As the dust, or should that be sand, settles on the first round of the Red Bull Pro Nationals it’s PAR Honda’s Brad Anderson and Pulse DB Racing Honda’s Elliott Banks-Browne that stand as your overall winners with a pair of wins apiece in their respective classes.
“I was really up for it in the second race, in the first one I made it hard what with the arm pump and everything.” explained Brad “We went back and adjusted a couple of things between races and it did the trick, I was feeling real strong in that second one, I put some real hard laps down and then cruised round for the last couple because I knew that I had the overall. I’m really pleased with the two wins, I mean what a way to start the season with the Red Bull Pro Nationals! I’ve been practicing in the sand for quite a while now and that’s why I’ve been struggling on the hardpack, but now that we’re back to the sand it’s just showed that it’s all worked out with what I’ve been doing. We’ve been up to Fatcat a few times and I’d just like to thanks Martin for helping us out so much.”
While Brad was doing his thing at the pointy end, Shaun Simpson was trying to make amends for his first moto, which had seen some uncharacteristic mistakes. While not managing to take a win Shaun still remained optimistic of the weekend as a whole.
“I felt good in the second race, I knew that I couldn’t keep the pace of Brad at the beginning so I thought I’d pace myself but he got 10 seconds or so in front and then just held it, to be fair I think that if I’d caught him he still had some extra. I pushed the last few laps purely for training, I haven’t done much sand riding lately so it’s just good to be here, I’m just enjoying riding my bike.”
Despite a big practice crash in morning practice and not knowing whether he would be able to ride Pulse DB Racing’s Elliott Banks-Browne put his woes behind him in the best possible way…..by going out and winning an MX2 double!
“I’ve got to be honest I was struggling at the end of those races, the track was so, so tough today especially with the new format where we don’t get much time between races to get rehydrated. I think that for sure the fitter ones are going to be at the front. This championship means a lot to me, coming up so close last year makes me want to work even harder for this championship.”
With EBB taking a pair of wins it was Relentless TAS Suzuki’s Mel Pocock taking second overall with his 2-2 finishes.
“I pretty much spent myself in that first race, I rode really hard to get back up to second from dead last! In the second race I already had it in my mind that I was going to be tired and Elliott was running about a second a lap quicker than me so I just sat behind him and rode a steady race. I’m so glad to be standing here with second overall after being run over about three times.”
Check out more news from the weekend http://www.redbullpronationals.com/
