Yes Folks! Billy Mac is back! After a four week break, Billy Mackenzie is back at it again this time coming to you from Albury on a very cold Sunday. Billy had to fight off an on-fire Cody Cooper as well as a hungry Tye Simmonds for the top spot this weekend and was able to walk away from the round with a second place overall and he gained even more valuable points over series leader Jay Marmont.

In this weeks video, Billy lets his riding do the talking and we have put together a great ride clip that you will want to watch over and over again.

“In this weeks video I really just wanted everyone to get a good ride clip. You don’t see my face much in this video which means that you do get to see a bunch of riding. I have been working really hard over the break and while I didn’t take home the win this weekend, I was excited to see that the bar has been lifted over here and guys like Cooper and Simmonds showed this weekend that they are hungry to step it up!”

Mac211 Wrap Up From Albury from Jason Macalpine on Vimeo.

Ok, so after the last national i was determined to get back to my usual pace. i felt terrible at Raymond Terrace and wanted to get back on track with how i was riding at Canberra before it all went wrong!. the last 2 rounds of the MX Nationals have been messy for me, i haven’t felt like i was riding my best, all due to lack of bike time after my injury.

With Brad over and doing so well, it gave me a goal to aim for as i know brad is still riding well back home, so when i found out he was coming over, we both made sure we got a couple races together while he was here. so i signed up for Manjimup and that was the next race.

we spent a couple days in sydney after the last round, checking out the sights in sydney with bry and dean before catching a flight wednesday night and heading over for my first visit to WA.

The promoter willie thompson, was a fellow countryman of mine and made a massive effort with the manjimup track and event and put on an amazing show and really looked after us on our trip, so i am really grateful to willie for his hospitality. Thanks wullie!

the track was prime, easy in my top 10 of my favourite tracks, nice loamy sand, big jumps, and a crazy fast straight. It had all the elements that awesome tracks should be made of.

Race day got underway, and i had a fire in my belly to beat ando after his dominance last weekend. We had the usual wind ups and good banter between us before it all, even a competitive game of golf, which i managed to concentrate on for once! all in good spirits tho and we raced hard when the gate dropped!

My excuse for not beating brad for the overall came in the first race. we all got pretty terrible picks on the gate, brad was 20 something, bry was 35 and i had 38th pick to line. I got a terrible start and almost went down in the first turn, i tucked my front end and stood the bike up to a stop. i got out of that mistake still midfield and went hard to try get up with the front runners. Halfway round the first lap i went down again trying to pass a bunch of guys in a deep sandy right hander, i had 3 guys pile into me and ended up at the bottom of a bike pyramid before cleaning myself out the sand and starting near last. I made a big effort and rode well to find myself inside the top 10 in the short 5 lap races, but with one lap to go, i tried making a pass down the inside of a slower rider and went down again. After i picked myself up for almost the 3rd time, i was back in 16th and could only pass 2 more riders by the end, placing 14th!

Ando won the race, and i was angry with myself for not being smarter during the race. In a way, it was nice to feel that burn inside, and i was even more fired up for the second race!

I was confident that i could win if i got myself into a better position, so for the next race i really concentrated on the start and got off the gate 3rd behind Bryan and brad. I got the adrenaline hit and we raced hard for half a lap, before i held it wide open off a steep ski jump down the middle hill of the track, landing next to brad and pushing him out on the next tight right hander, brad went down and i was left to just ride hard and concentrate on my lines for the rest of the 5 laps. i worked hard and made sure i didnt take an easy win, i pushed myself every lap and eventually won by 10 seconds over 2nd place local rider louis calvin and 3rd place bry. Brad got up to finish 4th. Better than my 14th place effort!

we had a shootout race before the next points race, where half the field would be eliminated after a 1 lap dash. I won every sprint until the last important one for the money! the last sprint was exciting, i made hard work of it starting 3rd after i had pulled all the holeshots in the previous sprints. I managed to get passed calvin early then set about chasing down brad. I managed to get underneith him on a quite fast and hardpack corner, i coulda made the pass stick but it woulda ended in injury for sure, so i turned it hard and we both exited the corner side by side. Brad had the inside on the next down hill, the same one he went down on in the 2nd race, so i set up for the outside to sweep in, but brad fluffed the corner and span out and i was too close to pull the brakes on and ended up running into the back of him taking us both out of contention for the money prize! Nightmare! Calvin went on for the win!

The 3rd race was similar to the 2nd race, me and brad got out to a good start, and were full bar to bar for the first few corners, there was a fire in brads belly too after he came off worst in the last race and the fact we took each other out for the cash, we raced fast and close for half a lap before i managed to make a pass stick and again concentrate on my own race. behind me and i think brad made a mistake and went down to let Louis calvin thru for second. from then on i just concentrated on lines and riding smoothly. I only won by 2 seconds from Calvin, but felt more comfortable and controlled and took the win, brad got back on for 3rd.

The last race i was 10 points down off the win, so the overall was realistically out of grabs for the day, so i think brad and calvin were just concentrating on their own race and I was pretty much left to win the last race easily. The track was super rough and I felt strong for the full moto, it was only 6 laps bur I pushed hard for the sprint and won the final race by a good margin from brad and Calvin. Brad only had to beat Louis for the over all, so in the end, the results from the day were brad from Louis then me.

