Angus Reekie has confirmed his status as Australia‰Ûªs best supermoto rider, taking out his third consecutive multi class Australian Championship with KTM at Northam Park in WA.
With almost 9,500 spectators on hand over two days of the Northam Motorcycle Festival, some of the best Supermoto racing this country has seen was exposed to an adoring WA crowd.
Headed by Italian Champion, and World Championship runner-up Davide Gozzini, the racing at the event was high-quality, and showed off the best riders that this country has to offer.
Reekie defended the two titles that he won in 2007, taking out the S1 and S2 championship classes overall to again stamp his foot down as the best Supermoto rider in Australia.
New South Welshman Luke Triall rode his Yamaha to outright victory in the S3 class, to improve on his fourth placing that he earned in the 2007 Championship.
Entered on board the KTM 505 SMR in the S1 class (450cc four stroke to 700cc four stroke) and the KTM 450 SMR in the S2 class (250cc to 450cc), Reekie started the racing strong matching lap times to Italian guest rider and former World Champion, Davide Gozzini.
Reekie comments, ‰ÛÏIt hasn‰Ûªt sunk in that I have now won three consecutive multi class titles for supermoto with KTM, but I still feel pretty excited at the same time.
‰ÛÏThe track at Northam in WA was one of the most challenging I have faced in competition, because it was so narrow making passing very difficult.
‰ÛÏIn the S1 class I won three out of four races, and unfortunately I fell off in the last race, but still managed to work my way up to second, which gave me the round win and also the overall Championship title.
‰ÛÏI got a good qualifying result in the S2 class, but a bad start in my first race, which pushed me back in the pack. I was off my usual pace a little which saw me finish the race in third position. The next race saw the same results, and for the third race I got fourth.
‰ÛÏIn the final S2 race I got a good start and worked my way up to second chasing David Gozzini as hard as I could, but he was just that one step better than all other competitors and he took the win, with me in second. Overall for the S2 class I got third for the round, and accumulated enough points from this round and the previous two rounds to claim the S2 class Championship title.
‰ÛÏDavid Gozzini is an absolute natural athlete, he was on fire from the word go and he is an all round nice guy. I held the fastest lap of the day right up until the last race, where David pinned me by 400‰Ûªs of a second. After the race his manager came up to me and said I should compete in Europe, where he thinks I‰Ûªm fast enough to secure a top five finish which was a great compliment to me.
‰ÛÏLooking ahead I wouldn‰Ûªt mind trying a few races in Europe, but for now I want to work on my fitness to improve on my performance level, whilst racing here in Australia.‰Û
