Feature

THE DIRTY WEEKEND AHEAD 4th and 5th of January 2014

Author: Aaryn Minerds

Posted:

Friday, January 3rd, 2014

10:52 PM

Welcome to THE DIRTY WEEKEND AHEAD, presented by Fullnoise.com.au, our weekly look at the events and riders that will be in action throughout the coming weekend.

From International Events and Races that Australians and even our New Zealand friends are competing in, to national events and even a list of as many local state events we can find.

INTERNATIONAL

2014 Monster Energy Supercross Round 1: Anaheim

<b>THE DIRTY WEEKEND AHEAD</b> 4th and 5th of January 2014

Dean Ferris will make his AMA Supercross Debut this weekend at A1 - Credit: Simon Cudby (KTM Images)

Aussie Line Up: Chad Reed (450) Matt Moss (450) Lawson Bopping (Out) Dean Ferris (250)

We are back racing with the round one of the 2014 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship firing up this weekend and coming live from the traditional first stop on the tour at Angel Stadium, Anaheim California.

Three time defending champ, Monster Energy Kawasaki's Ryan Villopoto heads into round one as the series and race favourite, though has a host of challengers ready to dethrone him of his crown.

Leading the charge are three former champions which includes Australia's Chad Reed who will line up aboard a KX450F for his Discount Tire / TwoTwo Motorsports out fit, along with Yoshimura Suzuki's James Stewart and Red Bull KTM's Ryan Dungey.

Second year 450SX racer, Factory Honda's Justin Barcia will be another favourite this Saturday night (Sunday arvo in Aus) along with first year Rookie riders in Geiko Honda's Eli Tomac and Red Bull KTM's Ken Roczen.

Australia will have a second rider in the 450SX class with Matt Moss spending the first six rounds lined up as Stewart's team mate on the Yoshimura Suzuki team, while Lawson Bopping who was slated to also race this weekend as a privateer has ruled himself out after injuring his shoulder last weekend in a practice crash.

Australia will also be represented in the 250SX West Coast Regional class by Dean Ferris who is racing for the Red Bull KTM Factory team and will go head to head with championship favourites, Dean Wilson, Zach Osborne, Jason Anderson, Cole Seely, Malcolm Stewart, Justin Hill and a host more talented riders.

Practice and Qualifying can be streamed live on Sunday Morning in Australia starting at around 11am by CLICKING HERE and can be view on ESPN 2 on the FOXTEL Network at 2.30 Pm Eastern Day Light Savings time.

2014 AMSOIL AMA Arenacross Championship: Round 1/2 Worcester

Tyler Bowers will enter the 2014 AMA Arena-X series this weekend as the championship favourite.

AMSOIL Arenacross, featuring Ricky Carmichael‰Ûªs Road to Supercross, will commence this Saturday for 12 weekends of the most intense racing on the planet.

Headlining the storylines for the 2014 season is the continued dominance of Team Babbitt‰Ûªs Monster Energy/AMSOIL Kawasaki presented by Maxxis‰Ûª Tyler Bowers. The Kentucky native has amassed 44 wins the past three seasons en route to capturing the last three AMSOIL Arenacross titles.

Leading the group of challengers in their quest to dethrone Bowers is his Team Babbitt‰Ûªs teammate Zach Ames along with Kelly Smith, Willy Browning, Nathan Skaggs and also Gavin Gracyk who returns to the series.

The AMA Arenacross Series will also see a host of riders stepping up from the American Amateur scene contest the series in order to earn a Supercross endorsement to race the 2015 AMA Supercross Championship.

To view live timing from the two nights of action head to www.arenacross.com/

2014 Dakar Rally Week One: Argentina / Bolivia / Chile

Ben Grabham will lead the Australian charge in this years Dakar Rally after finishing 15th in his first attempt at the race last year.

