Brett Metcalfe and Luke Arbon have finished 1-2 at the South Australian Motocross Championship opener.
By Hayden Gregory
As the MX Nationals resume in South Australia next weekend the SD3 Husqvarna team took the initiative of getting some more seat time for its riders.
Brett Metcalfe dominated the weekend, sweeping both motos ahead of teammate Luke Arbon who stepped up to compete in the MX1 class, impressing in second.
“There’s no better training than getting behind the start gate and running through the race process,” Metcalfe said. “It was good to line up with my teammate Luke. He doesn’t ride the 450 in the national series, so for him to jump out there was good training for him and to race each other was cool.
“I was able to win the 450 class and he was able to win the Lites class so for the SD3 Husqvarna team it was very good representation, and proved that our bikes are A-plus.
“Leading into Murray Bridge it was good to get the confidence going, and I think we’re sitting in a good spot going into the weekend. I’ve got a lot of family and friends and fans coming out to watch, and I think Murray Bridge is going to be a good turnout for everybody. Being my last round, I’m hoping I can have a good showing here and I definitely want to leave on a good note. It’s important to me.”
“It was nice to go 1-1 in the 250 class on a really rough track. I felt pretty strong and I feel it was good preparation for Murray Bridge. It was cool lining up with Metty, I’ve ridden with him a lot this year and we’ve done a lot of training together, both over there and back here.
In a busy weekend, Arbon then also raced MX2, securing his own clean sweep in a positive showing before the national championship resumes.
“I haven’t really done too much on the 450, but I managed to get the holeshot in the first moto, and lead for maybe half the race, but then he came by and pulled a bit of a gap.
In the second Metty was really on the gas. I hung with him for a few laps, but then I was toasted. It was my fourth moto for the day and I didn’t need to have a silly crash, so I backed it off a bit.
It was a tough track to bust out four 20-minute motos on, but I got it done so I must be in decent shape.”
Murray Bridge will mark Metcalfe’s last race on home soil before leaving to compete in the Canadian National Motocross Championship. Teammate Luke Arbon will look to piece together another strong weekend as he looms a serious MX2 championship threat.
