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Empire Kawasaki has a Tough Triple at Newcastle Supercross
Empire Kawasaki racers Jackson Richardson, Haruki Yokoyama and Jai Constantinou experienced the full mixture of racing outcomes at the third round of the 2022 Australian Supercross Championship (AUS) in Newcastle on Saturday night.
The team’s SX1 representative, Richardson, carried an illness into the event and after placing seventh in qualifying and claiming a P4 result in his heat, he and the team made the tough decision to sit out the three-race finals.
“It was a rough day,” Jackson said afterwards. “I struggled with an illness all day – I rode the heat race, but we weren’t in a position to compete tonight – so myself and the team decided to sit out the main events. My health’s got to come first, so we decided to play it safe and sit tonight out. We’ll try to recover and recoup in time for next weekend.”
After qualifying fifth-fastest in the SX2 class, Yokoyama finished the Triple Crown event in 10th overall despite a big crash in the whoops and DNF during his heat race.
Putting the pain of the crash behind him, Yokoyama finished the three-race finals with a 12-5-10 scorecard. Once the scores were collated using the Olympic scoring system, he finished the night in 10th overall.
“We’d worked hard on my bike set-up and suspension over the break and the day started off decently, but I had a big crash in the whoops in my heat race,” Yokoyama said. “I struggled with them tonight as they got cupped out. I’m happy with the good start I got to my second moto, but mistakes in the mains cost me a good result tonight.”
Fellow SX2 rider Constantinou finished the round in 11th overall. After a standout second-place result in his heat race, the Victorian experienced a mixed evening in the three-race finals, finishing the night with P7, P13 and P11 results.
“It was a rough day, but we kept pushing and the results were okay in the end,” Constantinou explained. “Taking P2 in the heat was a positive, but I got caught up in the chaos in the finals. I feel like I’ve got the pace to run up the front, but I need to get good starts and stay out of trouble. When that happens I’ll be able to get those top five results and hopefully land on the podium.”
Heading into the final round of the championship in Wagga Wagga, NSW, next weekend, Richardson is 11th in the SX1 class, while Constantinou and Yokoyama are eighth and 12th respectively in the SX2 standings.
2022 AUSX Rd3 Newcastle, NSW - Round Results
SX2 main event results:
1. Max Anstie 2. Wilson Todd 3. Rhys Budd 10. Haruki Yokoyama (Empire Kawasaki) 11. Jai Constantinou (Empire Kawasaki)