Turner and Park Orchard’s Max Cairns looked particularly impressive during the motos, however Frieswyk’s decision to conserve energy until the finals proved to be a masterstroke as he stormed to victory ahead of a resilient Alex Cameron (Liverpool) in second, while Josh Callan (Lilydale) finished in third.
In the elite women’s event the absence of the some of the big household names left the door open for Pine Rivers’ Sara Harvey to make her mark on the day, as she cruised to victory ahead of Bunbury’s Rachelle Smith (Junior Elite) and home track native Jacinta Pink in what was a merged class.
Frieswyk and Harvey also took out the DK and Loose Kid Industries Holeshot awards for the fastest men and women out of the first turn in the elite finals.
Ultimately however the day belonged to Frieswyk, whose recent move back to Mackay has helped him to focus on improving his performances on the track in the pursuit of obtaining the results to compliment his raw talent.
“I really wanted to take that win home no matter what,” Frieswyk said. “I moved back to Mackay recently and have really focused on getting my training right and preparing as best as I could for this weekend. I was definitely more aggressive in this race than I have been so far this series, that was the advise of my coaches and a real focus of mine heading in.”
Ultimately it was a more aggressive Frieswyk that pulled off a thrilling first corner move on Turner, forcing the series leader high on the turn and causing him to lose momentum as he fell out of race contention.
“I was going to crash trying to win, or I was going to win,” Frieswyk said. “I just went for it and unfortunately he was the one that I had to hit, we’re enemies on the track but best friends off it.”
In the overall standings Turner still leads the National Series with two rounds left to contest with 1290 points, Callan maintains his position in second with 1185 points, while Frieswyk (1055) in third has closed the gap to the top.
Elite women’s winner Harvey, opened up about how she had not felt 100% heading into the day’s racing, before admitting that winning was the perfect medicine.
“I wasn’t feeling to good this morning, I woke up with a cold and a headache but I feel much better now,” Harvey said. "It feels really good to get the win, as I knew there was going to be plenty of competition from the junior class as well. I’ll go away now and focus on my recovery and hopefully I can come back and repeat my success tomorrow.”
Harvey’s performance has seen her move to fifth in the overall standings while an absent Caroline Buchanan maintains her position at the top.
Although Smith finished second in the merged elite and junior elite class, she did manage to snare a long awaited victory amongst the junior elite competitors and grab her first win of the series, helping her to close the gap on the absent New Zealander Zoe Fleming and now trails by just 15 points.
In the men’s junior elite race it was series leader Brandon Te Hiko that emerged from the first turn carnage to storm to the lead ahead of series rival Shane Rosa who finished in second. It was Te Hiko’s third win in a row this series, as he extended his overall lead over Rosa to 60 points.
Other National Series round seven winners included Japan’s Southlake / Illawarra based rider Saya Sakakibara who remains undefeated in the 16 girls, Townsville’s Shelby Green (15 girls), Castle Hills rising star Ashlee Miller (14 girls), Penrith’s Declan Jahene (14 boys), Logan City’s Izaac Kennedy (15 boys), while the 16yrs boys was won by Cairns’ very own Jake Bowe.
Round eight of the BMXA National Series is in Cairns again tomorrow, starting at 10am.