2021 Australian Classic and Post Classic MX Championships Cancelled
The 2021 Australian National Classic and Post Classic Motocross Championships hosted by Heaven VMX, originally set for July in Nowra, NSW that had been postponed due to concerns around COVID-19 have now officially been cancelled for 2021.
Due to the ongoing outbreak of Covid-19 across the country and the uncertainty in the current climate the Heaven VMX Club in consultation with Motorcycling Australia made the tough decision to cancel these events.
Kenneth Swan – Heaven VMX President
“The Heaven VMX club is passionate about the great sport of Vintage Motocross. The planned 2021 Australian National Classic and Post Classic Motocross Championships was intended to be an opportunity to extend our arms to, and share our passion with, all VMX racers from around Australia. Bring the whole VMX family together for a VMX Festival of Fun. When the Heaven VMX Club of NSW does run this event, we want to do it at the right time when all VMX racers from around Australia are safe and happy to travel and give it every chance to be the amazing event we have planned.
“Therefore for 2021 for the Heaven VMX Club, have made the difficult decision to cancel the Australian National Classic and Post Classic Motocross Championships. With this news we are equally as disappointed as everyone is, we hope you understand though as this should be a truly national event for all our competitors.”
The Heaven VMX Club thanked all those riders that had already entered and supported the events. Over the next 2 weeks, all entry fees taken to date will be refunded through Ridernet and refunds will be finalised by July 31.
Australian Speedway Under 16’s 125cc Solo & Teams nominations open
Motorcycling Australia ihave opened nominations for the 2021 Australian Speedway under 16’s 125cc Solo and Teams Championships. The Championships will be held at South Australia’s Sidewinders U16’s Speedway Club, September 23-25.
Supplementary regulations for the Championships can be found here (link). Nominations can be submitted by filling out the following form here.
Two New Zealand Oceania Speedway Sidecar rounds announced for 2022
FIM Oceania, Speedway NZ (SNZ) and Motorcycling NZ (MNZ) have revealed that competitors will be set to battle out the 2022 FIM Oceania Speedway Sidecar Championship over two rounds on January 29th, 2022, at Moore Park Speedway, Christchurch, New Zealand and Oreti Park Speedway, Invercargill New Zealand on February 5th, 2022.
This will be the first time the FIM Oceania Speedway Sidecar Championship has been hosted on New Zealand soil, and over two rounds. With both host tracks sporting a rich history in Motorcycle Racing.
Moore Park speedway was founded and named after the late Ronnie Moore, and Oreti Park Speedway, Invercargill has strong ties to Burt Munro.
The final round of this FIM Oceania Championship finishing in Invercargill the week before the annual pilgrimage to the South for the Burt Munro Classic, which is always a talked about two wheel event.
Peter Doyle – FIM Oceania President
“FIM Oceania was very pleased to be working with Speedway NZ and their host tracks, Moore Park & Oreti Park Speedways for what is sure to be an amazing 2022 FIM Oceania Speedway Sidecar Championship. It is excellent to have this FIM Oceania Championship conducted in New Zealand and we encourage motorcycle racing fans from across New Zealand and Australia to get along and not miss a minute of this speedway action. There is a long history of excellent competition and hard fought battles between the Aussies & Kiwi riders across many motorcycle races over the years. I am sure in January 2022, there will be two rounds of sensational speedway racing.”
Speedway NZ will be seeking Expressions of Interest from New Zealand based riders for the event over the next six weeks before finalising the qualification process for NZ representation.
Motorcycling Australia and ACU have been delegated 8 of the 16 spots in the rider line-up, for what promises to be an action packed international event.
Maciej Janowski tops Czech Speedway GP Round 1
Polish star Maciej Janowski was elated to end his Prague struggles as he topped the Anlas Czech Republic FIM Speedway Grand Prix round-one podium on Friday evening.
‘Magic’ delivered a dream start to his season when he overhauled Emil Sayfutdinov at the start of lap three to win the final. Great Britain racer Tai Woffinden was third, while Sweden’s Fredrik Lindgren was fourth after hitting the tapes.
Despite Sayfutdinov cruising through to the final after topping the heat score chart on 12 race points, it was Janowski who got the verdict when it mattered most to top the World Championship.
