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Contributed by: Ian Miles.
Another stunning result for teenage motocross sensation Ben Townley!
The New Zealand-born 17-year-old has shocked America with a top-ten placing in their national championship round at Budds Creek today.
Flown in from Europe by the KTM factory as an experiment in the hard-fought 125 class, the cool-headed pro racer nabbed 6th and 8th positions in the two moto legs for a provisional Seventh Overall placing on the tough, dusty course in Maryland.
Pundits predicted the Taupo-born Townley, in his first outing, would struggle to come to terms with America with its different conditions and locals who consider their national competition tougher than even the European-based world champs.
But the young man who left school to race the world champs last year looked quite at home swapping his Belgian-based Big Five Vangani KTM for the US special Red Bull bike.
The result will have pleased KTM factory bosses who signed Townley to a long-term contract just a week ago, none more so than world race director Kurt Nichol who took the gamble to fly Townley across the Atlantic and who was there to see the result.
It comes just a few hours after Townley\'s mentor Josh Coppins scored second place at a German national event.
Townley and his New Zealand-born mechanic Craig Behl are back on a plane tomorrow for Europe, heading to next weekend’s Bulgarian round of the world championship in which Townley has rocketed to 6th place this year.
RESULTS:
1. James Stewart KAW 1 1
2. Chad Reed YAM 2 4
3. Branden Jesseman SUZ 5 2
4. Ernesto Fonseca HON 7 3
5. Brock Sellards KTM 3 7
6. Buddy Antunez SUZ 4 6
7. Ben Townley KTM 6 8
8. David Pingree 15 10
9. Troy Adams YAM 9 16
10. Danny Smith SUZ 30 5
11. Paul Currie SUZ 13 14
12. Josh Demuth YAM 11 17
13. Damon Huffman SUZ 16 13
14. Matt Walker KAW 8 29
15. Ivan Tedesco YAM 40 9
Ben after that ride, is 26th= in the series with 28 points.
