As we turn the corner into the final sprint of the 2024 ProMX Championship, our South Australian team made the journey to Toowoomba, QLD, for all the action-packed excitement of Round 6 last weekend. With the Championship points tables tightening up and every race becoming crucial for those coveted final spots, our SA team put it all on the line to hold their own in these final championship challenges. Let’s take a quick look at just some of the stories from the weekend.
As Brett Metcalfe edges ever closer to his final ProMX race before retirement at the end of the year, he entered this round in good form, well within the championship fight for the top 5, trailing by just 9 points. Metcalfe pushed hard to secure a strong qualifying position, finishing 11th in the premier Thor MX1 competition class, narrowly missing a top 10 spot by just 0.137 seconds behind Queensland’s Luke Zielinski. Determined to pick up as many valuable championship points as possible, he worked his way up from 12th on the opening lap to secure 9th place in the weekend’s Race 1 opener. Keeping the momentum going, Metcalfe staged an early charge in Race 2 but eventually relinquished some positions. In a final down-to-the-line battle, he claimed another 9th-place finish, this time ahead of Queensland’s Levi Rogers.
Edging his way ever so closer to the pointy end of the Pirelli MX2 Championship, Alex Larwood could taste that top 5 coming into the round, trailing by just 7 points. He started his Toowoomba outing with a 10th-place qualifying in the exceptionally tight competition, trailing ninth place by 0.277 seconds and just under 3.5 seconds off first. Race 1 saw an early setback, reducing Larwood by 3 positions in the first lap, but looking calm and collected, he turned it around to climb back up 6 places, rounding out lap 2. Coming down to the line, he had a final showdown with Kayden Minear to finish 6th, tantalizingly closer to those top 5 points. With a much better Race 2 start, Larwood got to work early, claiming position after position until finally rounding out his Race 2 endeavours, just missing that elusive podium in fourth behind Queensland’s Jayce Cosford. Larwood now trails the championship top 5 by just 6 points.
Returning to all the action in the Elilift MX Women’s class, Emily Lambert had her sights firmly set on closing that 1-point gap to break into the championship top 10. From qualifying, she looked well on her way, taking tenth place behind WA’s Leah Rimbas by just over 2 seconds in the class opener. Race 1 saw hopes of a top-5 finish with an early charge through the pack, but after relentless position challenges, she relinquished the lead and took 8th to round out Heat 1. Lambert pushed hard from the opening of Heat 2 with hopes of holding onto 6th place until a mistake on lap 5 saw her fall back to 11th. Despite making a recovery dash up to 9th late in the race, the competition from New Zealand’s Karaitiana Horne and Western Australia’s Tahlia O’Hare saw her finish her Heat 2 endeavours in 11th, ahead of fellow South Aussie Amy Bartsch. Lambert, now 10th in the championship, sits 1 point behind Madison Healey and Bella Burke, who are tied on 62 points.
Giving our SA riders a well-earned breather, sights are turning to the next ProMX Championship outing as round 7 heads to the Sunshine State, Queensland’s MX farm, on the 11th of August.
Get all the 2024 ProMX action –
WEBSITE; www.auspromx.com.au
SOCIALS; www.facebook.com/ProMXAustralianMotocrossChampionship & www.instagram.com/auspromx/
RESULTS; https://www.computime.com.au/Default
South Australia round 6 results – Plus, where our riders are sitting in the Championship.
| HEAT 1 | REAT 2 | ROUND OVERALL | 2024 CHAMPIONSHIP OVERALL | |||
| THOR MX1 | (after round 6) | |||||
| Brett Metcalfe | 9th | 9th | 9th | 6th | ||
| Siegah Ward | 20th | 22nd | 21st | 17th | ||
| PIRELLI MX2 | (after final round 6) | |||||
| Alex Larwood | 7th | 4th | 5th | 6th | ||
| Mitch Norris | DNS | 19th | 22nd | 28th | ||
| EZILIFT MX WOMEN | (after round 3) | |||||
| Emily Lambert | 8th | 11th | 9th | 10th | ||
| Amy Bartsch | 13th | 12th | 12th | 14th | ||
| Tarja Morris | 20th | 19th | 20th | 24th | ||