2 RIDERS - 2 PODIUMS
The Maxxis British Championship circus travelled long haul up to the Scottish Borders where the Duns circuit hosted the penultimate round. Scottish wildcard Billy MacKenzie was riding out of the Henderson LPE Kawasaki awning and created a lot of speculation as to how he would fair on home turf after being in Australia racing for the last season? But it was to be a Brad Anderson benefit as he to classified Duns as his 'home' round being only 60 miles from his native Newcastle. With Ando on form it was up to Samsung Yamaha's Kristian Whatley to try to stop the Ando charge, but with Whatley having not ridden for the last 3 weeks while undergoing treatment on his injured shoulder it looked unlikely he could stop the Geordie from extending his lead in the championship!
They say never count your chickens before they hatch, well it was Whatley putting the Samsung Yamaha into pole position in the first qualification much to the disbelief of even his own team! Superpole saw wildcard MacKenzie steal the show but only a second covered the top for of Barr, Ando and Whatley. Whatley's main aim of the day to finish in front of third place championship rival Martin Barr aboard the Boost Energy KTM UK machine.
They lined up for moto 1 with all of the top contenders opting for the left side of the gate, Mac got the gate followed closely by Whatley Yamaha with Anderson in tow, 3 laps later and red plate holder was into second and closing the wildcard rider down. Mac made a mistake just past half distance and the Bulldog saw his chance and closed right up on MacKenzie and with only a few laps remaining he made a pass that stuck and went on to take a comfortable win with Whatley closing down a tiring Mac in the dying stages to take 3rd ahead of rival Barr in 4th.
Moto 2 got underway with the Samsung Yamaha out front, Whatley pushed hard for 4 laps but couldn't shake the on form Anderson from his rear fender and had to relinquish the lead but there pace had pulled them away from any threat from behind and the two stayed on the same pace till the flag. MacKenzie had managed to totally fluff the start and after being last round turn one had pulled up to 3rd at the flag taking valuable points away from Martin Barr.
Final moto and Ando could tie up the championship with a win. Holeshot to Anderson and a well deserved win giving him his 2nd British Championship MX1 title, leading from start to finish in true champion style. Whatley's Samsung Yamaha gave chase but the two riders where so evenly matched that's how it stayed with MacKenzie again following home for 3rd.
With Ray Rowson out with injury and Jackson Evans not present Samsung Yamaha didn't have a team presence ion the MX2 races. Again the championship title was wrapped up, Arnaud Tonus clinched the title in the second moto with enough points to make it impossible to be caught aboard his Bike-It Cosworth Wild Wolfe Yamaha.
The MXY2 championship saw Joe Bamfield get his first overall podium with two fantastic performances. After in his words a poor qualification in 9th Joe was fired up to do better in the races proper. Moto 1 saw a reasonable start marred by a fall on lap 1, back down the order outside the top 10 Bamfield had work to do, and work he did, powering his 250f Samsung Yamaha up the order by lap 3 he was up to 8th. The following lap aided by Houghton and Divall going down and a pass on Meara, Bamfield was up to 5th and with Wheeler next on his tracker he set about wearing the west country rider down. For 3 laps he stalked the Kawasaki rider before making his move with 2 laps to go taking 4th at the flag, a great result.
Moto 2 and the Samsung Yamaha pilot was hounding early race leader Sterry during the first half of the lap as a tight fought battle with championship leaders Houghton and Divall had the crowd on there toes, Bamfield came round on lap 2 in 4th and looked very comfortable with his pace, holding 4th right till the last lap when a mistake cost him a place. So his first podium place of many to come was a 3rd overall with the 4-5 scorecard, team mate Whatley had gone one better with 2nd overall from his 3-2-2 and even with a depleted team the result was far from down at Duns.
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