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MARCH 11, 2007: New Zealand’s Ben Townley has done it again.
The Kawasaki ace from Taupo won the Daytona Supercross on Saturday night (Sunday morning NZ time), his second consecutive win in the prestigious United States Supercross Championships.
The 22-year-old suffered misfortune at the series opener three weeks ago but rebounded to win the St Louis round of the series in Missouri last weekend and now the Daytona Supercross.
It means the Kiwi hero has gone from nowhere in the East Coast Series Pro Lites standings after round one, to seventh after round two and now he’s up to third in the standings, just six points behind the series leader, Californian Yamaha rider Ryan Morais.
The Kiwi star qualified for the 15 lap main event with a gutsy performance after running into the back of fallen Aussie Andrew McFarlane and having to charge from the back of the pack to finish fifth.
A great start aboard his Kawasaki KX250F saw Townley take the lead from McFarlane on lap two of the main event. Townley managed to shake off a challenge by factory Honda rider Tommy Hanhn as he settled into a rhythm and controlled his lead to take top honours over Hahn and KTM’s Mike Alessi.
“The track was really brutal tonight,” admitted Townley. “There were a lot of ruts and the sand section was quite rough. With it being so tricky out there you just couldn’t bang in some hard laps so I tried to limit my mistakes and be consistent the whole race and that worked out well – I just rode smooth.
“Tommy Hahn was quite close to me in the beginning and we had a little battle going but then I managed to put some time between us and I had a decent gap which I held till the flag. To win at Daytona is an inexplicable emotion – last year I came down to Daytona to watch from the sidelines as an injured spectator and now I am on top of the box (podium).
“I can’t begin to tell you how awesome this is.”
Townley’s mum, Vicki, speaking from Taupo, was naturally excited about the latest development.
“I spoke to Ben only briefly as they were leaving the track,” she said. “He said the track really suited him because it was so round. Ben’s a motocross specialist and that was a factor.
“I was watching the lap charts as they came up on the internet. That was as close as I could get to watching it live,” she said. “It was very emotional. After his big accident in 2002 and career-threatening accident last year, this is a remarkable thing to come back and be on top like this.”
The Supercross Lites tour remains in Florida with round four at the Citrus Bowl, Orlando, next Saturday night (March 17).
Race results:
