The hilly hard pack circuit of Foxhill hosted round two of the Michelin MX Nationals. Steven Lenoir started the day in what seems to be normal fashion now, qualifying seventh Overall (second in MX2) while Liam Knight did not have such a great time and was placed 29th (14th in MX2).
Race one saw Steven Lenoir get a good start and was within the top 10 around the first corner batting with the 450 machines, while Liam Knight got tangled with another rider leaving him 27th after lap one.
Steven got his head down early and passed a couple of the 450 machines, putting a good gap between himself and the second placed 250 rider of Neville Bradshaw. Liam was also on a mission, moving himself into 18th at the chequers. Race one result for Steven, fifth (first in MX2) and Liam 18th (eighth in MX2).
In race two, once again Steven was out of the gate like a shot and was mixing up with the 450s in race two, Liam had a better start this time around but was still just outside the top 20. Steven was sitting comfortably in sixth (first in MX2) halfway through the second race but a few mistakes from the riders ahead allowed Steven to take a solid fourth at the finish. Race two result for Steven, fourth (first in MX2) and Liam 19th (eighth in MX2) with an overall of first for Steven and seventh for Liam in MX2.
“Qualifying went steady, the track was pretty sketchy – it was like water on top of concrete, so I didn’t take any risks,” says Steven Lenoir. “I was feeling confident for the race, we picked a good tyre and made the bike adapt to the track well.
“I was lucky in the first race, two laps to go all the oil from the fork bleeding onto the disc, so I had no brakes. I had to finish steady. Second race I pushed quite hard, but I was fed up of racing the 450s after I took a stone to the nose and it started bleeding. Thanks to the team, the bike is awesome and I hope we can keep doing this every weekend.”
“Qualifying did not go well at all, which did not set me up good for the race,” commented Liam Knight. “I changed the tyres for the first race and felt a lot more comfortable with it. I got eighth in MX2 in the first race after going down on the start with Micky Eccles. In the second race I was chasing Rob Davidson but then high sided at the top of one of one of the hills and finished 19th.”
