LUKE MCNEILL WINS UNIT FMX PRO OPEN EVENT

There was a lot of interest in the Open, with the likes of Kain Saul and Brad Burch taking on the Underground riders. After a series of impressive head-to-head battles, the Open came down to a contest between Unit's Kain Saul and Jet Pilot's Luke McNeill. Both riders threw down all they had in the final, with Saul putting in a particularly gutsy ride after surviving a near disaster on his semi-final run. Rattled after missing a grab on a flip and nearly coming to grief, Saul missed one jump and lost his flow between hits. While the loss of rhythm wasn't huge, it was still enough to hurt Saul's score in the final. Fighting back with some huge combo flips and upright tricks, Saul tried to pile the pressure on McNeill, who badly wanted to win his first Pro Open FMX competition.

For his part, McNeill handled the pressure of the final superbly from the moment he took to the course. Starting with a well executed Lazyboy, McNeill backed up with a Cordova, a series of One Handed Whip Flips, plus a big Turndown Whip and clean upright tricks, topping it all off with an innovative Mini Flip off the back of one of the dirt landers. It was a risky move from McNeill, who only needed to complete a safer trick to secure the win on what had been his best run of the day. Risking the overall win with a move that hadn't been attempted all event was a big gamble that, luckily, paid off for the Jet Pilot rider, although it caused a few anxious moments for the judges! Successfully landing that last move was enough for all three judges to give McNeill the nod and he was crowned the 2011 UNIT FMX Open champion.

Earlier in the day, it was the turn of the Australian Underground FMX series to decide its champion. Amongst a big field, Rhys "Rasy" Hillier prevailed to secure his first Australian Underground FMX Championship. Rasy needed to make it through to the top six to lock down the title, but went a few places better, finishing fourth behind Joel Brown, his closest competitor for the AUFMXC title. Brown's killer runs, full of tech combos and a No Footed Backflip, was enough to secure him the final podium position in the Open event, but couldn't close the points gap to Hillier in the AUFMXC.

At the conclusion of the day's action, the 2011 Unit FMX Open was declared a huge success, as well as a big leap forward in building FMX competition in Australia. Inspired by the chance to ride against some of the country's top pro riders, the up-and-comers of the sport turned on some top class moves. With sponsor support coming from the likes of Red Bull, Project FMX and Pirate Ink, the event has also given the RFDmx-promoted series a real boost, with the promise of more events to follow in 2012.

Unit FMX Pro Open - final results
1. Luke McNeill -25
2. Kain Saul - 22
3. Joel Brown - 20
4. Rhys Hillier - 18
5. Luke Saunders - 16
6. Brad Burch - 15
7. Matt Smith - 14
8. Pete Anderson - 13
9. Dean Matheson - 12
10. Dan O'Brien - 11

AUFMXC Final Standings - Top Ten
1. Rhys Hillier - 112
2. Joel Brown - 96
3. Luke McNeill - 87
4. Luke Saunders - 84
5. Matt Smith - 74
6. Pat Bowden - 59
7. Dean Matheson - 59
8. Adam Grope - 59
9. Joe Sheppard - 49
10. Tom Robinson - 47