Karro and Banks-Browne take overall honours for KTM at round two of the Maxxis…
The second round of the British championship was held in bright sunshine at Canada Heights yesterday on a very tough and demanding track! How tough and demanding? Well, there were more big crashes and injuries than any other Maxxis round I can think of in recent times.
The first lap of the day’s opening MX2 race took two contenders out straight away as Arnaud Tonus scrubbed himself to a shoulder injury while Graeme Irwin ploughed into his bouncing back and knocked himself silly. Actually, make that sillier. Running 1-2 at the time both riders were out for the day. When you chuck Zach Osborne’s injury in there n’all you’d think that’s bad times for Yamaha with three of their title contenders losing muchos points – which it is – but at the same time the boys in blue, or in this case black and white, must be pleased as punch as Mel Pocock takes over at the head of the series by finishing third overall on the day.
After bike problems punched a hole in his points haul from round one, a highly motivated Elliot Banks-Browne came out swinging at round two. Leading race one until he slipped off, EBB made up for that error by dominating for the rest of the day to take the top spot on the podium. By my reckoning that’s his first Maxxis moto wins and his first win overall – good work quietly spoken bearded chap.
British supercross champ Nev Bradshaw proves he can ride outdoors n’all by running second overall on the day to move to second in the series standings. The South African Evo-Tech Stevens rider always runs well at Canada Heights and is consistently strong through all three motos.
The MX1 division is a topsy-turvy affair with just two points separating the top four at the end of the day. Matiss Karro beats Stephen Sword in a better last moto tie-breaker to snatch it for Steve Turner’s STR team while Shaun Simpson joins them on the podium by winning the last moto.
After sucking at round one Lanes Kawasaki’s Marc de Reuver has a point to prove at Canada Heights and actually goes out and wins race one. That’s definitely the highlight of his day though and a final race seventh is his only other foray onto the leader board.
Karro beats Strijbos to the flag in a second moto battle of attrition that sees the Belgian star hound the Latvian for the entire length of the 20-minute plus two lap moto. He doesn’t get close enough to make a pass stick and STR’s smiley speedster takes his first win of the year ahead of Strijbos and Sword who finished runner-up in race one.
Simpson’s final moto victory is textbook stuff and more than makes up for his poor second race that sees the Scot have to pull through the pack after trouble in turn one. Strijbos muscles his way through the pack to take second while Karro leads home MVR-D’s Bert Krestinov to take third.
Results
MX1 Overall result
1 Matiss Karro (STR KTM) 58 points
2 Stephen Sword (TAS Suzuki) 58
3 Shaun Simpson (Monster Energy Yamaha) 57
4 Kevin Strijbos (HM Plant KTM UK) 56
5 Kristian Whatley (PAR Honda) 46
6 Marc de Reuver (Lanes Kawasaki) 40
7 Dorren Coutts (PAR Honda) 38
8 Martin Barr (LPE Kawasaki) 37
9 Gert Krestinov (MVR-D Honda) 34
10 Alex Snow (Lanes Kawasaki) 34
MX1 Series standings
1 Strijbos 131,2 Karro 115, 3 Simpson 113, 4 Sword 101, 5 Krestinov 92, 6 Barr 87, 7 de Reuver 70, 8 Coutts 70, 9 Whatley 67, 10 Jason Dougan 64
MX2 Overall result
1 Elliott Banks-Browne (HM Plant KTM UK) 66 points
2 Neville Bradshaw (Evo-Tech Stevens Honda) 60
3 Mel Pocock Monster Energy Yamaha) 60
4 Nico Aubin (Buildbase Honda) 60
5 Bryan MacKenzie (Rockstar KTM) 47
6 Steven Lenoir (Samsung Yamaha) 40
7 Connor Walkley (LPE Kawasaki) 32
8 Jordan Booker (Buildbase Honda) 31
9 Stuart Edmonds (TYCO Suzuki) 27
10 Shane Carless (Rockstar KTM) 27
MX2 Series Standings
1 Pocock 118 points, 2 Bradshaw 108, 3 Banks-Browne 104, 4 Aubin 83, 5 Lenoir 81, 6 MacKenzie 76, 7 Booker 71, 8 Zach Osborne 69, 9 Edmonds 63, 10 Graeme Irwin 51
