NHILL Supermoto racer Josh McLean impressively claimed a second-place overall at the opening round of the 2016 AMA Supermoto Championship in Bakersfield, California on April 8-9.
In his first overseas competition ever, Josh finished with a fourth and second place over two races to finish in a tie for second overall in the Pro Open championship standings, just ten points behind American leader Gage McAllister.
Josh managed to qualify in third on the grid. “We’re really happy with how it went. We had two main events,” he said. “My sister, Zoe, and I missed Riders’ Briefing because we were trying to fix a few things, so I was called over to take part in the opening ceremony where I was asked to do a couple of hot laps to get my tyres warm.
“In the first race, I was unsure of the start, so I didn’t really start well. My thoughts at the start was; ‘finish the race’. Throughout the race it felt like I had a target on me because everyone was bumping into me, a lot of riders were going down. It was pretty aggressive,” Josh continued.
“All that bumping damaged the front brake of the bike so I had no real front brake for the race so I could’ve finished third or even second in that race,” Josh, who finished fourth in Race 1, said.
“We fixed that problem in the second race where I had half an idea of what was going on. I just rode fairly smart, a few people went down, and I passed a few people as well, and the next minute I was in the lead, and I was holding the lead for two or three laps. Coming into the last lap, I played it safe – all I wanted was to get on the podium – and I took second,” Josh said. “I wasn’t going to risk crashing so I was very happy with second,” he added.
On the track itself, Josh said: “It was really, really fast. Top gear. Flat out. Once you got used to it, it was really good.”
Round 2 of the AMA Supermoto Championship takes place in Loudon, New Hampshire on June 18-19. Josh definitely plans on returning to the US to compete. “For sure. I didn’t realise where we were going to be where we are. I thought we were going to be in the top ten. My old man is keen for me to return and so is Josh Jackson who is letting me ride his bike,” Josh added.
“We came over here and achieved what we wanted to achieve, which was exposure, and to show everyone we’re serious, we’re here and we want to race,” he added.
“ I would like to thank his sponsors that look after him: MCR Supermoto, Sportsium International, Traction Ag, Axel Armour Australia, JS Wheels, Xtreme Power Sports Australia, HBN Mechanical, Brad and Mel, the Alexander family, his partner Loz, Joshua Jackson and all of his supporters, Ben McDonnell, and all of my GoFundMe donors,” he praised.
Josh is also asking for ongoing support for his bid to return to the United States for the second round in June. You can still donate to his GoFundMe page here: www.gofundme.com/60toamerica or if you would like to sponsor Josh to take that next step forward you can contact him on 0437 750 461.