The MXGP World Championship Paddock was welcomed to Darwin today as many of the top riders attended a Signing Session at the Darwin Waterfront Precinct, organised in partnership with the Northern Territory Major Events Company, and enjoyed meeting with fans who queued in their hundreds to meet their MXGP heroes, clearly excited to see World Championship Motocross return to Australia for the first time in 24 years!
The event began with a traditional Saltwater Welcome to Country, where Trent Lee, an elder from the Larrakia people, the Indigenous Traditional Owners of the land and waters around Darwin, performed a Welcome to Country ceremony which included a blessing of the waterfront. Riders were given a cultural explanation and then got involved with the ceremony themselves by taking a symbolic barefoot step into the water, acknowledging the Larrakia people as the Traditional Custodians, the “Saltwater People” of Darwin.
Some of the riders, including Andrea Adamo, Lucas Coenen and Sacha Coenen from Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, Calvin Vlaanderen from Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP, and Aruba.it Ducati Factory MX Team leader Jeremy Seewer, met and held some local wildlife in the shape of full-grown snakes and baby crocodiles. Some weren’t entirely as fearless as they are on a motorcycle!
Following the ceremony at the Lagoon Pool, for which organisers had temporarily taken down the net of the Beach Volleyball court, the riders took their places before the queue and the waiting fans eagerly collected autographs and selfies with their MXGP heroes! Many had got stocked up at the nearby MXGP merchandise stand, or been handed free event posters to fill with signatures!
The first on many autograph shopping lists was record GP winner Jeffrey Herlings, who was on the first table with teammate Adamo, while Sacha and Lucas Coenen were next along for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing. Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing teammates Liam Everts and MX2 World Champion Kay de Wolf were also in the first row of stars ready to sign their souvenir posters, cards, or indeed any of the shirts, flags, and even body parts put before them!
Vlaanderen was joined by his Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP teammates Jago Geerts and Maxime Renaux, while the three Honda HRC riders Tim Gajser, Ruben Fernandez, and Valerio Lata also lined up with pens at the ready. Italians Andrea Bonacorsi for Fantic Factory Racing MXGP and Mattia Guadagnini from the Aruba.it Ducati Factory MX Team sat together, neither claiming to have signed more than the other!
The banter continued at the Monster Energy Triumph Racing table, with Camden McLellan and Guillem Farres joking with fans while their press officer did a very good Australian accent for someone from his part of Europe! Kawasaki Racing Team riders Pauls Jonass and Mathis Valin also enjoyed the event alongside Bike-It Kawasaki’s Kay Karssemakers, JK Racing Yamaha’s Isak Gifting, and MX-Handel Husqvarna Racing’s Kevin Brumann.
Karlis Reisulis of Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2, like many of the riders, found fans of his own nationality in amongst the crowd.
Many Australian wildcards also joined in the event, with Todd Waters, Zac Watson, Cody O’loan, Cooper Holroyd, and MX2 rider Byron Dennis enjoying the atmosphere. WMX racers were also getting their signatures requested, and regulars including Kiara Fontanesi, Larissa Papenmeier, Aneta Cepelakova, Alexandra Massury, and Nellie Fransson were joined by Australian wildcards Charli Cannon and Taylah McCutcheon.
During the session, fans who had got their souvenirs already were then entertained by the Flair Trials showcase, with rider Jack Field switching between one- and two-wheeled motorcycles, as well as his “pushie” cyclo-trials bike, scaring his “Human Obstacle” assistant by bouncing his bike around the prone body on the floor!
Towards the end of the signing session was a real treat, as MC “Rusty”, Greg Rust, introduced the Jet Pack Entertainment show, with their Hydroflight Sport athlete Jake Jones entertaining the crowd with an amazing aerial performance that included freestyle whips, back-flips, amazing dolphin lunges into the water itself, and the daring “Thread the Needle” manoeuvre that involved the leading Australian in the sport backflipping through a loop in the water hose that powered his own board! Free merchandise was given to the kids in the audience who got closest and therefore drenched by Jake during one of his amazing tricks!
All in all, it was a brilliant evening that built a lot of interest in the event, which is already enjoying healthy advance ticket sales. The on-track action gets underway tomorrow morning as the MXGP of Australia Presented by Sitzler starts in earnest at the Hidden Valley Motorsports Complex outside Darwin!
All the photos from the MXGP of Australia presented by Sitzler will be available HERE
You can find the complete results HERE.
TIMETABLE
SATURDAY: 08:25: Blåkläder Start Practice MX2, 08:55 Blåkläder Start Practice MXGP, 09:45 WMX Free practice, 10:15 MX2 Free practice, 10:45 MXGP Free practice, 12:10 WMX Qualifying practice, 12:50 MX2 Time practice, 13:30 MXGP Time practice, 14:40 WMX Race 1, 15:25 MX2 Qualifying Race, 16:10 MXGP Qualifying Race
SUNDAY: 09:45 WMX Race 2, 10:25 MX2 Warm-up, 10:45 MXGP Warm-up, 12:15 MX2 Race 1, 13:15 MXGP Race 1, 15:10 MX2 Race 2, 16:10 MXGP Race 2.
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