BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP Rd 1 @ LITTLE SILVER

Battle for the British motocross crowns started today with perfect riding conditions on the watered Devonshire red soil... few surprises where to be seen and lady fate played a big hand in the MX1 result....

MX1 first qualification saw only 2 riders break the 2 minute barrier, Stephen Sword setting pole by a whisker from Jason Dougan, however second qualification saw 10 riders doing sub 2 min lap times with Martin Barr aboard the unfamiliar oranage livery setting the pace, while GP runner Shaun Simpson could only muster 6th quickest!

Race one saw a flawless ride from Jason Dougan, aboard the Bike-it Dixon Cosworth Wild Wolf Yamaha leading from start to finish shaking up the post race favourites of Simpson and Sword. Simpson came home in second and 2009 Champion Anderson came in a solid 3rd ahead of Tom Church. Sword was to DNF after holding second untill the dying laps when a tyre malfunction halted his race!
Race two again saw Sword with more problems as his tyre again came adrift causing the disgruntled CCM rider a long walk back to the team truck! With Sword out it left the door open for team mate Church to bring home the bacon ahaead of a fast closing Simpson getting more settled on the new LS Motors big bore Honda. Surprice of the race had to be Kristian Whatley's assault on Anderson landed him with a podium finish in his first Maxxis MX1 race, while Dougan clawed his way up to 5th at the flag.
Race three saw a fired up CCM storm into the lead for a gate to flag victory although in the dying laps a charging Simpson pushed him into a near fall with only two corners to go. Church came home third with pole setter Barr managing his only top ten with a fourth! Whatley again managed to catch and pass Anderson to take 6th at the flag, while Dougan filled the space in front to manage a creditable third overall.

So with Simpson taking top honours we may see him contend more than the planned first two rounds which will spice up the series and throw the gauntlet down to Dave Thorpe's Bolton based team who were firm favourites to take the domestic series, Sword now left with an uphill battle to re-coup the 41 point deficiet on Simpson and 38 point gap on team mate Church!!!

MX2 seemed almost like a foregone conclusion for a lot of people and Zach Osbourne didnt let anyone down setting pole a whole second quicker than team mate Arnaud Tonus with Mattis Karro over 2 seconds off Osbournes pace and another favourite Jake Nicholls almost three and a half seconds adrift!!!!

Race one then saw no surprises as Osbourne took the win 13 seconds in front of Tonus at Nicholls fought hard to secure third, ahead of early race leader Ray Rowson on the Samsung Yamaha.
Race two again saw Osbourne take the flag but this time with Tonus keeping him honest only 2 seconds down as they crossed the line, Nicholls again completing the podium.
The final encounter had all eyes on Tonus as he Holeshot and started to gap the field, Osbourne was 4th coming into turn two and second by turn four. Within 3 laps he was close enough to pressure Tonus, but it was Osbourne that made the mistake going down in a hairpin at the bottom of the hill, quickly remounting the running Yamaha he was back all over the rear fender of Tonus but again he made a mistake allowing Tonus breathing space..... closing the gap again the pressure was on Tonus to stay out front and hold his lines and with only few laps remaining Osbourne was seen pushing a dead Yamaha back to the pits gifting a well deserved win to the Swiss rider. While the action was hot at the front a poor start left Nicholl out of contention for another podium allowing Karro 22points and Elliot Banks Browne his best result of the day in third.

So pre race favourite Osbourne was left way down the overall order in fourth but still in touch 19 points adrift of Tonus with another import, Karro taking runner up and Nicholls holding onto third overall but probably wondering how the hell he's going to find three seconds a lap to get on terms with the Dixon boys!!!

The vets didnt really pull any surprises with the top three all expected to be on the podium. Hanson followed Wheeler home in the first encounter closing right onto his back wheel across the line with House only another few seconds back.
The final race saw Wheeler stuck in the middle of the pack while Hansontook off with House coming up to take second, but Wheeler pulled through to fourth behind Jason Morris at the flag giving him second overall.

All in all a very enjoyable eye opening first round to the series and some serious adjustments being needed in the MX2 class to stop the Bike-it Yams running away with the glory.

Hopefully start getting some photos up later as im sure JC and Sophie will also.



Sorry JC, but you beat me to posting



I guess Coach stopped of @ a pub I wasnt sure where to park when i arrived so i just dumped it here.

Tonus Machine

Snow

Crockard

Forum Member Brad Cavill

Some "old" Fella called Wheeler

Yes i would

Gutted this didnt come out to good

^^^ I already did in my dreams... and No we stayed out of the ale houses on the way home...

Swordy's Race 2 DNF

Cool report Coach

When I heard they were running moose I thought it was going to be Goldentyre's, so glad for Claudio it wasnt

Great photos JC, seems like an age that we last seen your handy work..

With one corner remaining it was all so close to being a total disaster for CCM's top dog, being pushed hard by Simpson Sword got unseated but held on with one more corner to go

COACH wrote:

When I heard they were running moose I thought it was going to be Goldentyre's, so glad for Claudio it wasnt

Haha yeah, You got to feel for Swordy one DNF would have been bad enough

Vets early race two leader, Jason Morris makes Greg Hanson take advoiding action after a quick old skool break check

It was odd seeing reigning British Vets champion on anything other than the Cresent Suzuki and maybe had it not been for Terry carrying an injury we would of seen him challange for the win.

Making the last moto count in fine style, Swordy lines up the next corner.

Whatley is on Anderson like a rash and forced the former champion into an error to take third in race 2

Simpson heads into the light.... a lot of riders said the last race was almost unrideable with the low winter sun blinding them when heading away from the car park

Great pics guys, looks like the track was in mint condition.

Going by Lap times alone Swordy was on it!!!

Swordy was robbed by machine failures but certainly has the pace, Dougan was untouchable in race 1 and Simpson got quicker as the day went on... One thing i've just noticed is the fastest man of the day must have been Zach.... the MX2 class did an extra lap in race 1 and 2 over what the MX1 crowd pulled off