Rookie Pearce caps season with championship

Anthony Pearce completed a memorable rookie season when he sealed victory in the WAMX Smarter Than Smoking Quad Championship series with another dominant performance at Noble Falls on Sunday.

The Bunbury rider entered the fifth and final round 11 points ahead of second-placed Chris Bosnakis and went a long way to sealing the championship in the first race of the day.

Pearce exploded off the starting line and was leading into the first corner, but slipped back to third after making a mistake cornering on the slippery track.

“It was pretty wet in the morning, which was not ideal but it didn’t take long for a line to begin to form as the mud was pushed off the track,” he said.

“I was worried when I fell back to third but then the guy in first went off the track completely and I was able to outsmart the new leader through a corner near the end to win.”

Bosnakis finished sixth in race one, leaving Pearce requiring just a second place finish in race two to all but secure the championship.

“I started well and then just relaxed and kept second the whole way through,” Pearce said.

“I sort of knew where the rest of the field was and pulled a bit of a gap between me and third because it is a lot easier to race when you’re not trying to overtake the person in front of you.”

Victory in race two for Bosnakis meant the Perth rider still had a slim chance of snatching the title from Pearce.

“I basically just had to finish race three to win the day but had to finish third or better to be sure of the championship,” Pearce said.

“I pulled the holeshot and led for three quarters of the race but Chris managed to find a line underneath me to win the race.”

The second place finish was enough to secure the championship for Pearce, who finished the season on 357 points, ahead of Bosnakis (342) and Shaun Woodhead (290).

“Noble Falls is my favourite track so it was just an awesome feeling to wrap up the championship there,” Pearce said.

“I spoke with last year’s winner Ryan Lancaster before the last race and he told me to take a victory lap and just take it all in because moments like this don’t come along very often.

“I could see my dad in the crowd cheering and could hear commentators going nuts as I finished, it was incredible.”