Round three of the Red Bull Pro Nationals rolls into Whitby at the weekend and lays on a slice of world class racing on the picturesque Skelder Bank hillside circuit.
The opening race is a rip-snorter with defending champ Brad Anderson grabbing the lead and aiming to check-out for his fifth straight race win of the 2011 series. With Proppa.com KTM’s Martin Barr snapping at his heels – and DB Racing Honda’s Elliott Banks-Browne right on his tail – the leading three pull away in the opening stages.
A big dose of arm-pump then claims EBB who slips off the pace and with the win apparently safe Ando makes a rare slip on the final lap to allow Barr past. The PAR Honda man’s quickly up and quickly back in front but he gets out of shape in the whoop section and crashes a second time, handing the win to Barr whose race-long pressure is justly rewarded. EBB comes home third.
Ando again grabs his signature holeshot in race two to lead from Barr and Samsung Yamaha’s Kristian Whatley. After his mistake in the previous race Ando makes sure it all goes to plan this time out as he pulls out a small buffer at the front and lets the madness carry on behind him.
With Barr knowing the overall’s only his by finishing in front of Ando the pressure’s on and just as he’s closing in on the PAR Honda rider a small mistake sees him leave the track undoing all of his previous good work. As Barr regroups Samsung Yamaha’s Whatley does his silent assassin bit by sneaking up and relieving Barr of second spot which in turn earns him third overall behind winner Ando and second placed Barr.
After his wonder showing in the first race Elliott Banks-Browne is unable to get himself onto the final podium as he’d hoped for but comes away with yet another double MX2 win giving him an amazing six from six in the three rounds so far.
Brad Anderson: “I was so gutted after that first race – I thought I had it but unfortunately I ended up getting second. I was just lucky not to have hurt myself too bad. I had two good starts today and I rode real sensible in that one, I didn’t want to make another stupid mistake like that first one! I’m just happy to come away with the overall and keep me win streak intact.”
Martin Barr: “I think I just got second overall and I’m pretty disappointed with that. I got another good start just behind Brad then going through the whoops there I made a small mistake and went off the track, had to try and bunny hop back over the ropes and lost a bit of time to Brad. I put some solid laps in and started to close in on him but at the same time Kristian was catching me, then basically passed me as he had some really good lines there. I went 1-3 today which gives me second overall which wasn’t bad but it would have been nice to get the 1-1 – it was all right I guess but that’s racing!”
Elliott Banks-Browne: “It was so hard on the MX2 bikes in that second race – you just had to be super, super-smooth. It was a big advantage on the 450 as on the 250 as soon as you cracked it on it was sliding so I just tried to keep it as smooth as I could. At the end of the day I went 1-1 so you can’t ask for any better than that!”
