Hitachi KTM UK riders Ben Watson and Josiah Natzke shared the spoils with the teammates taking a win apiece to secure the top two steps of the MX2 podium at the fourth round of the British Motocross championship.
The venue was the iconic and gnarly as ever, Hawkstone Park, in Shropshire, scene of many excellent GP races.
Josiah took the holeshot at the start of the first MX2 race from Brad Todd and teammate Watson. Watson hauled his way into the lead on lap six, with rival Harri Kullas slowing with a mechanical problem – forcing him to pull out of the race two laps later. By the flag, Watson was eight seconds ahead of second place Martin Barr, Todd Kellett, Mel Pocock and Natzke, who suffered some set-up issues.
Race two saw the fast starting Natzke get his second holeshot, with Watson struggling away from the line and sitting in seventh place with some work to do.
Throughout the race, Natzke wasn’t challenged for the lead and went on to win his first British championship race, taking second overall.
Kellett looked settled in second place until Watson upped his pace and snatched the spot from him with just two laps to go – making it a Hitachi KTM UK one-two.
“Today went just how I wanted and we now have a bit of a lead over the opposition,” said Watson. “It’s not taken the pressure off as I want to win as many races at possible but, as we have seen today with Harri [Kullas], things do go wrong and the lead we have now just makes it nice if we have any problems. The only real issue I had all day was a bad start in race two where I span up on the concrete start and another rider came across in front of me.”
See also: Hawkstone Park Full Results
“It’s been a good day today with two good starts, but in race one, I got really bad arm pump and faded back towards the end of the race,” revealed Natzke. “I think it was the bike set-up that caused it. But my starts, speed and fitness were all good so I am happy.”
Other notable KTM finishers were Jake Millward in MX2 and Dutchman Mike Kras again winning both two-stroke championship races on his GL12 Racing KTM.
Teutschenthal in Germany will be the team’s next outing at the opening round of the EMX300 championship.
The next British round will be held at Desertmartin in Northern Ireland on June 18.
