The Maxxis kicks off at FatCat Motoparc where Kevin Strijbos takes three wins from three in MX1 and Zach Osborne snatches MX2 glory as team-mate Arnaud Tonus suffers an early season DNF…
A massive crowd basks in sweet spring sunshine at the opening round of the Maxxis British Motocross championship which kicks off at FatCat Motoparc. The perfectly prepped deep sand circuit soon roughs up to test the British elite to the max and throws up a surprise result or two.
The MX1 class is dominated by Johnny Foreigners with Belgium’s Kevin Strijbos taking three wins from three on the HM Plant KTM to take the overall ahead of Estonia’s Gert Krestinov and another Baltic bullet Matiss Karro. Strijbos is simply head and shoulders better than the rest and after just one round sits 17 points clear in the championship chase!
Best of the Brits in the fo-fiddy class is Shaun Simpson who finishes fourth overall to edge out Martin Barr, Jason Dougan and Stephen Sword to the first of the non-podium positions. While those riders all make a solid start to the series it’s a bad day in the office for fellow championship candidates Marc de Reuver and Kristian Whatley who both finish outside the top-10 and will have it all to do at round two in three weeks time.
The secret to success in MX2 seems to be quite simple – ride a Yamaha and you’ll be doing okay! Yamahaulers from the Monster Energy and Samsung teams take five of the top six places overall on the day with only recently crowned SX champ Nev Bradshaw managing to crash the party on his Evo-Tech Stevens Honda!
Osborne takes the overall with a 2-1-2 scorecard ahead of team-mate Mel Pocock who runs 5-2-3. The other two races are won by the third Monster Energy team rider Arnaud Tonus who DNFs the second and is edged out for the third podium spot by Embo’s ‘ero Graeme Irwin. With Tonus fourth and Bradshaw fifth overall the top six is rounded out by Samsung’s Frenchman in a life vest Steven Lenoir.
The Maxxis circus now heads to Canada Heights for round two on April 1.
Results
MX1 Overall result
1 Kevin Strijbos HM Plant KTM UK 75
2 Gert Krestinov MVR-D Honda 58
3 Matiss Karro STR KTM 57
4 Shaun Simpson Monster Energy Yamaha 56
5 Martin Barr LPE Kawasaki 50
6 Jason Dougan MVR-D Honda 45
7 Stephen Sword TAS Suzuki 43
8 Jamie Law D3-Racing KTM 35
9 Dorren Coutts PAR Honda 32
10 Nathan Parker STR KTM 32
MX2 Overall result
1 Zach Osborne Monster Energy Yamaha 69
2 Mel Pocock Monster Energy Yamaha 58
3 Graeme Irwin Samsung Yamaha 51
4 Arnaud Tonus Monster Energy Yamaha 50
5 Neville Bradshaw Evo-Tech Stevens Honda 48
6 Steven Lenoir Samsung Yamaha 41
7 Jordan Booker Buildbase Honda 40
8 Elliott Banks-Browne HM Plant KTM UK 40
9 Stuart Edmonds TAS Suzuki 36
10 Bryan MacKenzie Rockstar KTM 29
