It was a roller coaster ride for the Yamalube Yamaha Racing Team at round two of the ProMX Championship, with each rider experiencing some highs and lows in an eventful day at the office.
Things got off to a rocky start in the days leading into the round when Jayce Cosford crashed heavily while training. While nothing was broken, he was clearly sore and battered but did he best to solider on throughout the weekend on a track that required some manhandling to get around.When qualifying got under way, Ryder Kingsford pumped out a couple of quick laps that would see him take P2 and the second gate pick for the two MX2 races later in the day while Kaleb Barham took a career best P6 in qualifying to show the high intensity training laps had been paying off since round one.
But that little celebration soon turned sour in moto one when Kingsford went down in the first turn and then again later in the opening lap, both times hitting the rider in front of him. Barham wasn’t faring much better as he was inside the top six when some chaos broke out ahead of him and he then tangled with another rider and went down.
In the meantime, Cosford was in conservation mode and was able to steer clear of the trouble and went onto finish eighth in the race, despite clearly being well below his best. Barham scrambled for tenth, while Kingsford got his way back into the points to finish sixteenth.
Race two and it was all about redemption for Kingsford and Barham and survival for Cosford. Kingsford leapt from the gates and slotted into second place on the opening lap. He pulled up behind race one winner, Brodie Connelly, and kept the pressure on him for the next twenty minutes as the pair were often less than a few seconds apart. Later in the moto and with just a couple of laps to go, Kingsford dropped a spot and came across the finish line in third. His 16-3 gave him ninth for the day but enough to hang onto third in the championship.
“Moto one was rough. If I had only crashed the once in the first turn, I would have been ok and able to get myself well inside the top ten but the second crash cost me plenty of time as I got mud on grips and had to get myself out of some sticky dirt.
“But it was a good rebound in moto two and at least salvage something for the day. So far, I have gone 4-2-16-3 so it’s been a pretty good start the year and the bike and team are working well,” Kingsford ends.
For Barham, he was just outside the top ten on the opening lap and some distance back from the leaders when things started to flow for him out on track. The pace picked up, the intensity increased and suddenly Barham was taking huge amounts of real estate out of the riders in front him. He picked his way past riders at will and made his way to fourth with two laps to go before the rider behind him was able to sneak by resulting in a fifth-place finish for him. His 10-5 results gave him seventh for the day and he left feeling positive about his riding.
“I qualified well today which is a first for me, then had a crash and didn’t ride so well in race one, but was super strong in race two and felt the best I have at a ProMX in some time. This is how I have been riding during the week, so it was good to translate that to a ProMX round and battle with the boys up the front.
“The challenge is there to do it week in, week out, but I feel I have made good progress, and the results are just around the corner,” Barham explains.
Cosford was dealing with his own issues and doing what he could to stay on track. He finished in fifteen place as he dealt with the pain and his 8-15 results gave him eleventh for the round.
“It was a tough weekend for me, and I just tried to survive it more than anything else. I had a good crash on Thursday before I came down and hit my arm and elbow pretty hard. I had it checked out and there is no damage in there but it is really swollen and I just did the best I could.
“We have a bit of a break before the next round so I have time to recover and get back on to of it and come out swinging in Gilman,” he ends.