Neville Bradshaw and the rest of the Putoline Apico Honda team travelled to Lyng just outside Norwich for round two on the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship and once again ended a day of hard racing on the podium.
Lyng is a fast sandy power sapping track, immersed in history and laid out around a steep hill deep in the heart of the countryside and is a test for both man and machine.
Overnight rain had left the track in excellent racing condition and Neville showed good pace by qualified fifth fastest while the team’s number two rider James Harrison, who is still gaining valuable experience in the MX2 class qualified 23rd, ahead of a number of more established riders.
Neville was fourth into turn one at the start of his first race behind the on-form Adam Sterry and two GP riders, Mel Pocock and Mattis Karro.
Karro crashed a couple of times pushing Neville up a place and after holding off a late charge from Bryan Mackenzie he finished the race in a fine third place.
Once again Neville got a good start in race two and followed Sterry, Pocock and Karro into turn one and matched their pace.
By the time the race had reached the halfway stage Sterry was fading, and three laps from the end of the race Neville passed him to finish in another third place behind Karro and Pocock.
Pocock got the holeshot in the third and final race of the day with Neville in his wheel tracks, but by the third lap Karro found a way past him, and two laps later took the lead from Pocock.
With four laps to go and under extreme pressure from Neville, Pocock made a mistake and slipped off his machine letting Neville through to second place, giving him third place overall, which moves Bradshaw into a strong third place in the championship after just two rounds.
After the racing had finished a happy Neville said: “It’s been an awesome weekend. The team have been putting in a lot of time testing and training and the bike is really great. With three consistent rides we were only two points off the win and now we are third in the championship so hopefully we can keep the ball rolling from here”
James had three strong rides and scored points in two on his way to 24th on the day.
James Harrison commented: “It’s been a good day today, and although I scored the same amount of points that I scored in the first round I thought I rode better today and tried my hardest.
“I ended up enjoying the races, more so when it was at it’s roughest as I work hard on my fitness and that’s when it pays off. We managed to score some good points in races one and three but was out of the points in the second race, after a bad start. It’s all good experience for the future”
