A crash affected Opens rider Billy Mackenzie’s overall for the night. Mackenzie finished inside the top ten for the round taking 9^th and sits in 5^th place in the Championship and Under 19’s Kawasaki rider Meghan Rutledge was forced to watch the day-time racing from the sidelines with medical staff not allowing her to ride after she sustained a mild concussion last weekend.

The night got off to a rocky start for Lites rider Dean Ferris in the first of three motos when a tough start left him battling through the pack. Ferris managed to take 7^th place in the opener and then came out strong in the second moto, bagging the hole-shot on his KX250F and leading the entirety of the race for the moto win. Another rough start in the final race was not what Ferris needed however he rode strong to take 3^rd place and his 7-1-3 results were good enough to give him 2^nd overall for the night and moves him forward to 7^th place in the series.

Dean Ferris say’s, “It’s my first podium of the series so I’m excited about that. For me to put a whole night together and not lay it on the dirt is a huge plus for me. I’m tied for race wins with Moss but it’s crazy because he’s leading the Championship and I’m nowhere because I’ve pretty much winned it or binned it apart for tonight. Tonight I accepted getting a 3^rd and a 7^th with the race win. The Monster Energy Kawasaki KX250F is working really well. I’m really stoked that the boys could build me such a great bike.”

In his first full season of Super X, Billy Mackenzie is learning a lot and exceeding the expectations of many. With a crash in the whoop section in the second moto severely affecting his overall result on the weekend, Mackenzie still managed a top ten finish going 6-11-6 for 9^th overall. Currently sitting in 5^th place in the Championship, Mackenzie believes that with improvement to certain areas, he can be a podium achiever at Ipswich.

Billy Mackenzie say’s, “I don’t fell as frustrated as I have the last few rounds. I’ve had an average day but my riding has been a little better than the last few rounds. I felt more confident today, I felt I was flowing a lot better. I’m getting good starts and battling up front with the guys, I just need to sort my whoop sections out really. If I can get that down, I think I could be in with a shot for a podium at Ipswich.”

After being landed on in the final stages of last weeks Under 19’s moto and sustaining a mild concussion, 16 year old Meghan Rutledge was not cleared to ride at Maitland. Having gathered a legion of fans so far throughout the Super X Championship thanks to her on track talent and guts, Meg was still kept busy at Maitland signing autographs and being called on to help open proceedings and judge the best whip competition early in the day. Meghan Rutledge will be back in action on her KX250F at the season final next weekend.

Monster Energy Kawasaki Team Manager Troy Carroll says, “It was good to see Dean up on the podium. We’ve been confident he can do it all series. He’s had the speed to do it, he’s had numerous race wins, he’s had everything going for him but luck. Today was better for him, he rode consistent and it was great to see him back up there again. I think Billy’s fitness was a little bit down and he didn’t have the speed tonight but having said that it’s Billy’s first season in supercross and we just have to keep working and moving forward and see what we can do. We didn’t expect him to come out and win the Championship.”

With “win it or bin it” results impacting on Dean Ferris’s overall standing in the Championship, the Lites rider will be looking at doing less of the latter at the final round at Ipswich, QLD next weekend and is striving for a top three finish to the Championship. Opens rider Billy Mackenzie will also be aiming to ride his way to a podium and possible top three finish which would be an outstanding result for his first full Super X season and Meghan Rutledge, having already exceeded her series goal on more than one occasion of making the main event will now strive to land a top ten finish. 

(Images by Shayne Rice - Rive Photography)