The Yamalube Yamaha Racing Team continued its up and down ride to start the ProMX Championship with all the riders looking for the consistency to cement a spot on the MX2 podium.
The team finished with 4-6-9 results on the weekend with each rider experiencing one good moto and one not so good moto at round three in Gilman in South Australia.
Ryder Kingsford led the way for the team to finish fourth on the day with his 7-3 results. Kingsford, who has been qualifying well at the opening two rounds, lacked the speed and intensity in the morning session and that continued into race one.
Kingsford started inside the top ten and struggled to make his way forward. He was able to pick off a few riders in the early laps, but once in seventh, couldn’t make any time on the package just ahead of him. He returned to the pits upset with himself and wanting to be better in race two.
Again, he didn’t get a great start in race two and was outside the top ten on the opening lap, but this time, he rode with some aggression and determination. He started making passes and move forward. His charge took him all the way to third place and this time he left the track feeling a little more satisfied in his result.
Kingsford continues to hold third in the MX2 championship after three rounds.
“The first race was terrible and not how I ride. I didn’t actually feel that bad, but I just seemed to ride at the one speed all moto and even through there was a group of riders just ahead of me, I could do anything to catch and pass them.
“I needed to rebound in the next race and it was good to finish third and finish the day on a positive note. I locked bars off the start with another rider and was buried early but I worked hard early to try and get as many as I could, then once the race settled, pick them off one at a time.
“My focus now needs to be putting a solid day together and doing the job completely, so that’s the goal for the rest of the championship,” Kingsford ends.
Jayce Cosford come into the Gilman round under an injury cloud. He had a big crash ion the days leading up to the Horsham round and was sore in the aftermath and then just as he was ready to get back into full training, he suffered an eye injury and was touch and go If he would even race on the weekend.
But he in the days leading into the race, his sight and eye soreness improved, and he decided to give it a crack and ended up finishing with 8-7 results to claim sixth overall. It was a got effort by Cosford, who by his own admission, didn’t have the outright speed to race at the front, but raced with some maturity to stay out of trouble and log to top 10 results.
Cosford also sits sixth in the championship and a tight not group fighting for the top five.
“The plan today was to get through it the best I can and without any dramas so I was able to do that. The three weeks off the bike didn’t really affect me, it was just ensuring I stayed focused, and my eye could keep up with what was going on. The doctors say everything is fine now and I will be back to 100% in the coming week, so it was good to get through Gilman without incident and now I can get back into my regular riding and training for the Maitland round,” Cosford said.
Like Kingsford, Barham had an up and down day finishing with 16-6 results. The opening moto saw Barham involved in a crash on the first lap while towards the front of the pack and once he remounted, he was a considerable distance behind the MX2 field. He battled on throughout the 25 minutes and finally clawed his way back into the top twenty and scored points.
A good start in race two had him up and about and he quickly moved his way into third. He locked into battle with Byron Dennis and then Dennis made a mistake and Barham capitalised on it. He hung tough and the chasing pack began to close in behind in ion the second half of the race.
With a handful of laps to go, he had a three-rider freight train right behind him and applying the pressure. Kingsford was able to sneak by first, the Haruki Yokohama and on the final lap, Noah Ferguson made a desperate lung to get by leaving Barham in sixth but with a much-improved rider and plenty of fight on display.
“Moto one wasn’t much fun and not worth talking about, but moto two was good, although, I wished I had of been able to hang onto third in the closing laps,” Barham recalls. “I don’t think it was a fitness, thing as I wasn’t tired, they just had a little more speed than me at that stage of the race and I tried to fight them all off, but just couldn’t stay ahead.
“At each round, my race two has been pretty good so it’s the first moto of the morning that has been my issue. My first motos have gone 8-10-16 while my last motos have been 6-5-6, so I just need to get up to speed earlier in the day and give myself the best shot at a podium as possible.”
The team now shifts focus from the soft soil of Gilman to the hard, clay based Maitland circuit for round four of the championship.