Graeme Irwin took third overall at the sixth round of the 2015 Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship, powered by Skye Energy Drink at Foxhill and climbed four places in the MX1 standings.
The Heads & All Threads Suzuki rider qualified in second and took the holeshot in the first race, but a mistake dropped him to third.
Another great start in the second race, but Irwin was hard pressed for the duration but still claimed second.
Irwin found himself in 11th on the first lap of race three, and with lap times so close passing was made difficult. As he pushed to make progress he went down, but managed to climb back to 11th and salvaged just enough to take third overall and break his run of bad luck. Irwin now climbs to sixth in the MX1 championship standings.
Graeme Irwin has finished in the top 10 at every round other than at Lyng where lady luck was firmly against the RM-Z450 rider with not one but two snapped chains. Irwin’s third overall at Foxhill is his first podium for the 2015 series; in fact the Foxhill circuit is proving to be a happy hunting ground for the Suzuki pilot with a second overall in 2014.
“Everything was all good, I maybe should have changed to a lighter back shock spring for the last race, but everyone was struggling to get grip,” said Graeme Irwin. “A bit disappointed with the last race and missing out on second overall, but the bike and the team were great.”
The teams’ replacement MX2 rider, Neville Bradshaw, made his return to the British racing scene and proved he still has what it takes.
The popular South African qualified in ninth and took eighth and ninth in the first two races. A bad start in the third saw the RM-Z250 rider in 16th, but he moved into 12th and claimed sixth overall.
“It would have been nice if the track let you push through a bit,” Neville Bradshaw said. “I think my speed was good but when you get stuck behind people you just couldn’t go forward. It was cool though, to qualify in the top 10 and get sixth overall on my first ride back, a good day.”
Also in MX2, Gary Gibson started promisingly in race one, but after struggling with vision on the watered track he dropped to 20th.
A poor start in race two had him in 13th, but passing was difficult on the slick track and he struggled to break into the top 20. A mid-pack start in race three meant Gibson was in the middle of the dust. Bad visibility meant he went down and injured his hand, sadly resulting in a DNF.
“The first race started well, but they put a lot of water down and I struggled to see when I’d used all of my tear offs, so I started losing some places,” commented Gary Gibson. “I had a bad start in the second race and it was so hard to pass I couldn’t really recover. Then in the last race it was so dusty I caught a rock with my front wheel and went down. I bent my fingers back and couldn’t hold on so I had to pull off.
“I’m still moving in the right direction so I’m happy, but I need a little more consistency.”
Team Manager, Neil Prince said: “Overall, it was a fantastic day really. Everything has been going well for Graeme in the last month or so. He’s been getting good practice and you can see he’s in a good place at the moment.
“First time back in the British Championship for Neville and it was really good, he’s still competitive. Gary was battling more towards where he should be, an unfortunate off in the last race, but he’s moving in the right direction.”
