, but was not hurt and, after attending to his teammate, took to the race restart.
However, once restarted, race three was again not kind to the Woodstock Honda Thor team as Mosig suffered a comparatively minor crash that left him unable enter the final race, ending his night prematurely.
Despite not being able to complete half of the night’s races, the pair still finished impressively with Mosig in fifth and Ferris in seventh place for the series; a particularly strong performance from Ferris in his first attempt at Supercross racing.
The Woodstock Honda Thor Racing team now looks forward to launching into motocross mode for the opening round of the 2008 Australian Motocross Championship in Penguin (TAS) on Sunday 6 April.
CRAIG ANDERSON
"It's great to start the season off by grabbing a series victory in our first time racing with Woodstock Honda Thor Racing.
"The track was really good, certainly a lot longer than at Tooradin and Daniel rode really well, so congratulations to him for the round win.
"My main aim now is to go and win the motocross series, and it's been good to do these couple of races to get the bugs out."
DANIEL McCOY
"I'm rapt to take the win in Dubbo and go 1-2 behind Craig for the series.
"I was a little disappointed with the result in round one at Tooradin; the guy you always want to beat most is your teammate and I felt I had the pace to run with Craig and beat him there, I had a couple mishaps in the opening races, but was hard on his tail by the end of the night.
"To turn it around here and make Craig have to chase me down was pretty satisfying and, as a team, there's no doubt in anyone's mind that we have two Pro Open guys who can stand up and challenge for the race win every time.
"We've got a lot of mutual respect for each other, we were pushing each other pretty hard on the track."
KADE MOSIG
"It was a rough night tonight and obviously I’m disappointed that I wasn't able to finish the last two races.
"I'm going home a bit bruised and sore, but I'm okay and this has at least been a good chance for the Woodstock Honda team to get used to each other and gel some more ahead of the motocross nationals in a few weeks."
DEAN FERRIS
"I’m just glad that I’m ok; that was a really big crash.
"My first taste of Supercross was great, I really enjoyed it, but my second wasn't so good… I'll be looking forward to getting into motocross next month, instead."
BRAD McALPINE – TEAM MANAGER
"I think the Supercross summer series was an exciting short and sharp series, and obviously it was a very pleasing result for the Woodstock Honda team.
"We've had our work cut out for us in the Pro Lites class; Matt Moss is clearly very strong at the moment, but this is a great way to sound out the competition and identify our strengths and weaknesses in relation to the field, so, as a team, we now know what's required from our riders and from a team and sponsors' perspective.
"We've been able to use these races for testing and development in race conditions and it's also a fantastic opportunity for our younger riders to interact and learn from our more experienced riders ahead of the Motocross Championship.
"Being a new team, although we've known each other for some time, we've only worked together as a group for a handful of hours; the summer series has allowed the technicians and riders a chance to bond ahead of the motocross.
"So now we'll go away and prepare for round one of the Australian Motocross Championship on April 6."
RESULTS:
Stroke Supercross Summer Nationals – Rd 2
PRO OPEN:
1Daniel McCoy 95; 2 Craig Anderson 89; 3 Brent Landman 84; 4 Toby Price 66; 5 Todd Smith 62; 6 Kane Scanlan 65; 7 Kyle Dicecco 57
PRO LITES:
1 Matt Moss 100; 2 Lewis Woods 86; 3 Ryan Marmont 82; 4 Taylor Potter 66; 5 Jesse Paech 62; 6 Kade Mosig 36; 7 Dean Ferris 16; 8 Dean Hibbard 13; 9 Brad Matheson 0; 10 Joshua Spanos 0
Stroke Supercross Summer Nationals – Overall Series
PRO OPEN:
1Craig Anderson 189; 2 Daniel McCoy 169; 3 Brent Landman 168; 4 Kane Scanlan 123; 5 Kyle Dicecco 115; 6 Todd Smith 85; 7 Danny Ham 74; 8 Peter Boyle 68; 9 Toby Price 66; 10 Travis Whitten 52
PRO LITES:
1 Matt Moss 200; 2 Ryan Marmont 164; 3 Lewis Woods 156; 4 Taylor Potter 126; 5 Kade Mosig 120; 6 Jesse Paech 113; 7 Dean Ferris 103; 8 Mark Grove 52; 9 Joshua Spanos 50; 10 Brad Matheson 26
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