GASGAS Racing Team teammates Hayden Mellross and Blake Fox both will look to find positives from round one of the 2022 ProMX Championship at Wonthaggi on Sunday, motivated to climb the order in the coming rounds.
In the MX1 class, Mellross and his GASGAS MC 450F set a strong pace with a fourth-fastest time in early qualifying, before rating seventh in the Top 10 Shootout.
Still recovering from a recently-broken sternum, a gritty Mellross battled through discomfort and a bout of hindering arm-pump on his way to 10th in the opening outing.
With little to lose and after only having limited seat time in the lead-up, the Geelong-based rider made some significant bike settings for the second moto and found some improvements as he battled with his fellow championship contenders to seventh.
After the two race scores were combined, Mellross finished seventh overall. He's tipped to build strength in these early stages as he works towards full fitness over the coming weeks.
Hayden Mellross: “I had a goal of finishing within the top-five today, but I suffered from bike fitness and arm-pump from the lack of seat-time over the past month. I didn’t want to get my ambitions mixed up with my capabilities, but it’s still hard to watch people you know you can beat pull away from you. I didn’t meet my own expectations, although we did make a lot of progress with suspension and bike settings throughout the round. We’ve taken a lot of positives from the day in that respect, which will set us up well for Mackay.”
In the MX2 class, teenager Blake Fox - last year's MX3 champion - found himself trying to recover from two tough starts in what was his national debut as part of the GASGAS Racing Team.
Fox qualified a respectable ninth aboard the MC 250F, but found himself fighting in the mid-pack in both of the motos and he struggled to make headway around the difficult track. The end result was 13-14 for 14th position overall.
Blake Fox: “It was a really tough day out there, but I felt like I learnt a lot, seeing as it was my first MX2 race at a national level. I struggled to get a good feeling with the track and not having a lot of race experience recently meant I wasn’t as sharp as I’d like off the gate. I’m pretty disappointed to finish below the goals that I set for myself, so now that we have an idea of where my pace is compared to the rest of the field, I’ll work hard on a few areas between now and Mackay, with the aim of coming out stronger for the second round.
Round two of this year's Australian ProMX Championship will take place on Sunday, 10 April, in Mackay, QLD.