Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Billy MacKenzie took a hit in the Super X Championship standings after a promising start to the night turned sour at a rain-drenched Wollongong track.
A top 10 finish for Scottish rider Billy MacKenzie leaves him in fourth place in the championship and while it wasn’t the result he was looking for he’s still just seven points off the series lead. Billy got off to a great start on board his KX450F in the 15-lap Main Event and found his way to the lead by lap two. From there he settled into a good rhythm and looked set to bring home the win until a small crash put him off the side of the track. He re-mounted quickly but limited traction on the slippery wooden boards surrounding the track meant getting back onto the dirt was easier said than done.
When he finally got himself back on track MacKenzie was way down the order and had to work hard for his eventual ninth-placed finish.
“I was actually having a really good final,” says Billy. “I got out of the gate well and managed to get into the lead on the second lap. I was feeling comfortable, doing the triple and pulling ground. I was just trying to find a few lines and keep it consistent but it just caught me out on this one little section before the whoops. I slid it off the track and with the plyboards down it took me a while to get back on, I was just sitting on the plywood spinning so it was really frustrating.
“After that I just tried to put some consistent laps together and get as high up the order as I could. I’m really, really frustrated at losing the lead again. I did it at the first round and it’s happened again the second round. I just have to put it right at the third.”
The team heads to Campbelltown, NSW, this weekend confident of better results and ready to seize back lost championship points.