Josh Pickering and Brodie Nolan have taken out the 2018 Cessnock Mitsubishi Australian Postie Bike Grand Prix.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The defending champions were elevated to first place after the the two first entries across the line were disqualified for their bikes exceeding the strict 6.3 horsepower limit on the bikes.
Pickering, who has just returned from a successful season with Edinburgh Monarchs in the British Speedway Championship League, was delighted with the result.
He said they had feared they had blown their title defence after Nolan exceeded his lap limit and they suffered a one minute penalty after establishing a 26 second lead.
“Brodie had tried to establish some space for me before he went into the pits but in the process he did an extra lap,” Pickering said.
“Each rider has to ride a minimum of seven laps and a maximum of 10 and Brodie did an 11th.
“The time penalty put us behind 48 seconds from the leaders but by the end of the race we had got it back to 26 seconds and we crossed third.
“But after the bikes were tested five were disqualified for exceeding the horsepower limit including the first two across the line.
The pair snagged top honours in a highly competitive field that included 2018 ASBK Supersport Champion Cru Halliday who recorded the fastest lap of the day with 1:19.373.
Second place went to Richie Nolan and Josh Brooks while Chris Watson and Michael Kirkness took home third place.
The field also included former Australian Supercross champion Craig Anderson and two-time AMA Supercross Champion Chad Reed.
History was made earlier in the day with the running of the inaugural all-female street race, a first of it’s kind for Australia.
The auspicious race was taken out by former Maitland racer Ellyse O’Connor with an overall time of 15:27.335 after 10 hotly contested laps that saw Keegan Pickering finish second and Karina Bailey third.
Event organiser Dave Robinson said given the region’s love of motorsport, it made sense that such historic ground was broken in Cessnock.
“If it was going to happen anywhere it was going to happen in Cessnock,” he said. “I take my hat off to each of the ladies in the race - fantastic, every competitor. It was a terrific competition and it was a race that brought the crowd to it’s feet.”