Chad Reed, Jay Marmont and Cam Sinclair lead a star-studded collection of Australia’s fastest racers and wildest freestyle motocross talents honoured at the fifth annual ADB Industry Awards, hosted at Sydney on 25 November.
After counting the thousands of votes cast by ADB readers across seven Reader’s Choice Award categories Reed, Aussie’s best motocross and supercross export, was a clear winner in the International Rider of the Year category for the third time (he also won in 2008 and 2009), with a massive 59% of the votes. Seems his incredible debut year with TwoTwo Motorsports didn’t go unnoticed as nominees Brett Metcalfe, Josh Strang, Paul Whibley and Chris Holder fought over the voting scraps!
The Motocross Rider of the Year was a much closer battle, with Jay Marmont’s historic fourth consecutive Pro Open MX title also earning him a fourth ADB Reader’s Choice award by a slim 225-vote margin over multiple Pro Lites champ Matt Moss. Under 19s phenomenon Errol Wills was third in line, claiming 17% of reader’s mouse clicks ahead of Kiwi Josh Coppins and Kirk Gibbs.
Tassie terrier Matt Phillips proved a popular winner in the Off-Road Rider of the Year category for his stellar performance at the International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) in Finland, E3 class win at the Australian Four Day Enduro (A4DE) and Outright podium performance in the 2011 Australian Off-Road Championship. A4DE Outright champion and top-finishing Aussie ISDE finisher Toby Price was runner-up, with AORC champ Chris Hollis, Ben Grabham and Stefan Merriman rounding out the results.
16 year old female phenomenon Meghan Rutledge swept both the Women’s Rider of the Year and Rookie Rider of the Year honours, with her dominating debut performance at the Aussie Women’s MX Champs. Only Matt Philips came close to challenging Rutledge in the “Rookie” standings, coming in 6% shy of the silverware.
Cam Sinclair’s bone-crushing year had at least two silver linings – his silver medal at X-Games 17 and adding a second 2011 Freestyle Motocross Rider of the Year trophy to his ’09 category win. While X-Games Best Trick gold medallist Jacko Strong and Josh Sheehan (X Games bronze and Sydney X-Fighters winner) were arguably more deserving, Sinclair and runner-up Robbie Maddison’s legions of fans came out en masse in support of their heroes.
Last but not least, the 2011 Junior Rider of the Year award went to Hunter Lawrence on the back of an outstanding year’s racing that saw the KTM rider claim two more national titles and fifth in the Junior Motocross World Champs in Italy. Aussie off-road’s top Junior (and 2010 Junior Rider of the Year), Mitch Kellner came in a close second, ahead of fastest MX girl, Mackenzie Tricker. Kiwi lass Courtney Duncan and Hayden Mellross rounded out the results.
ADB Readers Choice Award Winners
International: Chad Reed
Motocross: Jay Marmont
Off-road Matt Phillips
Freestyle Motocross : Cam Sinclair
Womens: Meghan Rutledge
Rookie: Meghan Rutledge
Junior: Hunter Lawrence
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