Team STR KTM was back at Milton Park for the fourth round of the ACU Maxxis British Championship and was hoping for a repeat of last season’s successful day when Matiss Karro took all three wins and the overall.
However with Karro out with injury, it would be down to Jonathan Barragan in MX1 and Adam Sterry in MX2, to try their luck on the tight twisty track.
In race one Barragan made a decent start in fifth and was quickly through to third behind leader Nico Aubin and Tanel Leok in second. Leok took the lead and Barragan began to push Aubin but midway through the race he started to suffer from arm pump and had to drop the pace. The three of them had already built up a good lead and held their positions to the finish.
Barragan wasn’t away quite so well second time out, rounding the first turn in eighth but he was looking confident and aggressive as he made light work of the opposition to move all the way through to the lead in just a few laps.
As the rain fell and the track became increasingly greasy Barragan slid off in a corner handing the lead back to Leok. After re-starting in third he moved back into second and reeled Leok in again only to put it back on the floor and go back down to third again.
This time he was further back by the time he re-joined the race but he was clearly the fastest rider on the track and after re-taking second he charged after Leok but ran out of time, finishing just two seconds behind the Estonian.
With the rain continuing to fall as they lined up for the final race of the day, a good start was going to be crucial but Barragan had a shocker and was buried in 13th but his confidence from the first two races was showing as he blasted through to fourth after a few laps.
Barragan set about chasing down the front three of Aubin, Leok and Whatley but due to the difficult track conditions he wasn’t able to push as hard as in the previous race. As he closed in, he was handed third as Leok went out with a mechanical problem.
Barragan then made light work of taking over second from Whatley. Aubin was a bit too far ahead and even though he got within two seconds of the Frenchman on the last lap, he had to settle for second place. His 3-2-2 results gave him the overall win for the day and moved him up to third in the Championship. “I liked the track and was happy with my riding today,” said Jonathan Barragan.
He added: “Even when I crashed I caught the other riders again so I know I had the speed. I was happy to win overall and scored good points for the Championship and it was great for my confidence for Brazil.”
Team Manager, Steve Turner commented: “Jonathan was really good today. He was aggressive from start to finish and although he dropped it a couple of times, he showed he was the quickest rider running the front guys down again each time.
“It was good for both the team and Jonathan to take the win and hopefully this might kick-start his season. This seems to be a bit of a lucky track for us, so even though some riders are less than complimentary of it, I hope they keep coming back here.”