There was a 20 min bonus race of the day straight after the last moto. It was just a thing we thru in last minute while the sun was still around. I didn’t wanna turn down any riding, so lined up against the other willing competitors and made the last mins of sunshine count for some good hard practise. Bry had to pull out cos he had done his bike a mischief the entire day, and brad and Calvin didn’t go out cos they had already won their prize money for the weekend. So I was left again to win the race easily and have some fun on the cool tabletops up the hill. It felt good to do a 20 min moto round such a rough track, and again I felt strong till the end and won the race by over 1min 30 secs.

So overall my weekend was pretty awesome, I had some really close battles with brad like old times, I managed to get some extra riding in and make some money from it. I rode strong and fast like I had been before Canberra and feel like I have my winning buzz back, so with more riding and hard work before the next round, I should be peaking and ready to win again.

After each round of the MX Nationals, Billy Mac stars in Mac211 TV and this week is no different. Billy made up ground on series leader Jay Marmont and had some fun along the way with his cousins on a road-trip from QLD.

Billy Mackenzie has clawed back more points in the championship as the series heads into the four week break. The weekend had more of a home feel to it with Billy’s cousin Bryan making as guest appearance for the weekends race, along with friend and rival, Brad Anderson.

While Billy was not able to walk away with the win from the weekend, he was able to make up solid points on series leader Jay Marmont and is now only 26 point off the red plate.

The added dynamic of Brad Anderson’s guest appearance, as well as a lack of riding due to injury, did take it’s toll on the former MX1 GP winner, though.

“I’m happy with the points I made up in the championship, I also felt much stronger on the bike than the previous round in Toowoomba with the extra riding I have done this week.

Although my bike fitness improved I struggled with bike set up and line choice, but worked hard at it with the team and managed to feel comfortable and be closer to brad by the last moto.”

“I enjoyed racing with brad again and would loved to have been able to beat him, but he was the better man on the day. After going down in the first race trying to close the door on him, I decided not to take too many risks unless I felt comfortable with the speed he was going. Obviously with the championship in sight, Brad didn’t want to interfere either, so we made a little plan that if he was hounding me, to give me a little shout and I’d give him space for the pass.

After all he was riding faster than me this weekend, and I was happy to see him win and take that confidence back to the UK. It shows we are both maturing in the way we race and ride and I really enjoy that.

Our next race at Manjimup is this weekend though, so with no championship points up for grabs, I’ll be rising to his challenge and hopefully have a good old scrap like old times!”

Brad Anderson was also had the same feelings when it come to their on track rivalry.

“At the end of the day I didn’t come here to do any damage to Billy’s championship. Me and Billy are friends and we have been for a long while and coming out here was such a good thing. I didn’t expect to come here and do what I did but it went really well and I think I have made a bit of an impression on the industry and hopefully I can come out here in the future.

We have the race in Manjimup this weekend and me and Billy can go at it for the win with just pride on the line and I am really looking forward to battling hard with him this weekend!”

Billy is spending a couple of days in Sydney before he heads over to Western Australian for the Manjimup 1500 while the MX Nationals is in it’s break.

As always fans can expect another episode of Mac211 TV that will be online by Wednesday.

Pro Open contender Billy Mackenzie has his eye’s firmly set on clawing more points back at the 5th round of the MX Nationals this weekend at Raymond Terrace. After his first week of on-the-bike training since his injury at round 2, Billy is 100% happy with his program and looking forward to this weekend.

After a stellar opening round of the Australian MX Nationals, Billy’s title aspirations hit an unexpected speed bump as he sustained an injury to his wrist in the second moto of the series second round. The crash cost Billy 75 point and has put him behind the eight ball. Unable to ride for a month leading up to the Toowoomba round of the series Billy was still optimistic about his chances of returning to victory lane.

Positive thinking and determination paid off for the Scotsman as he took the overall with 1-1-6 scores and is now just over 30 points behind series leader Jay Marmont.

“I have had such a great week leading up to this race and no matter what mother nature decides to throw at us, I am totally focused on holding that number 1 plate when the final checkered flag falls this season.

The week has also been a reunion of sorts with Billy’s cousin Bryan coming over to race in this weekends national.

“The other exciting thing for me this weekend is that my cousin Bryan is over here with his brother. We used to train together back home so it’s been just like the good old days I guess. We have been riding this week at Dean Ferris’ place with Jake Pengelly and Matt Hayworth and it has been such an enjoyable week. I am also road-tripping with Bryan, his brother and Harriet to the race this weekend in my camper so it should be a fun time.

Billy has also been able to focus some attention to testing with the team and is confident that the forecast rain for the weekend won’t effect the desired result.

“From what I have herd there has been a bunch of rain in the area and to be honest, it’s not going to worry me. The bike set up that we have with the Kawasaki is unreal and being from Europe I have done one or two mud races in my time, so we’ll be fine.”

Another race also means another installment of Mac211 TV, with the video’s growing with each showing.

“I am really happy with how our video’s have been turning out. It’s better than expected and we have new ideas each weekend with what we need to do to make sure that they continue to grow. So far the response has been really great though, and we have been getting thousands of views both here and overseas each weekend.

I just want to say a big thanks to everyone over here and overseas for their support. I have said it before but coming to Australia has been a great move for me and the people have just been amazing to me, so thanks again.”