Aussie Line Up: Ben Grabham (KTM), Troy O'Connor (KTM), Mark Davidson (KTM), Clayton Jacobsen (KTM), Shane Diener (Yamaha) Alan Roberts (KTM)

Six Australian riders will line up amongst the 196 motorcycle competitors entered for the 2014 edition of the world famous Dakar Rally that kicks of in Argentina on the 5th of January.

Staring in Rosario, Ben Grabham, Troy O'Connor, Mark Davidson, Clayton Jacobsen, Shane Diener and Alan Roberts will line up to tackle the event that covers a total 8734Km over 14 days and Three countries. Out of the 8734km spread across, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, racers will compete in a total of 5228km of timed special tests.

The Favourite heading into this years event will be Five time and reigning Dakar winner Cyril Despres. Despres won the event last year aboard KTM Machinery, however will defend his title aboard a Factory Yamaha YZ450F Rally Edition.

For a full preview of the Australian riders competing in this years event CLICK HERE.

Highlights from the 2014 Dakar Rally will be shown nightly on SBS at 5.30 Pm (Check local guides for times in your state) and to keep up to date with live timing and information on the race head to the official 2014 Dakar Rally site - https://www.dakar.com

We will also have a daily update on each and every stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally with a focus on the six Australian riders contesting this years event.

INTERNATIONAL

2014 Australian Speedway Championship: Round 1 Kurri Kurri NSW

Troy Batchelor will be aiming to defend his 2013 Australian Speedway title starting this weekend in Kurri Kurri

2012 World Champion Chris Holder heads the list of riders to contest the Australian 500cc Solo Speedway Championship Starting this weekend in Kurri Kurri New South Wales.

The 2014 championship will be held over three rounds, starting at Kurri Kurri in New South Wales on 4 January, then moving onto Undera in Victoria on 8 January (Wednesday), and finishing with the deciding round at Gillman in South Australia on 11 January.

While former would champion Holder will be the favourite heading into the championship, he will not have it easy with South Australia's defending Australian Troy Batchelor leading a host of riders who will also be aiming to be crowned Australian champion.

Eight riders have been seeded into the championship rounds Troy Batchelor (SA-the defending champion), Jason Doyle (NSW), Josh Grajczonek (Qld), Chris Holder (NSW), Jack Holder (NSW), Dakota North (Vic), Rohan Tungate (NSW), Cameron Woodward (Vic)

The remaining eight riders will be determined by a Qualifying meeting to be held at Kurri Kurri on 3 January (Friday) from a field of 16 riders and two reserves.

AROUND THE STATES AND FULLNOISE.COM.AU PROJECT BIKE

Check back in the coming weeks to see how you can have I picture of yourself riding posted in the Dirt Weekend Ahead.

With the racing year only just beginning this weekend and very little racing going on around the country, we will hold off our state based round up of events for a couple more weeks.

We are in the process of updating our Fullnoise.com.au Calendar section at the moment most National and a handful of International Calendars are up which can be found by NATIONAL BY CLICKING HERE and and INTERNATIONAL BY CLICKING HERE, with the State racing Calendars from all disciplines to be uploaded in the coming week.

Also to get our readers more involved in our weekly feature, we will be releasing details in the coming weeks on how you can have a photo of yourself riding highlighted each week in our Dirty Weekend Ahead Friday Feature and also on the FULLNOISE.COM.AU FACEBOOK PAGE. Keep an eye out here in the next week or two for full details.

As for our 2014 Project bike we are in the final stages of organising our bike for this year, with most people still on holidays we are hoping to be able to make an announcement on our bike in a couple of weeks time.

Once we are up an running we will keep you posted at the events, riding and races that we are heading to in 2014 along with the updates to the bike along they way.

THAT'S A WRAP

As always be sure to keep an eye on the Fullnoise.com.au Social Pages over the weekend for some images and updates regarding the weekends racing. Then check the front page of the Fullnoise.com.au site on Monday for our MONDAY MOTOBOARD for a full list of results from all racing over the weekend.

Again for 2014 if there are any events at your local club that you would like to have added to the Dirty Weekend Ahead, email details to mail@fullnoise.com.au