Australia’s best EnduroCross riders battled through a mud-soaked weekend of racing in Aldersyde.
By Tom Shanahan
Round 2 of the Brookton Pony Express saw the debut of Aldersyde on the EnduroCross calendar, with 250 riders taking to the new 16km venue in challenging conditions.
The race weekend was headlined by the arrival of seven-time Australian Enduro champion Riley McGillivray, who made his first race appearance in WA at the event.
The West Coast Husqvarna rider’s class shone above in Saturday’s Pole Shuffle, laying down a lap record 8:45.89 time with a monster 21.8 second margin to second place.
McGillivray was impressed with the track and the event on his Pony Express debut.
“Willie and the crew here have done an awesome job, this track has honestly got a bit of everything,” he said.
“There are fast creek bed sections, some pretty wild fast bits and then also some real technical rocky stuff out the back,”
“We haven’t raced in mud all year so it’s pretty good to get out here and have a bit of fun.”
Heavy rain hit the Wheatbelt early Sunday morning, drastically changing track conditions just before the start of the main event. Event organisers Dirt High Promotions delayed the start of the Pony Express to make modifications rain affected areas of track.
Victorian pairing Jackson Vertseegen and Max Rikys took a likening to the new conditions once the race was underway, quickly overtaking pole sitter McGillivray on the opening lap and surging to a dominant victory in a reduced 2.5-hour race.
“It was really good, it was really well run,” Rikys said.
“It was a little bit disappointing with the rain, but we are all on the same track and ride to the same conditions.”
Championship leaders Blake Klansjeck and Scott Hewitt recovered from a poor Pole Shuffle, soldiering through the field from P5 to an impressive P2 finish.
Meanwhile in the juniors, Mandurah City KTM’s Kade Green pioneered through tough conditions to victory, edging out Championship leader Oskar Thomas and a resurgent Maddox McCullum in a tight top 3 finish.
The final round of the Brookton Pony Express is set to take place August 29 – 31 at Travis Eva’s property, east of Brookton.