Josh Gilbert on his career-first Maxxis moto victory and looping out

Buildbase Honda’s MX2 rider Josh Gilbert battled tough conditions at the fifth outing of the 2018 Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship, supported by Pro Clean, at Duns in the Scottish Borders to close the gap on the championship leader.

Heavy rain at the circuit delivered chaotic scenes and while MX1 and MXY2 found their programmes cut short MX2 managed to get both motos in before the day’s action was brought to a premature end.

Josh Gilbert took a career-first Maxxis moto victory in the day’s opening encounter but a tough second race saw him also finish fourth overall, missing the top step of the podium by just two points. Despite this he’s consolidated his second place in the title fight and has moved seven points closer to the series lead.

Josh was in a class of his own on his CRF250R in the opening 25-minute plus two lap MX2 moto, nailing the holeshot and taking a gate-to-flag victory. Second time out he got caught up in the pack but despite crashing twice came through to 10th.

“It’s been a mixed day,” he said. “The first race couldn’t have gone any better. I got the holeshot, led every lap and won it by a comfortable margin. The second race was brutal. On the first lap a load of dirt hit my goggles so I couldn’t see a thing and as I went to take them off I lost the clutch and looped out. By the time I got back up I was way down but I think I got back to about eighth and then crashed again and was trapped under the bike.”

Updating his followers on Instagram he said: “The highs and lows of motocross! We’ll keep working for that overall. Thanks [to] everyone for the messages and most of all the people that are behind me week in and week out!”

Team boss Dave Thorpe: “I feel for the organisers,” said team boss Dave Thorpe. “Bryan MacKenzie and everyone else who is involved with this track have done an amazing job. We were all praying for a bit of rain but maybe we prayed too hard.

“In the first race Josh was outstanding. Just perfect. Holeshot and then gone but then the rain came in and to be honest the other races were just about survival.”