Image: Foremost Media.

A post-race penalty saw Stark Future’s Michael Hicks stripped of the Townsville SX2 victory following the podium on Saturday night, with the American since moving to detail his lapse of concentration that cost him a landmark debut win in Boost Mobile AUSX Supercross.

After finishing third in the opening final, American revelation Hicks went on to win the second final and clinched overall, only to be demoted five positions post-race ‘for jumping under waved medical flag’.

It’s understood that Honda Racing immediately protested the result, which was then investigated by race direction, and eventually saw Brodie Connolly (Honda Racing) handed the overall courtesy of 1-3 scores. Hicks, meanwhile, salvaged a round podium with 3-6 finishes for third.

There has been confusion surrounding the sanction afterwards, with Hicks referencing a pass under red cross flag conditions, while the official word from race officials suggested the penalty was imposed for jumping in the section.

“[My] first supercross race in Australia was going so well… until it wasn’t,” Hicks reflected. “I won my heat race and went on to finish third in the first final after a bad start, and a small mistake put me back to seventh on the opening lap.

“In main two, I got the holeshot and led the entire race to take the win and overall. However, there were two sections in a row with red cross flags – the second section had a yellow flag at the beginning, followed by a red cross flag right after.

“With the rider behind me doubling into the rhythm section, I was so focused on making sure I was seeing the red cross flag correctly that I ended up passing a lapped rider I did not see on the far right side of the track while I rolled the section, which resulted in a five-position penalty.

“That dropped me to P6 in the second main and gave me third overall. Definitely not the way I wanted the night to end, but still a solid first supercross race in Australia, and I’m more hungry than ever for an overall win.”

Townsville marked a convincing outing for the factory VARGs, with Jorge Zaragoza claiming fourth in SX1 – including P3 in final one – while Vince Friese was 10th. Hicks’ SX2 teammate Brian Hsu was fourth in their first final, before an early crash forced him out of race two.