Gibbs won the day from New Zealand’s former world champion Ben Townley (Penrite Honda) and Husqvarna’s Brock Winston, with three wins and a third on the day.

A fall to last in the second moto led to an amazing ride through the pack to third place in just six laps, but left the way open for it to go right down to the wire in the final, where Gibbs beat Townley take the Manjimup 15,000 trophy and the honour of his name on the wall of the club’s Heritage-Listed clubhouse.

Gibbs also took the win in the one-lap shootouts, which take place in the middle of the program. Aside from Gibbs, it was Townley who starred on his way to the moto two victory during his second race appearance in two weekends.

“It’s a pretty cool feeling to have my name on the wall,” Gibbs said. “It’s such a big thing to be up there with the other people who won it back in the day, the riders before us, so I’m really happy. Physically I’m a little bit buggered, I only had one little first-turn crash, but just the body is a bit banged up.

“I think I’m ready for that rest now, so it comes at a good time. I rode well, there were a few lines at the end that sort of let me down, real little things but I think I had a step in the right direction. I felt really confident on the bike and some of my starts were really good, so definitely some big positives, and only a few little negatives, so it’s a great day.”

Finishing fourth was DPH Motorsport Yamaha’s Kade Mosig, with Nick Wey the first of the Americans to complete the top five.

Last weekend’s MX2 round winner Caleb Ward made it a double for KTM, winning the All-Stars Lites classification on his KTM 250 SX and taking scores of 9, 4, 9, 6 against the 450s on overall classification.

“I had a little bit of a mixed day with a few bad starts, but that is to be expected when you’re up against the 450s,” Ward said. “I managed to work my way thru in all the motos, so that was good. I was the first of the Lites competitors in every moto but one.

“I had a little bit of a battle with Kirk in the second race after he fell and I tried to stick with him after he passed me to see how he does it, and learn a few lines. Racing against the 450s was fun, the roost has given me a few bruises and I think I chipped a tooth, but it was still definitely worth it, I learned a lot.”

Rounding out the podium behind the in-form Ward was Sd3 Husqvarna’s Luke Arbon and WA local Josh Adams. Jayden Rykers and Josh Cachia completed the top five.

Penrite Oil Honda Racing’s Ben Townley has returned home to New Zealand following back-to-back weekends of racing in Western Australia at the MX Nationals and annual Manjimup 15,000.

The 2004 MX2 World Champion finished seventh in his national return including a third place in race one at Wanneroo, and then continued that form with second overall behind Kirk Gibbs at Manjimup.

Townley stunned with a moto victory at Manjimup on his way to the runner-up, satisfied with his performance despite no sudden plans to make a fulltime comeback.

“This whole week has gone a lot better than I expected,” Townley said. “I originally only planned to come to WA to race the Manjimup 15,000 but ended up racing the Wanneroo MX Nationals event as well.

“The Cosy Creek track got pretty gnarly as the day went on. It is made up of three different soils so I had to remind myself to ride within my limits in those last couple of races.

“Overall It was a fantastic 10 days, but my body is thrashed so I am looking forward to heading home, seeing the family and getting back into my routine.”

 

2014 Manjimup 15,000
Cost Creek Circuit, Western Australia

Open results:
1. Kirk Gibbs 95
2. Ben Townley 89
3. Brock Winston 77
4. Kade Mosig 72
5. Nick Wey 60
6. Robert Lovett 54
7. Mitch Taylor 52
8. Louis Calvin 50
9. AJ Catanzaro 46
10. Oliver James 41

Lites results:
1. Caleb Ward 97
2. Luke Arbon 85
3. Josh Adams 75
4. Jayden Rykers 66
5. Josh Cachia 62
6. David Birch 60
7. Brodie Fewster 51
8. Brett Norton 48
9. Tim Bell 47
10. Erhard Pajewski 42

Click here for detailed results