20-year-old Dylan Long has taken out the Pro Open title at Ballarat’s Monza Park on Sunday, August 16. The Benalla boy won the championship with a race to spare emphasising his stellar performances this season.
Story by Hayden Gregory
Long was awarded the title after winning an astounding eight of a possible 11 races this season. Evidently, he was extremely proud of his efforts, commenting “I had enough points to win the title so I didn’t have to race the last race. I’m pretty happy winning my first Pro Open title. I’m hoping for many more. I’ll definitely be back next year to try again.”
Following the round, Long also explained how he had to borrow a friend’s bike for his last race. “I had to borrow a mate’s bike just to be able to race this weekend due to the last two rounds of the MX Nationals being in Queensland. Ryan Float was awesome enough to let me use his bike and I won the first two races by a fair distance.”
Following his success in Ballarat, Dylan Long will now look on to the remaining two rounds of the MX Nationals. Dylan currently sits in seventh place overall in the 450cc Pro Championship and will be looking for a strong finish in round 9 (Toowoomba, Sunday, August 23) and round 10 (Coolum, Sunday, August 30).
Dylan also hinted at his future options beyond the 2015 MX Nationals including supercross, and a possible move to the United States.
“I’m aiming to finish off the MX Nationals strongly and compete in the Australian Supercross Championships in October. Supercross suits my style of riding a bit more,” Dylan declared. “I definitely want to travel to America and race. At the moment I’ll just save my pennies until it’s time to go. It’ll be great to be able to compete against the best of the best over there.”
