Riders let rip as their season gets started

After a longer off-season than usual, riders finally got to rev their engines and roar into action when the North West motocross season began recently.

Following the cancellation of Hedland’s round 1 of the North West Championships in March due to track damage from cyclone Veronica, the Karratha Enduro and Motocross Club hosted the opening round of the competition at its local track on May 18-19.

About 100 riders from towns including Tom Price, Paraburdoo, Newman, Broome and Carnarvon took part.

Karratha Enduro and Motocross Club president Dennis Freegard said it had been a highly successful opening round and the quality of racing on show had been worth the wait. “There was some really good racing across all levels and it was a really tight competition,” he said.

“There were also no major accidents — it was really clean racing.”

Stand-out local riders included Hedland’s Shelby Hunter (90cc quads winner) and Angus Fay (50cc division two 7-9-year-olds winner) and Newman’s Jeremy Samwell (250cc junior lites winner).

Other round highlights included the 85cc juniors’ race, which involved some close competition from the 25 young riders involved, and the involvement of more senior riders than usual, which delivered more fast-paced excitement.

Freegard said the strong rider turnout was promising for the season ahead.

“When the first round got cancelled, everyone was chomping at the bit to get going, and I think that’s why we had heaps of people come along,” he said. “We had a lot of new members and new riders.”

“Round 1 was here in Karratha last year and the numbers were much lower, around the 80 mark.”

“Seeing that increase in numbers makes me more positive that more people will come along and we’ll get more people involved in the North West series.” The next round is in Tom Price on June 8-9.