Other than quadrupling the amount of homegrown winners somehow, I don’t think it would have been possible to make the British Motocross Grand Prix any better than it actually was. The weather was great, the track was sublime and the racing superb – as MX weekends go it was pretty much perfect!
An advantage of the early date was near as damnit full line-ups in every single class. We started the weekend with 36 riders in MXGP, 37 in MX2, 39 in EMX2T and 76 in EMX250 that had to be whittled down to 40! Considering the amount of injuries in the main classes that’s about as good as you could expect.
The sound of an almost full gate of 250cc two-strokes leaving the line was immense and perhaps the only thing that came close to topping that was Brad Anderson’s double win. The Cumbrian-based Geordie absolutely aced it on his Verde Substance KTM and was almost joined on the podium by Somerset wildchild Todd Kellett – damn those better second moto tie-breakers…
Speaking of Todds, Cumbrian-based Cumbrian Brad Todd – who I hear is also Cumbria’s #1 Jeffrey Herlings impersonator – set the fastest time in qualifying and finished a solid third in moto two after a first lap fall scuppered his chances in the opener. He definitely had the pace if not the luck.
The same can be said for fellow Cumbrian-based Cumbrian Jamie Law – who I hear is also Cumbria’s #1 Guy Martin impersonator – who deserves a special mention for what was undoubtedly the save of the century!
Jamie was going about normal business when his borrowed bike snapped at the headstock. It would have been big, too, if Jamie’s undercarriage hadn’t got tangled up in his tripleclamps which slowed his momentum to allow him to throttle out of it like a champ and hustle to the side…
Four Brits made the cut in EMX250 with 50 per cent scoring points. Buildbase Honda’s Josh Gilbert was the highest performer with a 9-10, while local-ish lad Taylor Hammal scored points in both motos too!
T’other two – Doon toon Alexander Broon and Michael Ellis – both just missed scoring a point. Ellis was 21st in race one while Brown filled that same spot second time out! Our entire quota of MX2 pilots suffered similar luck and despite showing plenty of speed could have all fallen into a barrel of blanks and still come out sucking their thumbs.
Watson topped the charts with a 4-5 delivering him fifth overall, Sterry was next in 12th overall, while Conrad Mewse – who went from challenging for third in race one until a technical issue on the on the last lap dropped him to sixth – ended up ‘lucky’ 13th overall after DNF-ing the second.
The Brits in MXGP had a similar run with Anstie, Simpson and Searle teetering around 10th overall – not bad but still not what the sizable crowd really wanted from them. That would be grabbing holeshots and battling for the win in case you were a little unsure…
Crowd support was still outstanding for all the Brits, though, so give yourselves a massive pat on the back for that! Someone else who deserves a massive pat on the back – and not the cow kind – is event promoter Steve Dixon who rolled the dice and excuse the mixed metaphors came up smelling of roses.
Well done that man…
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