Your weekly racing update from Yamaha Motor Australia
ProMX Review from TraralgonThere was something for everyone at round six of the ProMX at Traralgon with a busy day of racing at a pivotal stage in the championship.
Yamaha Racing won two of the four classes contested with Jed Beaton and Lachlan Turner turning in outstanding performances to win their respective classes. And with two rounds remaining, Yamaha currently leads the MX1, MX3 and MXW classes after already winning the MX85cc division.
To review all the Yamaha action at Traralgon: https://youtu.be/zcuztJ3SuSs
Privateer Power
The weekend saw a few standout rides from Yamaha supported riders on a track that was tough to master. Lead up rain and then more overnight make it wet and heavy but raced surprisingly well and with the rain holding off all day, the racing was again first class.
Levi Rogers has been slowly building form in the last couple of rounds after a late start to the season. Rogers started the year on the injury bench but returned at round three and has been trying to race his way back to full fitness and strength.
He produced a solid ninth in race one, but then really stepped it up with a fifth-place finish in race two. Rogers is a wiz on the softer surfaces and has become a mainstay in the top 10 Shootout and is now linking races and rounds together. He is now moved to ninth in the championship despite missing the forts two rounds.
But the standout was GYTR Yamaha Junior Racing’s Jobe Dunne. Dunne has knuckled down this year and started taking his racing with a little more purpose. He has stepped up his riding and training and is looking good on the track.
He was close to a podium at Canberra and also showed good speed at many other rounds, but Traralgon was the first round he has stood on the ProMX podium. His second place in MX3 was also the first by a junior rider in 2026 as Dunne is still only 15 years old.
Minear Making Waves
You can take the sand out of the kid, but you can’t take the sand out of the kid. Kayden Minear the former WA based rider, now racing for the Monster Energy Star Racing outfit in the US, landed his best result in pro racing with a sensational fourth place result in the sands of Southwick.
Now, the WA sand, with its bottomless whoops and power sapping sand is a bigger beast, there are some similarities with that of Southwick, the softest track on the AMA tour. But it would be lazy to think that is the sole reason Minear narrowly missed the podium with his 6-3 results in the 250cc class.
Minear has been consistent all season and chipping away inside the top 10 for most rounds so far. His starts have been good, although at Southwick, they were his weakest link and with each race, he gains a little more experience and gets to learn the pace at the front of the pack.
“I still have sand in my crack but what a weekend,” Minear quips. Starts let me down but my riding is improving each weekend,”
A podium in the Pro class has eluded him so far, but it can’t be far away
Drane Adds Another Victory
Australia’s Tom Drane has won another round of the AMA Flat Track Nationals, this time at round 11 of the series at The Williams Grove Speedway. Drane took the won by a comfortable 4 seconds at the end of the 21-lap event and adds a few more valuable points to his championship lead.
The victory makes it seven round wins from the 11 events and the last five in a row as Drane is in top form. He and his Estenson Yamaha team now have a 45-point gap over second place with five rounds remaining.
Jay Back on Top
Jay Wilson returned to the top of the podium with a 1-1 result at round six of the Japanese Motocross Championship at Hokkaido.
Wilson, who has had an up and down season and littered with lingering injuries, needed to get things back on track and gain some ascendancy in the IA1 (450cc) championship and with Hokkaido being one of the sandy circuits on the Japanese, it was the perfect time to get things back on track.
He took the round win with a 1-1 day produced his season best in the soft and heavy conditions. He now has a narrow lead in the IA1 Championship and with an eight week break between the rounds, Wilson will head over to Europe to tune up for the final three rounds of the championship.
Sheidow Takes SA24 Hour
Cooper Sheidow has provisionally won the 2026 SA24Hour Endurance race in South Australia. Just one week after finishing inside the top 10 at the gruelling Hattah Desert race, Sheidow decided to inflict some more sleep deprivation on himself and lined up for the SA24 Hour event on his WR450F.
While the results are still provisional at this stage, Sheidow has unofficially won the event by 12 minutes over his nearest competitor and made it three victories at the challenging race.
Riders start racing on Saturday morning and then ride multiple laps of a course going through several check points. They face the ever-changing conditions from wind and rain to bright sun, then followed by darkness and the elements of riding a dirt bike in the bush at nighttime. Then add no sleep, a heap of other riders and you have the ingredients of a tough event.
The Month Ahead
Things are coming weeks will be a busy with the final two rounds of the ProMX and rounds nine and ten of the Australian Enduro Championships.
A return to the Conondale circuit on the Sunshine Coast for round seven of the ProMX should see big numbers flock through the gate as it’s the first time the national motocross championship has come to life on the grassy fields in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.
Then it’s a hectic week as its everyone gathers for the final round at QMP. The two-day event means the bikes, trucks and everything in between needs to be cleaned, prepared and ready to go in a quick four day turn around to park up on Friday.
The off-road boys have come through their desert racing part of the season and now refocus back on the Aus Enduro. Kempsey will host the next round of the series on August 7 and 8 and it promises to be a good one.