Consistency added up to a successful season for Team Rockstar Energy OTSFF Yamaha’s Bobby Kiniry and Richard Grey in their 2012 CMRC Motocross Nationals campaign.

Kiniry, who finished each round with a top-three overall finish—including a win at Round 3— wrapped up the MX1 points chase with an impressive No.2 ranking. It is the New York native’s best performance since he started racing in Canada four years ago, three of which have been as an OTSFF Sports Marketing Group team member.

Grey, who made his first full-season nationals debut this year, grabbed top-ten finishes in six out of nine MX2 Championship rounds, ending the season with a noteworthy No.9 ranking.

“I’m extremely happy to say that we ended up right where we had aimed to be at the end of this season, top-three for Bobby and top-ten for Richard. Bobby proved to be a title contender who just happened to go up against somebody a bit stronger. Richard proved that he is a talented young rider with a bright future ahead of him,” said team owner Andre Laurin. “And we had a DNF-free season, which speaks volumes for the quality and reliability of the YZ450F and YZ250F bikes, as well as our aftermarket sponsors’ product. Congratulations to Bobby and Richard and a big thank you to everyone involved with their success.”  

At the final round of the series on Sunday in Walton, Ontario, Kiniry delivered his fifth third overall finish in the premiere MX1 class, recording 4-3 motos to get the job done. On the strength of 11-7 motos, Grey took home seventh overall in the MX2 class.

To meet obligations to his American sponsors, Kiniry had raced at an AMA National in Unadilla, NY on Saturday, where he claimed 11th overall on the strength of 10-12 motos, to then face a long drive to Walton. Technically, Kiniry could have sat out the race, as he already had a lock on runner-up, but to not do Walton was unthinkable to the veteran.

In the first MX1 moto on a tight, hard, dry and slick Walton Raceway track—the exact opposite of last year’s rain-soaked mud affair—Kiniry got off to a lacklustre start that saw him run outside the top-ten. It took him a while to dial things in but by the time the checkered was waved he had installed himself in fourth place.

The second start didn’t go much better for Kiniry but this time he had less work ahead of him to make his way into the top-five, crossing the finish line in third and securing third overall on the day in the process.

“I certainly had hoped for better results today but the main thing is that I kept my podium finishes intact for the season. I think I can look back at a good year and definitely made up for last year, which I finished with the No.7 plate. Although we all race for the championship only one guy can win it and Matt [Goerke] proved to be that guy this year,” Kiniry said. “My goal was to win the title but to end up second in the series was for me personally the best nationals career finish I’ve ever had, so I’m thrilled and happy with that. I’d like to thank everyone on the team, including all our sponsors and especially Yamaha Canada, for helping me to achieve that.”

Meanwhile, Grey got off to a top-ten start in the first MX2 moto that saw him run in seventh place for a number of laps. But he had some issues dealing with the track that caused him to lose ground and drop back to around 15th place. He managed to regroup enough, however, to grab 11th place by the end of the moto. In moto two Grey again got a decent start and this time stayed on top of his game to greet the checkered flag in seventh place, a position he pretty well had a grip on for most of the moto.

“My main concern was to score enough points to finish the season with a single digit ranking and my results were good enough to do that, although I would have liked to have done better in the first moto,” Grey said. “But all in all I achieved my goal to end the season in the top-ten and I’m happy about that. I want to thank Andre for giving me the opportunity to race for Team Rockstar Energy OTSFF Yamaha this year, Iain [Hayden] and Bobby for helping me to become a better rider, and the team support staff and sponsors for making this a great season.”

Final Standings MX 1

1 Matt Goerke                 442 Points
2 Bobby Kiniry                 375
3 Dusty Klatt                    316
4 Gavin Gracyk                252
5 Tyler Villopoto               230
6 Morgan Burger             207
7 Tyler Medaglia              182
8 Jason Burke                 181
9 Colton Facciotti             175
10 Shawn Maffenbeier    155

Final Standings MX2

1 Teddy Maier               406 Points
2 Jeremy Medaglia      386
3 Topher Ingalls           263
4 Jared Allison             261
5 Brad Nauditt              230
6 Kaven Benoit             227
7 Parker Allison           219
8 Spencer Knowles     201
9 Richard Grey             196
10 Dylan Kaelin           180

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