The WBR Yamaha Team finished the ProMX championship taking three of the top four positions and all four riders inside the top seven, in the MX3 final standings after the final round of racing was completed yesterday.
Koby Hantis finished in second place, Kayd Kingsford third, Kobe Drew in fourth and Seth Burchell in seventh in a great championship effort for the dealer-based team from Echuca.The final round was a challenging affair for the team with no riders landing on the podium but not from lack of trying. Kayd Kingsford took fourth for the round, Koby Hantis in sixth while Kobe Drew and Seth Burchell both had rounds they would like to forget.
Hantis came into the final round a handful of points behind championship leader, Jake Cannon. Hantis needed to beat Cannon in both races and have a few riders in between them to make up the points gap. The battle on the track, never eventuated as both riders experienced issues, especially in moto one but ultimately, he wasn’t able to make up the lost ground and had to settle for second.
“Today the goal was to just give it my all and let the cards fall where they fall. I tried to ride my hardest, but I just didn’t have the speed today and Jake did enough to get the win, so congrats to him.
“But I want to thank the WBR Yamaha team who gave me a life line at the start of the season and their support throughout the year has been amazing,” Hantis said.
Kayd Kingsford finished the day with 3-5 results to take fourth for the day and move himself to third in the championship. Kingsford has shown plenty of speed this year, just needing some consistency to put together a championship.
“Kobe Drew and I were pretty close on points for the final spot on the podium, but he had a rough day and I was able to get on the box. It’s been a busy year for me with a lot of changes but happy to end out the year in third and learn more about racing. WBR have been awesome, and the Whitten family put in a huge effort,” Kingsford offers.
It was a weekend to forget for Kobe Drew and Seth Burchell. Drew finished fifth in the first race but didn’t finish race two after two nasty accidents. The first was on the start straight where he collided with another bike. Unbeknown to him, the crash resulted in damage to his front wheel and just a few laps later, the wheel issues caused a bigger crash leaving him on the side lines.
It was a similar day for Seth Burchell, who crashed in race one, then had a bike issue in race two. Both riders are gutted with their final round results but are heathy and looking forward to redeeming themselves in the upcoming supercross championship.