A new competition within the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship supported by Pro Clean has been introduced to encourage young up-and-coming riders who are riding among the full-time pros and reward them for their progress, but a glitch in the rules meant that Rob Hooper Racing Yamahaās Kristian Whatley was included in the rider list.
With Whatley being a former British champion team boss Rob Hooper made the decision to pull him from the group.
“It just didnāt sit well with me,” he said. “The competition has been set up for up-and-coming riders, which is something as a team we are fully behind, but Kristian is certainly not in that bracket and as a former British champion this is not a competition we would be happy to be a part of and potentially take a reward away from a young rider who deserves it.
“I saw Stuart Drummond [Series Director] at Culham and said we would like to remove Kristian from the Expert Cup, which he did, and we look forward to seeing who becomes the first winner of the competition.”
The British Expert Championship has categories for both MX1 and MX2 classes but will exclude riders who have finished in the Maxxis top 10 the previous year. Rules also state that it will also exclude any rider who has competed in a world championship round in the previous two seasons or who contests a world championship event in the current year.
Riders who scores in the British Expert Championship prior to racing a GP will have their points frozen.
However, the rules don’t rule a rider out if they have previously won the championship. And with Whatley’s injury troubles over the past year, he was unable to finish inside the top 10 in 2017 after competing in just two of the eight rounds.
