VOL. 51 ISSUE 48 DECEMBER 2, 2014 P31
MARKELON WINS
WMX TITLE
T
he final round of eight of the Women's Motocross
Championship ran its course at the Thor Winter
Olympics at Gatorback Cycle Park in Gainesville,
Florida, November 24-29, and Marissa Markelon
came away with the 2014 title. But it was close.
Going into the final round, three women—Markelon,
Machenzie Tricker and Kylie Faschnaut—all had a
shot at the title. Tricker led Markelon in the champion-
ship by three points and Faschnaut by eight points.
Markelon won the first moto with Tricker (Yamaha) tak-
ing third, which meant that roles were reversed go-
ing into the second and final moto of the year. With a
three-point lead going in, Markelon again won, seal-
ing the deal for the Kawasaki rider from Connecticut.
Tricker took sixth, which cost her yet another spot in
the championship, with Suzuki rider Faschnaut going
2-2 on the day for second overall and second in the
championship.
Tricker ended up fifth on the day with a 3-6.
Marissa Polencheck (KTM) got on the Florida po-
dium with a 4-3.
MORE PROGRESS FOR MILLER
C
WM LCR Honda's Jack Miller
continued his MotoGP educa-
tion at a three-day test at the Sepang
International Circuit in Malaysia.
And to summarize those three days
in a word: progress.
With help from HRC and his
team, the 19-year-old Australian
rookie has been gradually intro-
duced to more complex aspects of
the Open electronics package on
the Honda RC213V-RS. That extra
seat time on the MotoGP bike (a
little different from the Moto3 bike
of last season) meant that Miller
felt increasingly comfortable on
Honda's production racer, despite
a small lowside spill in the morning.
"In general I was really happy
with how the bike went," Miller
said. "We made more improve-
ments today and every time I get
on it I feel more and more comfort-
able, and that means I'm getting
faster and faster.
"We had a small crash in the
morning, but it was nothing seri-
ous and there was no real damage
to the bike. It was at a slow speed
carrying a bit too much lean angle
over a couple of bumps. All in all,
I would say I'm very happy how the
bike worked during the whole test.
It has been positive."
Miller put in 33 laps before the
session was halted once again due
to the typical afternoon rainstorm,
that you can almost set your watch to
in Malaysia. Fortunately before then
Miller had already improved on his
best lap of the test, with a quickest
time of 2:02.9.
"I'm looking forward to the off-
season now, and I'll be training hard
and getting my body in the physical
condition needed for MotoGP," Mill-
er said. "We managed a long run
today and while it was really hard,
my body stood up to it. So I look for-
ward to coming back even stronger
in February."
Miller now heads back to Bar-
celona, Spain to have four loose
screws removed from an old right
collarbone injury.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
ROBERT
KOY
The 2014 WMX Series came down to a thrilling end at the
Thor Winter Olympics in Florida, where Marissa Markelon
(center) emerged with the number-one plate. She's flanked
by Kylie Faschnaut (left) and Marissa Polencheck (right).
Rookie Jack Miller continues to
progress with his jump from Moto3
to MotoGP.
PHOTO
COURTESY
OF
CWM
LCR
HONDA