It’s the first time he has qualified for a Prague final since his SGP debut season in 2015, when he finished third. Janowski had reached the semi-finals at Marketa Stadium three times in seven appearances going into Friday night, so he was delighted to triumph at the opening round of SGP 2021.
Maciej Janowski
“For the last couple of years, I have been struggling on this track. But today I felt great and my team was working great. The bike was so quick and I really enjoyed racing. I want to say thanks to my team. I love you guys. We found a good setup from the beginning and that was very fast. I used good lines on the track. I got good points and I rode very well. So I am very happy and that’s a great start to the Grand Prix series. The season is long; we have 11 rounds. We need to be smart and fast like today. Tomorrow is a different day. We will try to focus on the same things as tonight and I hope tomorrow I can show the same speedway.”
Double European champion Emil Sayfutdinov was content with second spot as reached his first SGP podium since 2019.
Emil Sayfutdinov
“It was very good. I felt good from the start and I was happy around the track because I had good speed. I would like to say thanks to my team, who have been working very hard. That’s the next goal, so we will just concentrate on that. It is always a different day and a different track. Today I will try to relax, have a good sleep and then we will see.”
Woffinden was pleased to pick up third place on the Marketa Stadium track where he won three SGP rounds on the bounce between 2013 and 2015.
Tai Woffinden
“We salvaged a third, which was pretty good. I started the night okay with a second and a win. The next two races were really bad and we were just trying to find the setup. We were chasing it all night. I needed to win my last race to make the semi, which I did. I needed to finish first or second to get into the final, which I did. If Freddie hadn’t touched the tapes, I wouldn’t have been on the podium. We learned a lot today for tomorrow.”
Australian Max Fricke finished eighth with nine-points, while Jason Doyle was 12, on five.
Speedway GP World Championship Standings after Round 1
- Maciej Janowski 20
- Emil Sayfutdinov 18
- Tai Woffinden 16
- Fredrik Lindgren 14
- Artem Laguta 12
- Bartosz Zmarzlik 11
- Leon Madsen 10
- Max Fricke 9
- Martin Vaculik 8
- Robert Lambert 7
- Matej Zagar 6
- Jason Doyle 5
- Jan Kvech 4
- Anders Thomsen 3
- Oliver Berntzon 2
- Krzysztof Kasprzak 1
Artem Laguta claims Speedway GP Round 2 victory
Triple FIM Speedway of Nations world champion Artem Laguta admits the Prague rain clouds had a golden lining as he stormed to victory in Anlas Czech Republic FIM Speedway Grand Prix round two on Sunday.
The sport’s biggest stars returned to Marketa Stadium for an early-afternoon start after Saturday’s event was postponed due to heavy downpours in the Czech capital.
A rare afternoon round proved lucky for Laguta as he collected the second SGP victory of his career – following up his triumph at the 2020 season opener in Wroclaw.
Laguta raced past fellow SON winner Emil Sayfutdinov to hit the front, with Friday’s round-one winner Maciej Janowski joining him for second and Sweden’s Fredrik Lindgren rounding Sayfutdinov for third on the final corner.
Heavy rain followed by bright sunshine meant track conditions changed drastically for speedway’s biggest stars. But Laguta made the most of them to move up to second place in the World Championship on 32 points – just six behind leader Janowski.
Artem Laguta
“I am very happy today. It was a good day for me. It was a good meeting and I made good starts today. I am very, very happy with the win. Now I am looking forward to the next meeting. But Speedway Grand Prix is always very hard. There was a lot of rain on Saturday, but it went today and the track was okay. It was very hard with grippy starts, but for me it was no problem. I want to say thank you to my team and thank you to my family – they are my life. I am very happy. Thank you.”
Janowski admits the bike which fired him to victory in Friday’s first round didn’t have the same impact today. But a change of equipment saw him bounce back with a very handy second place – meaning he has dropped just two championship points from a possible 40.
Maciej Janowski
“They were two completely different days. After four heats I changed my bike. My first bike that I used on Friday lost some energy, so we changed and then everything was much, much better. It could have been better, but I am happy with what we got. Second place in the second GP sounds good and I scored good points – that’s the most important thing. We had a very hard day, but I am happy with how it finished.”
Lindgren has made a habit of scraping into semi-finals and taking full advantage of the opportunity. He turned eight race points in the heats into a very useful 16 championship points with third place.
The Swede is now fourth in the World Championship on 30 points and was pleased to make his mark when it mattered once again.
