It was a baptism of fire for young gun BCP Yoshimura Honda Junior Development Team rider Hixson McInnesover the weekend as he tackled the ultra competitive MX3 class for round one of the Pro MX Championships at Wonthaggi, Victoria!
The new MX3 class is just what the doctor ordered for young up and coming Aussie riders, putting Australia’s best 14 and 15 year old juniors up against the best 16 and 17 year old seniors in the country really gives these young stars a chance to shine on the big stage.
Being by far the most popular class with riders entering from around the country, the MX3 category saw close to 100 attempted entries shuffled down to a lucky 80 riders who managed to be accepted for the event. These 80 riders were split into two separate groups of 40 who were thrown into separate qualifying sessions to see who would make the final 40 cut and get the opportunity line up on the start line for two 25 minute motos plus a lap.
Being 14 years old and with still two years to go as a junior racer, Hixson McInnes slots into the youngest available age bracket to be eligible to race the new MX3 class and did incredibly well to qualifty 12th fastest and slot himself into the final 40. After running well up into the top 10 early in moto 1 McInnes was involved in an on track incident that ended up with a bunch of riders going down hard. The factory junior Honda team rider would recover and limp the bike around to finish with a bruised body and bent up bike.
Moto 2 was a marked improvement with McInnes racing strong and finishing 17th by the time the chequered flag came out. Giving the kid from Cooma in NSW 18th overall on the day.
“This is such a stacked field of riders and its so good to get the opportunity to race against all these guns from around the country,” said McInnes.
“We had a little bad luck in moto 1, being in the wrong place at the wrong time but I’m happy with how we bounced back in moto 2. I’m really looking forward to heading up to Mackay in Queensland in a couple of weeks and trying my best to notch up some top 10 results.”
Fellow Honda rider Cambell Williamswas unstoppable on the day being fastest in qualifying while going 1-1 in both motos of the MX3 class.
The Pro MX Championships heads next to Mackay in North Queensland for Round 2 of the series on April 10th