Nathan Whitten, Hayden Draper and Travis Whitten celebrate the ProMX3 motocross series win.
Local motorcycling team Whitten Brothers Racing picked up an Australian title last month.
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The official Yamaha Factory Race Team’s rider Hayden Draper took out the national ProMx motocross series in the MX3 junior class.
Motocross is a motorcycling event held outdoors on natural tracks, differing from supercross which is typically held on man-made tracks inside stadiums.
Draper had to fight through eight rounds of action across the country between March and August, with each event scored on a points system.
The team started the series in great form with Draper and teammate Jack Deveson earning a one-two finish in the opening round at Wonthaggi and Draper continued his strong early form to open up a lead at the top of the ladder.
Although later rounds weren’t as dominant, solid placings in the second half of the season were enough to keep the lead intact and the championship was confirmed after the final round at Queensland Moto Park on August 2.
Nathan Whitten, who runs the team and WBR Motorcycles and Mowers, Echuca, alongside brother Travis, said the team’s win came after a big commitment from all involved.
Echuca Moama based WBR Yamaha’s contracted rider Hayden Draper won the national ProMx3 championship series. Photo: Marc Jones/Foremost Media.
“It's been a massive relief to get the motocross championship all finished and win the title,” he said.
“We've been running the professional race team for over 10 years now and it's only our third ever pro championship that we've won.”
As Yamaha’s factory supported program for MX3, the Whitten team handles all aspects of the race team, including bike maintenance and optimisation and contracting New Zealander Draper.
“We've got the ultimate decision to sign which rider we want, but Hayden just showed really good results at the end of the previous year, so we really fought to try and get him on the team,” Whitten said.
“He was a bit of an unknown because he's been racing in New Zealand and they don't probably have the depth over there like we have in Australia.
“We took a chance on him even though it's probably a big commitment to having somebody so far from us, but it's all gone very smoothly and worked out well.”
Draper spent large parts of the year living in Echuca to work with the team.
Whitten Brothers Racing employs a team of four mechanics locally across the season, who split their time between working on race bikes and handling day to day customer jobs.
The brothers’ parents also play an important part in the team, driving the team’s semi-trailer from event to event across the country.
The crew will now move into the supercross season and the stable’s other contracted rider from the motocross series, Jack Deveson, is one of the favourites to claim the Australian title, after a quick recovery from a spleen injury at the tail end of the motocross championship.
The first round of the supercross championship is on October 3 in Townsville.
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