It was Bewley's first win in open company in the series at just his fourth attempt since turning professional and he upstaged superstar Ballards Wellards Yamaha teammate Stefan Merriman (round one and two winner) and multiple national champion AJ Roberts (Honda, round three).

Bewley, 21, edged closer to the top spot in the championship points battle and is now only three points behind Mer- riman for the lead, with Roberts only four points further back on a packed leaderboard.

"I started off a bit slow again today, but I just kept pushing through in the rough and dusty conditions and it paid off," Bewley (above right) said.

"AJ was riding extremely well today and yesterday - and Stefan was coming back from injury - he's still right there in the top three, top four.

"We are all on the top of our game and it's kind of anyone's championship."

Roberts came close to winning again and led until the final lap, when he crashed to hand Bewley an advantage he took with open arms to win by just 1.5s across five heats.

"I got caught out in the bull dust [in the last lap], I think there might have been a bit of a rock hidden in among all the dust,"Roberts said.

"It just kicked me around and high-sided me, I hurt my shoulder, but the bike was still running, so I ran back and picked her up and tried to get on the gas as hard as I could.''