After two rounds of not finishing on the podium, Monster Energy Yamalube Yamaha’s Ryder Kingsford, returned to the MX2 podium with a third-place finish at round seven of the ProMX in Toowoomba.
On a wet, rutted and technical track that saw even the best riders make mistakes, Kingsford put the two rough rounds behind him to finish the day in third place with 4-3 results.His day started slowly with his worst qualifying position of the year, but he was able to jump quickly from the gates in race one and despite being pushed offline and sprayed in mud in the opening exchanges, he made his way to third place and homed in on the leading duo.
Just as he was making inroads to the front pair, he fell and lost valuable time, dropping to sixth place. He then had another small tip over a lap or two later but composed himself in the final stages of the race to make his way to fourth and salvage what he could.
Race two was a much comer affair, as he slotted into third place early in the piece, and was able to get a trouble-free run to the finish. He kept things tight with the lead duo for a few laps before slowly losing tough but was still a safe third and consolidated his podium position for the round.
With just one round remaining, Kingsford sits in second place in the ProMX championship, 26 points ahead of the rider in third.
“The last couple of rounds haven’t been much fun,” Kingsford reflects. “I didn’t ride great at Warwick and then I had that big crash at Canberra, so I needed to get back on track here at Toowoomba.
“I have always found this track difficult but today was probably as good as I have raced here. I made some mistakes in the first race, but I was able to clean those up and put in a good effort for race two.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to stop Brodie from winning the championship, so congrats to him and his team on a successful year,” Kingsford said.
It was a day of frustration for Jayce Cosford who never stopped trying all day, but it just didn’t translate to a result on the track.
Cosford had a bike issue in race one and was forced into the mechanics area for some on the go maintenance. He rejoined the race outside the top 20 but fought his way back to 12th place.
Race two saw him in a heated battle from fifth to ninth place. Cosford made his way through to seventh and then poured the pressure on the two riders in front of him but just couldn’t find a way passed. He drew alongside several times but couldn’t make the pass stick and was a frustrated man when he crossed the finish line in seventh.
His 7-12 results gave him 10th for the day, and he is comfortably in sixth place for the MX2 championship.
“It was just one of those days were the harder I tried, the worse it got,” he begins. “Every time I was on the track, I was trying to make something happen but just couldn’t get a reward for it.
“My last half of race two was good and I felt like I was riding some good laps, but I shouldn’t be in seventh and I was just angry when I finished that race.
“We have one more go it next week and I’m pretty fired up for QMP.”
ProMX Results
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ProMX Results
Round Seven – Toowoomba
MX2
1st Brodie Connolly – 50
2nd Noah Ferguson – 44
3rd Ryder Kingsford – 38 (Monster Energy Yamalube Yamaha)
4th Alex Larwood – 38
5th Kaleb Barham - 29
6th Haruki Yokohama - 28
7th Rhys Budd - 28
8th Cobie Bourke - 26
9th Byron Dennis - 23
10th Jayce Cosford - 23 (Monster Energy Yamalube Yamaha)
MX2 Championship Standings
1st Brodie Connolly - 335
2nd Ryder Kingsford – 285 (Yamaha YZ250F)
3rd Noah Ferguson - 259
4th Alex Larwood - 252
5th Byron Dennis - 223
6th Jayce Cosford – 199 (Yamaha YZ250F)
7th Cobie Bourke - 157
8th Seth Burchell – 139 (Yamaha YZ250F)
9th Rhys Budd - 131
10th Kaleb Barham - 115