2024 Australian Supercross Rd.1 Kayo Stadium, Redcliffe - SX2 Final 1
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00:00Absolutely.
00:01Like I said earlier, there's going to be a point where the track gets really, really
00:03slippery.
00:04I think we're almost to that point, even if it is a pretty light mist right now.
00:08It's been going for 10, 20 minutes, so I'm really going to pay attention this first turn.
00:13Even when it was dry, guys were having trouble losing their front end, losing their back
00:17end, so let's really pay attention to this start because it's ever so crucial.
00:21Guys are going to be extra motivated to try and drive it in as deep as they can to get
00:25out front early.
00:2732nd Fort is up.
00:28The tensions are rising.
00:29Do we see the number two right there get out to a great start, or will it be the 66?
00:34Maybe the 22 will be able to drive out pretty quick.
00:37All of these three riders, very good starters.
00:40Larwood just in the outside there as well.
00:42You can see the riders grabbing their goggles with these rain.
00:46Goggles fogging up, making it very difficult to see the start.
00:49Gates are down.
00:50We are underway.
00:51Who will get this all-important Zeta hole shot?
00:55Barham, very loose coming into turn number one, but it looks like Larwood possibly on
01:02the number five machine will lead them through.
01:05Kingsford is there in second place.
01:07Thompson's buried.
01:08Yes, Thompson's buried.
01:09McElrath is buried.
01:10What an amazing start for Larwood.
01:12Look, we've seen him in his heat race.
01:13He was aggressive.
01:14He was really, really going after.
01:16We see guys down everywhere in that rhythm lane.
01:18There was a Honda rider in amongst that as well, so we'll try and keep an eye out to
01:23see who was involved in that one.
01:26Looks like is that 88 of Connolly there in second place?
01:31It's Connolly in second.
01:32Remember in the heat race had that.
01:33Oh, no.
01:34Larwood down.
01:35That's how slippery it's getting right there.
01:37It has switched.
01:38Remember we talked about it being maximum traction.
01:40It has switched to that point where it's very slippery.
01:43They'll be looking for some traction on the outside.
01:46Let's look at this replay here.
01:47Watch the back wheel.
01:48Slides out on the very hard packed surface as too does Connolly.
01:52Connolly catches it just in time though.
01:55Yes, just unexpected.
01:56You could actually see Larwood taking a peek behind him to see who was back there.
02:00Really, really shiny soil right now.
02:02It is extremely slippery.
02:04It's going to be hard to judge this dirt.
02:07Larwood down.
02:09Landed short there and got all out of control.
02:13Larwood is doing everything to throw this race away.
02:16So unfortunate for him after a fantastic start.
02:19I was just about to point out.
02:21Just look back through the list and Cole Thompson down.
02:24Here is the replay.
02:25A little bit short all the way onto the front wheel.
02:28And at that point, there is zero control.
02:30What a bummer.
02:31Such an amazing start to the race.
02:33Just seemed like he got a little bit excited up front.
02:35But look, that's learning, right?
02:38That's a learning curve you have to go through.
02:40Put yourself in that position again, and I think the results will be much different than this one.
02:44He sits back there now in 21st position, I think.
02:47So we'll get back to our leaders shortly as we continue to see Larwood going.
02:52More yellow flags.
02:53It was Yamaha that was down.
02:55That was one of our leading riders.
02:57So two Honda riders up the front.
02:59That would have been Kingston that went down.
03:01Brodie Connolly leads away in front of Ferguson.
03:04Now, I don't know how much supercross the New Zealander Brodie Connolly has done.
03:09However, he is our national motocross champion for this year.
03:14Exceptional speed.
03:15Both of these riders had great battles through that motocross championship.
03:19And of the two, I would think Ferguson was possibly a little bit more experienced in this.
03:24Keep an eye on that rider.
03:26Yeah, and just remember it's a short eight-lap race, doubleheader.
03:29So they'll have two of these.
03:30They'll go back to the truck.
03:32Look at Ferguson skimming right across like Dean Wilson.
03:35He's a teammate of Dean Wilson.
03:36So I wonder if Dean said, hey, guys, you need to go right across the top with us.
03:39Come on.
03:40They're easy, right?
03:41They're easy.
03:42I can tell you right now that Ferguson has just proved that a lot easier than we thought.
03:48If a 250 can get across it like that, with a run like that, a 450 will have no problems.
03:52That's right.
03:53Shoutout to these two Honda riders.
03:55Brodie Connolly up front, Noah Ferguson in second.
03:57And who would have thought?
03:58Look, we have to think that Paul Thompson and Shane McIlroy are the two favorites for this championship.
04:02These guys are teammates with them.
04:04They said, ah, you veterans, get out of the way.
04:07We're coming through.
04:08Let's head down to Trent.
04:10Yeah, guys, just to elaborate on that, we were talking about the other two Honda riders.
04:15We'll get back to Trent in just a moment as we see this battle continuing on.
04:18Look to the inside here.
04:20Ferguson trying to take that line away.
04:23I think if they weren't teammates right there, I think he could have driven a little bit deeper than that.
04:27But here Ferguson down the inside, skimming.
04:29Is he going to get the run?
04:30He does get a block side.
04:32Not enough.
04:33He's close, man.
04:34And he's getting across there really good.
04:36That is definitely the better way of getting through there.
04:38We would need to think that these riders back in the pits would be watching this, seeing how it's done.
04:44But I want to shout out to the next rider in line, Justin, and that is Hayden Menear back there on the 66 in the third.
04:52Yellow flags waving.
04:54Yeah, and if you're Ferguson right now, you know that you can pass him in the loops.
