For immediate release: 22 February 2010
Tom McCormack podiums first Pro senior race
Byron Bay dirt bike star, Tom McCormack, kicked off his senior racing career with a bang yesterday, finishing third to Queensland’s two highest ranked off-road racers.
The Yamaha Pro Motorcycles Queensland Enduro Team rider, the youngest ever in Queensland to be moved straight from juniors to the Pro Class, showed impressive speed at the opening round of the Yamaha Sprint Cross-Country Series held at Cambroon, near Kenilworth.
The 16-year-old was happy with his performance, which saw him claim third to Queensland number one and fellow Yamaha rider, Kirk Hutton (winner), and Queensland number two, AJ Roberts (second-place).
“It’s definitely the best third place I’ve ever got, I look up to [Kirk and AJ]… I’m never happy with third, but this was the best one,” McCormack said.
“I rode well, I think. I had a few little problems here and there that I’m going to try and work out during the week and hopefully go a little bit better this weekend at the enduro-cross.
“The race was run in the format of four, 30-minute mass-start races. I got one fourth and three thirds.
“In the first one I was dead last off the start and had to work my way through the pack. That first one was really tiring, I got a lot of arm pump. But after that it was good, all the nerves went.
“I was a bit nervous about racing against the pro’s, but mainly excited. I found that racing against them if you get a bad start it’s a lot harder to make your way through the pack, but other than that I loved it.
“My 2010 YZ250F helps me a lot, too. It’s an awesome bike, really comfortable, I’m really enjoying it. It’s been working great.”
McCormack said he would be striving to “stay on the bike, not have as many crashes and stay consistent” at the opening round of the Queensland Enduro-Cross Series being held this Sunday at Ironpot, near Kingaroy (for more info visit www.qldenduro.com)
His first national meeting of the year will be rounds one and two of the Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championships to be held at Port Macquarie, NSW, on March 13th and 14th (for more info visit www.aorcracing.com.au).
“I’ll be racing the Championship, or Pro, E1 class. I’ll see where I’m at after the first round, I’ve never really raced any of these guys before,” he said.
“I’m looking for a podium finish in the class. I know the first round, which will be a 2.5-hour cross-country will be tough, but I’m on a really good training program this year, my trainer’s working really hard to get me ready for it and I’m riding heaps so it should be fun.”
