Kiniry’s results saw him put a successful end to the first half of the season, nailing down podium finishes at each of the four rounds which kicked off in Nanaimo, BC on June 3rd.

In the first moto, Kiniry nailed down a lightning start aboard his YZ450F battling for the lead with his main rival so far in the series Matt Goerke.

Although it looked like a win was within Kiniry’s reach, a problem with his hand, the result of an old injury, kept him from crossing the finish line first.

In the second moto, Kiniry again shot out of the gate like a cannonball to this time take control of the freight train for more than three-quarters of the moto.

Towards the end of the moto while contending with lappers, he got hit in the eye with a roosted rock, which momentarily distracted him from the task at hand, getting by the lappers and keeping a determined Goerke behind him.

Although he managed to get by the lappers without incident, Kiniry was unable to prevent Goerke from capitalizing on the situation and settled for second place at the checkered flag.

“It was just one of those things when you figure you’ve got everything under control but then the unexpected happened. It would have been great to pin down a second consecutive overall win but I’ll gladly take the 2-2 results,” Kiniry said. “All in all, looking back at the western rounds, I’m pretty happy with the way they went. My Yamaha 450 performed beyond all expectations and the team did a great job as always.”

For Kiniry to stay in contention for the MX1 crown, the second half of the season will be crucial, as he has to first make up 28 points on Goerke and that means he has to keep Goerke behind him at every round.

Goerke leads the pack with 197 points while Kiniry has 169 on the score board. Third in the current rankings, Colton Facciotti, trails Kiniry by 25 points.

“Anything can still happen. It’s wide open. Either one of us can have one bad moto and that would change the balance of things pretty quickly. I’m just going to take it round by round. Hopefully I will be spared any worst case scenarios, stay consistent and take a few more overall wins,” Kiniry said.

The eastern leg of the CMRC tour will resume after a two-week hiatus at Gopher Dunes in Courtland, Ontario on Saturday, July 14th. It will be the second time a national will be run on a Saturday instead of the customary Sunday.
In the MX2 class, Richard Grey, continued to struggle with his starts, rounding the first turn in both motos buried somewhere in mid-pack.

In the first moto he managed to still salvage 10th at the finish line while taki ng the checkered flag in 11th position in the second moto, which netted him 11th overall on the day.

Although Grey, racing his first full national championship tour, had hoped to leave the west with an improvement on his previous results, he stayed within the top-10 points target. He currently holds down 11th place in the title hunt
“I was a bit disappointed with my results in Edmonton but the good news is I finished more or less where I needed to, to maintain my current ranking. With five rounds left, and all of them on tracks I’ve raced before, I know I can only go for better finishes. I’d like to finish the series with a single digit ranking,” Grey said.

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