04:58You know you have two to three bike length advantage when you go through those.
05:01So you need to just set it up.
05:02Get as close as you possibly can from now until the beginning of those loops.
05:06Set him up.
05:07Go down the inside of him.
05:08Reed Taylor is back there in fourth place on the 86 Kawasaki.
05:11Oh, Ferguson tries to dive it in on the inside.
05:14I think you're right.
05:15He needs to be closer than that.
05:17He can feel the pressure at the moment from the KTM rider behind him, knows that he needs to step it up.
05:22Yeah, Ferguson actually made the pass, so he's going to skim.
05:24He's going to gain a few bike lengths here.
05:26He got by Connolly.
05:27Connolly struggling there in second place.
05:29Menear is going to go by.
05:30Oh, can't make the pass.
05:32Oh!
05:34That there is the rain effect that's going in at the moment.
05:39So a big moment there for Menear.
05:42Very good not to come unstuck.
05:45These riders are going to have a pretty big advantage over the rest of the field
05:49as they are starting to see the effects of this rain really play out in lifetime.
05:53Here's the replay.
05:54Watch the 66.
05:55Slides out.
05:56Almost 90 degrees.
05:58Does a very good job not to come unstuck just there.
06:01And what's interesting is they've been doing that line all day long.
06:03It's been totally fine.
06:04So that's exactly what's happened with this rain.
06:06It's just made it so slippery.
06:08And I don't want to speak too soon, but Noah Ferguson has been so impressive.
06:12But Shane Baccarat is on the move right now.
06:15He's the fastest guy on track.
06:17He's absolutely on the move.
06:19So what do we have?
06:20Two laps to go here.
06:21Ferguson better get going.
06:24Through the works again.
06:25Continuing to skim across there is our race leader.
06:29Really focused in on this one.
06:31Just caught glimpses of the background there of those shots.
06:35There is a three-rider battle for second, third, and fourth.
06:38We're about to enter into the final lap.
06:40So that is really where that focus is at the moment for the rest of the field.
06:45There it is.
06:46Second place of Connolly.
06:48Front of retailer McElrath there as well.
06:53All of these riders know the importance of getting a great result in the first of the motos.
06:58Yeah, so impressive for Ferguson to get up front like that and do what he's doing.
07:03Pass Brody Connolly.
07:05He's doing the whoops exactly like his 450 teammate.
07:08But this podium spot up for grabs right here.
07:10Remember, both of these main events count.
07:13So the lower score you can get in this race is really going to help you overall.
07:16Well, McElrath is just kicking them off at the moment as we see the 88.
07:21Oh, it looks like Reed Taylor spun out coming out of that corner.
07:24So McElrath, another position.
07:26Just in behind them, too, is Rees-Bart.
07:28So imagine if this was a 20-lap race.
07:31How great it would be.
07:32And they're continuing on to see how these battles unfold.
07:35However, they will go back, take a short breather, and come back out and do it all again.
07:40The 88 machine under a lot of pressure as we are only half a lap away from our leader
07:45coming across and greeting that checkered flag.
07:49Big run here for McElrath to the outside.
07:52Can he pick up second place?
07:56It's going to be a crucial pass for Shane to get around Brody right here.
07:59I don't know if he's going to be able to. Brody's going to have set up on the inside.
08:02Did Shane just go around the outside?
08:04He did, but he's going into that last turn.
08:06Can he hold on to that position?
08:08No doubt Ferguson comes away with the win.
08:11We see there the 22 machine of Rees-Bart coming across in fifth.
08:18There was only one and a half seconds between second through to sixth place.
08:25That's how tight it was between them.
08:27They're all there.
08:29What an amazing race.
08:31Just a quick sprint.
08:33We see the number two there at Paul Thompson.
08:35A little bit disappointing result.
08:36Ninth place, and it's not what he had on the bingo card tonight for himself.
08:40This is the big thing with these races.
08:42For some of the riders, yes, it is pretty tough to go back out there
08:46and back it up, but it gives the opportunity for those riders that had a first race struggle.
08:52As we see Byron Dennis having a struggle there on the plywood to the outside,
08:58just getting a little loose with a bit of water on top of that.
09:02Here's what's difficult when you have these races back-to-back like this,
09:06whether it went really well.
09:07I've had triple crown races in America where we have three back-to-back-to-back,
09:11and I've won the first one, and I've gotten too excited, too happy.
09:14I've almost celebrated too much where the next two races I've kind of fell off.
09:17I've also had some where I haven't done well, and I've really focused in and honed in on this next race,
09:22and then you do really well.
09:23So you can't really let your emotion get too high or too low.
09:26If you're Noah Ferguson, focus on the positive things that you did.
09:29Execute that start like you did in this race one.
09:33Do that in race two as well.
09:34Well, Ferguson was the man of the moment in this race.
09:37He put himself up there thanks to that great whoop speed,
09:41and we have him down with Trent down there to start.
09:45Noah Ferguson, that's one hell of a way to start this thing.
09:48You got out in front there.
09:49You were skimming the whoops.
09:50The boys in the box were showing your whoop speed was key,
09:53but how tricky is this track getting with this sprinkle of rain
09:56because there was a lot of mistakes from the guys around you.
09:58Yeah, definitely.
09:59I'm stoked with a P1, first-ever race win in the Supercross.
10:03But, yeah, track's super techy, slippery on top.
10:07With that light drizzle, it just makes it hard, especially on the whoops.
10:10It's starting to spin out a bit now.
10:12Well, there you go, guys.
10:13Noah Ferguson, he means business here with that SX2 main one win.