Monster Energy Kawasaki enjoyed a successful sixth round of motocross racing at the Goanna Tracks at Coonabarabran, NSW, on June 19. Open rider Dean Ferris extended his championship lead with second overall for the round while Billy MacKenzie narrowly missed the podium by just one point. He retains his second place standing in the series.
Billy’s overall result doesn’t reflect his speed at Coonabarabran. Even two moto wins weren’t enough to make up for a bad result in the second moto when Josh Coppins crashed and brought the Scotsman down in the first turn. MacKenzie clawed back many places to finish within the top 10 for the race. Mackenzie’s 1-9-5-1 results left him in fourth place for the round, just one point off the podium.
“I’m frustrated with the result but definitely happy with the way I’m riding,” says Billy. “The track was awesome and I loved the longer lap times. I was satisfied with second in qualifying and real happy with the first race. I got the lead early and pulled away to take the win.
“I had an average jump in the second moto and ended up hitting Coppins after he went down. That put me to the back. I’m disappointed with that race but it wasn’t really my fault. Then I stalled in the third moto, couldn’t bump start because I was in a high gear and had to stop to restart. That put me back to dead last but I rode well to get back to fifth.
“Another good start in the last race and I checked out to take the win. I enjoyed every corner and every lap of that race. We made changes to the bike during the day and that made huge differences. The bike was perfect. I just had a bunch of bad luck today and stuff was out of my control. I’ll keep working at it and try and get some more race wins.”
