UNIT FMX Open podium L to R: Kain Saul, Luke McNeill and Joel Brown. Photo: gobadirt.com
The Unit FMX Open and final round of the 2011 Australian Underground FMX Championships, presented by RFDmx, went down yesterday (Sat29th) at the Project FMX compound in Rockhampton, Qld, and in the head-to-head format similar to Red Bull X-Fighters the final battle came down to Unit rider Kain Saul V Jetpillot's Luke McNeill.
Sauly with a Double Grab Superman right in front of the judges. Photo: Thomas Smith/Unit Riders
Both
riders threw down all they had with Sauly putting on a gutsy ride after
earlier surviving from a near disaster when he missed a grab on a flip
in his semi-final run and came closer then he liked to crashing. He
tried to put it behind him but you could tell he was rattled on the
horse shoe shaped course missing one jump and not flowing as smoothly
between hits, which hurt his score. Never the less Sauly still busted
out some huge combo flips and upright tricks to pile the pressure on
McNeill who wanted so badly to win his first pro open FMX competition.
Luke McNeil secured his win with a risky flip off a lip he carved into the back of a dirt downramp. Photo: Thomas Smith/Unit Riders
The
young series rookie handled the pressure well from the moment he took
to the course and went on to pull out his best run of the event with
well executed Lazyboy, Cordova, and One Handed Whip Flips, plus a big
Turndown Whip and clean upright tricks topping it all off with an
innovative Mini Flip off the back off one of the dirt landers. It was
this last flip that had the judges clenching their teeth as McNeill only
needed to complete a safer trick to secure the win and risking it with a
move that hadn't been attempted all event was a brave decision and a
big gamble that luckily paid off for the Jet Pilot Kawasaki rider as all
three judges gave him the nod and he was crowned the 2011 UNIT FMX Open
champion.
Rhys "Rasy" Hillier Whips it good. That's him hidden in the trees if you can't see him! Photo: gobadirt.com
Earlier Rhys "Rasy" Hillier
locked in his first Australian Underground FMX Championship when he
secured enough points by making it through to the top six. Rasy went on
to finish fourth just behind his closest competitor for the title Joel Brown, who threw down some killer runs full of tech combos and a No Footed Backflip to secure the final podium position.
The overall championship fight came down to Rasy left and Browny, who left his charge in the series a little too late. Photos: gobadirt.com
The competition was close amongst the top ten riders and filling those positions were Luke Saunders, Brad Burch, Matt Smith, Pete Anderson, Dean Matherson and Dan O'Brien, who also went on to win the Best Whip comp.
Series promoter Joel Rayner, right, put in a huge effort and worked his butt off to ensure the Unit FMX Open was a big success! Photo: gobadirt.com
The Unit FMX Open backed by Redbull, Project FMX, Pirate Ink,
was a huge success and a giant leap forward in building the foundations
of FMX in Australia stronger. It inspired the up and comers as they had
a chance to ride against some of the countries pro riders and it set
the standard for more events like it to follow in 2012 as part of the
RFDmx promoted series. Lookout for the full rundown in detail in an
upcoming issue of Freerider MX.
Andy
Graham from Pirate Ink put in 500 hours preparing the Project FMX
course. Thanks for the big effort mate! Photos: gobadirt.com
