It was a points weekend for Team Rockstar Energy OTSFF Yamaha Motovan.com’s Bobby Kiniry and Shawn Maffenbeier at Round 6 of the CMRC Nationals at Sand Del Lee in Richmond, ON this past Sunday.
Kiniry, who recorded 3-7 MX1 motos, bagged 34 points, which moved him back into second place in the current rankings. Maffenbeier, who didn’t join the tour until Round 5 due to injuries, picked up 35 points for his 8-2 MX2 motos, moving him from 21st place in the rankings to 15th.
The team’s developmental rider Richard Grey had a bit of an off day, recording 23-10 motos, which saw him drop one place in the current MX2 rankings from seventh to eighth.
The weekend started off on a positive note for Kiniry, who tamed Sand Del Lee during qualifying by delivering the second fastest lap time behind Jeremy Medaglia, who was racing on his home track.
In the first moto, Kiniry started around 10th to run in a lonely fifth place for most of the moto once he had worked his way up. Towards the end of the moto, Kiniry lost position to series points leader Brett Metcalfe, and would take the checkered flag in sixth place.
A Red Cross flag infraction, however, cost Metcalfe (2nd), Teddy Maier (3rd) and Tyler Medaglia (4th) a 10-position penalty, which moved Kiniry into an unexpected third.
The second moto saw Kiniry buried towards the back of the pack and a catch-up race was now the order of the day. By the midway mark he had clawed his way to 11th place, a position he lost after running into the back of Kyle Keast.
A quick remount put Kiniry back into the fray to chase Keast again. Both riders made their way into the top-10 during the second half of the moto, with Kiniry eventually sticking a pass on Keast to take seventh place at the finish line.
“I spent a lot of time just making up ground today and just couldn’t seem to get into the top five. My bike ran great, I felt fine health wise, but just couldn’t quite put together the ride I expected of myself,” Kiniry said.
In MX2 action, Shawn Maffenbeier stepped up to the plate with two solid motos that enabled him to leapfrog six positions in the current standings.
Maffenbeier, who nailed down the third fastest qualifying time on his potent YZ250 2-stroke, got caught up in a first turn pileup off the start in moto one that saw him remount towards the back of the pack. It took the Saskatchewan native till about the halfway mark to soldier his way into the top-10. When the checkered flag flew, he had taken possession of eighth place.
A lightning fast start in the second moto put Maffenbeier in the up-front mix in third place behind series points leader Austin Politelli and Joshua Clark. After a few laps of playing cat and mouse with Clark, Maffenbeier made the charge for second place, 3 sticking a pass on Clark and then defending that position till the finish line, even reeling in Politelli to within three seconds by the end of the moto.
With his eight place in moto one and second in moto two, Maffenbeier left Sand Del Lee with a noteworthy fourth overall and pumped for the next round.
“I’m quite happy with me results today, especially the second moto. The first moto was strictly damage control, but I got some good points all around and that’s what it comes down to when all is said and done,” Maffenbeier said.
Richard Grey, meanwhile, suffered through bad starts in both motos and just wasn’t able to find his groove on the Sand Del Lee track, which features a bit of everything from big jumps to huge berms, tight corners and whoops.
In the first moto, Grey got caught up in the first turn pileup with his teammate Maffenbeier, but unlike Maffenbeier he was not able to regroup enough to make his way into the top-10, finishing 23rd, after going down a few times trying to make up ground.
Grey was able to turn a mediocre second moto start, that saw him midpack on lap one, into 10th place by the end of the race, which gave him 16th overall on the day.
Although now sitting eighth in the points, Grey is still in a position to salvage up to fifth place by the end of the season.
“It was a disappointing weekend for me. Regardless of what I did, I seemed to be making errors. Getting caught up in that first moto crash didn’t do much for me and it kind of set the tone for the whole afternoon, just trying to get a handle on things,” Grey said.
Assistant team manager Iain Hayden again couldn’t resist riding the Veterans class on Saturday, and as in Kamloops and Gopher Dunes did it with style, winning both motos.
“I hadn’t really planned on doing this but it has turned out to be a lot of fun for me, plus it helps me give more informed feedback and advice to our riders,” Hayden said.
| MX1 Points After 6 of 9 Rounds | |||||
| 1. | Brett Metcalfe (Kaw) | 275 | |||
| 2. | Bobby Kiniry (Yam) | 215 | 3. | Tyler Medaglia (KTM) | 205 |
| 4. | Jeremy Medaglia (Yam) | 174 | |||
| 5. | Teddy Maier (Kaw) | 167 | |||
| 6. | Gavin Gracyk (KTM) | 152 | |||
| 7. | Morgan Burger (Yam) | 135 | |||
| 8. | Brock Hoyer (Kaw) | 135 | |||
| 9. | Ross Johnson (Hon) | 107 | |||
| 10. | Kyle Keast (Yam) | 66 |
| MX2 Points After 6 of 9 Rounds | ||
| 1. | Austin Politelli (Kaw) | 249 |
| 2. | Topher Ingalls (Hon) | 215 |
| 3. | Joshua Clark (Kaw) | 213 |
| 4. | Brad Nauditt (Hon) | 186 |
| 5. | Kaven Benoit (KTM) | 154 |
| 6. | Jared Allison (Yam) | 145 |
| 7. | Blake Savage (Hon) | 133 |
| 8. | Richard Grey (Yam) | 129 |
| 9. | Nathan Bles (Hon) | 88 |
| 10. | Kyle Swanson (Hon) | 96 |
| 15. | Shawn Maffenbeier (Yam) | 62 |
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