Motocross News

Wilson Coolair Motul Factory Suzuki’s Kyle Peters battled his way through a difficult round of the 2017 Motul MX Nationals at Conondale yesterday after being struck down with a stomach flu.

Despite heading to the event on the Sunshine Coast yesterday unsure as to whether he would be healthy enough to take to the line, the American rider Peters put on a brave face and fought hard for important championship points throughout two gruelling MX1 motos.

After being attended to by Racesafe prior to climbing aboard his Factory Suzuki RM-Z450, Peters managed to qualify just outside the top ten in 11th yesterday morning, and despite being visibly unwell, was determined to line up for both races.

In race one Peters fought hard to finish in 11th after a second turn crash, and then went one position better, finishing in tenth in race two placing him in 9th overall for the round, in what was one of the most challenging weekends of racing so far in his career.

“From Wednesday to the weekend I barely ate anything, I couldn’t keep anything down and to be honest I really didn’t know if it was going to be possible for me to ride round three at all,” Peters explained.

“I did my two laps in practice and a couple in qualifying just to see what I could do, and then headed out in race one. I didn’t get too bad of a start but I went down in the second turn and after that it was pretty much just survival for points.

“After the first race I didn’t know if I was going to go out at all in the second moto, but I ended up lining up and I was just going to see how long I could last. I managed to get through the 30 minutes and salvage some points, but it was a weekend we didn’t want.

“For me the championship isn’t looking too good at the moment, but it’s not over until its over and anything can happen. For now, I’ll focus on making sure I’m healthy for Horsham and maximising on every race to get as many points as we can every weekend.”

Peters now sits in eighth in the Thor MX1 Championship standings with seven rounds remaining.