Fredrik Lindgren
“Today was a big battle all the way through. I never really felt I had good speed. I was making decent starts and had good track craft, but I was struggling a bit and really had to scrape through to the semis. In the semi we found a bit more speed in the bike and I was very happy I made it to the final. In the final I just gave it everything I had. It was a big battle and a big blast around the outside on the last corner to make it on to the podium. I am happy with that.”
Round 2 saw Jason Doyle in sixth, claiming 11-points, with Max Fricke in 11th for six. Doyle and Fricke are now ninth and 10th in the standings respectively.
Next up for the FIM Speedway Grand Prix stars is Betard Wroclaw SGP of Poland rounds three and four at the legendary Olympic Stadium on July 30 and 31, as Janowski bids to extend his series lead in his home city, with Laguta and Tai Woffinden also lining up on their Polish home track.
Speedway GP Round 2 Results
- Artem Laguta 20
- Maciej Janowski 18
- Fredrik Lindgren 16
- Emil Sayfutdinov 14
- Bartosz Zmarzlik 12
- Jason Doyle 11
- Martin Vaculik 10
- Anders Thomsen 9
- Tai Woffinden 8
- 10 Leon Madsen 7
- Max Fricke 6
- Matej Zagar 5
- Krzysztof Kasprzak 4
- Jan Kvech 3
- Robert Lambert 2
- Oliver Berntzon 1
- Petr Chlupac 0
- Daniel Klima DNR
Speedway GP World Championship Standings after Round 2
- Maciej Janowski 38
- Artem Laguta 32
- Emil Sayfutdinov 32
- Fredrik Lindgren 30
- Tai Woffinden 24
- Bartosz Zmarzlik 23
- Martin Vaculik 18
- Leon Madsen 17
- Jason Doyle 16
- Max Fricke 15
- Anders Thomsen 12
- Matej Zagar 11
- Robert Lambert 9
- Jan Kvech 7
- Krzysztof Kasprzak 5
- Oliver Berntzon 3
DuQuoin Mile Cancelled Due to Weather
Due to the significant level of rainfall in the area, the 2021 DuQuoin Mile has been cancelled. Progressive AFT will continue its season with the Port Royal Half-Mile on Saturday, July 24 at Port Royal Speedway in Port Royal, Penn.
Fans who have purchased advanced tickets for the DuQuoin Mile will receive information on refunds and ticket credits from Track Enterprises in the coming days.
2021 Capricorn XTreme – Grassroots Enduro Round 3
Round Three of the Australian Hard Enduro Championship has been run and won, despite the challenges to organisers and promotors of the national series, Grassroots Enduro Australia, who spent the week leading up to the race contending with Covid lockdowns and heavy rains.
A brand new venue located at Mount Morgan, eight hours north of Brisbane in Queensland saw 176 Hard Enduro nutters register for the Capricorn X-Treme.
Riders were meant to compete in the prologue in order to determine their starting positions for race day, with Juniors racing a two and a half hour event on the same day as the prologue. However 80 mm of rain preceeded the event, which saw the access road washed out, with the go-ahead only coming through 6 pm the day prior to racing.
As such the the prologue was abandoned and Juniors race moved to the morning of race day. Gold, Silver, Bronze and Ladies classes raced on the 45 km track over a six hour time limit, while the Juniors track was eight km in length, with a reduced two hour limit.
The Pro/Gold class was won by Rob Nowak (KTM), a veteran of the Hard Enduro scene in Australia with international race experience such as RBR, Erzberg and Sea to Sky. Runner up went to Wade Ibrahim (KTM), who won round two, leaving him in a strong position on the points chart.
Sherco rider Chris Perry rounded out the top three with a solid performance and backing up his third place at the previous round.
In the Silver class Chris Dark took the win ahead of Trent Tucci, with just a minute separating them, while Frank Fee completed the podium.
Mac Vonthien won the Bronze category by a handy seven-minutes over Robert Brosig, while Adam DeCaria claimed the final podium positon.
Ebony Nielsen won the Ladies, ahead of Cheyenne Jones and Zeena Gadsby, with Amy Davidson a more distant fourth.
In the Junior class, Brody Reed took the win ahead of Toby Page, as the only two riders to complete five laps. Third placed Michael Blake completed four.
Source: MCNews.com.au