Crescent Head’s Zylas Bunting has won the third round of the Australian GP Juniors Class held at Morgan Park, Warwick Queensland.
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The feat is even more impressive when you consider the 14-year-old was competing in his first major event and against competitors up to 16 years of age.
“We thought he would go okay and get up there near the pointy end,” Zylas’ father Mark Bunting said.
"He is pretty successful at motocross but we weren’t expecting him to win in his first long course event.”
The victory puts Zylas in the mix near the top of the championship, which has a total of five rounds, and he will be competing at the rest of the events in an attempt to be crowned the overall Australian champion for his class.
The road event was held over three days with riders using the opening day to practice on the course.
Qualifying began on the Saturday and Zylas finished with the third best time after the four sessions.
This put him in third position on the grid for the opening race on Saturday afternoon and Zylas was able to improve by one spot and finish in second place.
He is pretty successful at motocross but we weren’t expecting him to win in his first long course event.
- Zylas' father Mark Bunting
Racing commenced again on Sunday and Zylas earned a third, first and fourth in the three races to claim the overall victory.
He was competing against 14 other riders over the weekend and Mark said there wasn’t much in it between all the competitors.
“It was a wet and tricky track and all of the riders were still producing fast laps,” Bunting said.
“There wasn’t much separating them after their qualifying times and it made for close races.”
Zylas received the trophy from one of his idols, three time Superbike World Champion Troy Bayliss.
The next event is in August at Wakefield Park, Goulburn.
