Competitors experienced some of the toughest conditions faced in years at round five of the 2011 Rockstar MX Nationals at a wet, boggy and downright nasty Echo Valley in Toowoomba.
Despite a trying day finishing 12th Serco Yoshimura Yamaha's Kirk Gibbs narrowed the points' gap to the championship leader Mat Moss courtesy of Moss's even worse day. Moss struggled with the conditions as well and withdrew from the final moto suffering pain in what was later revealed to be a broken shoulder.
The track certainly proved a big challenge for Gibbs as the conditions caused havoc among the riders. And despite finishing in 12th with a DNF ‰ÛÒ 9 ‰ÛÒ 5, Gibbs still clawed back 10points on series leader Moss and the gap between the two now sits at 27points with four rounds still to come. The Pro Lites championship is now officially up for grabs again.
"I might have got some points back in the championship, but I'm not happy with the way I raced today. The first moto I crashed and I just couldn't get the bike started as mud had clogged everything up. Moto two wasn't much better and at least I pulled a top five to finish the day."
"Today, I got lucky but I didn't capitalise on the mistakes of my competition," Gibbs lamented.
Team Manager, Michael Marty took an optimistic approach when asked about his day.
"Two rounds ago we were 80 points out of the championship, now we are back to 27, so that is something we are happy about. Had Kirk done a little better today, the gap could be even less, but these conditions throw up all kinds of challenges."
The western New South Wales town of Coonabarabran hosts round six of the 2011 Rockstar MX Nationals in four weeks time and the Serco Yoshimura Yamaha team will continue working hard as they close in on the championship lead.
Main Photo: Kirk Gibbs is in there somewhere - we think!
Credit: Garry Morrow
