Making his Mark at Dean Moor
By TMX Archives on 23rd Jul 09
MARK Watson and the Anderson ATV Suzuki Team took their first overall British Championship win at the weekend. The spectacular Cumbrian venue of Dean Moor near Whitehaven the setting for round six of the ACU British MMX Quad Championship. Dean Moor is one of the most picturesque circuits on the race calendar with the mountains of the Lake District providing a beautiful backdrop. Although the 28 strong line-up did not have much time to take in the scenery as they entertained the large crowd in attendance. Despite torrential downpours on the run-up to the meeting and more rain forecast for the weekend, race day dawned with sunshine and blue skies, much to the relief of the promoting Iveston and Satley MCC, which left the circuit in prime condition.
Championship leader, Paul Winrow, signalled his intentions early in practice with a pole time on his Winrow Honda, half a second quicker than anyone else, Team KTM UK's Paul Holmes getting the second pick with Mark Watson filling the top three
The first of the two motos saw Justin Reid get the best drive off the concrete start line, the Team Can-Am rider pulling a bike length ahead to take the holeshot with Watson, Lindsey Duke and Winrow leading the pursuit as the pack disappeared in a cloud of dust.
As the race reached half distance there had been a lot of changes at the head of the pack, Watson taking the lead from Reid and the duo being chased down by the hard-charging Holmes who had moved up from an opening lap eighth. Meanwhile Winrow was struggling slightly with the wrong tyre choice and coming under increasing pressure from Jason Macbeth, having blasted his way through from tenth.
With Watson gradually pulling away at the front, Holmes passed Reid on lap 12 with Macbeth demoting Winrow on the same lap, and at the chequered flag it was an ecstatic Watson from Holmes and Reid
The final race was again to provide some truly fantastic battles that went down to the wire. As the gates dropped it was Winrow who got the better of the field to lead from Watson, with Reid slotting in to third and joined by fellow countrymen David Wray and David Cowan. But by the end of a hectic opening lap Watson had passed Winrow for the lead.
Setting a fast and furious pace from the outset, the halfway point saw Watson continue to lead from Winrow as they began to ease away from Reid, with Holmes now joining the affray with Wray and a recovering John Mitchell.
With no more than a second's gap between the top two, the scene was set for a grand finale as the last-lap board went out, and spotting an opportunity as they worked their way through back markers, Winrow made his move to take the chequered flag by less than half a second from Watson, Holmes claimed third ahead of Wray and Mitchell
The result now sees Winrow extend his lead from Holmes to 27 points with Macbeth a further 23 points adrift, the series now heads North to Scotland and the deep sand of Leuchars, in Fife, on August 2.
ACU British MMX Quad Championship
Rd 6 Dean Moor, Cumbria
(Iveston and Satley MCC)
Race One: 1 Mark Watson, 2 Paul Holmes, 3 Justin Reid, 4 Paul Winrow, 5 Jason MacBeth, 6 Leon Beda.
Race Two: 1 Paul Winrow, 2 Mark Watson, 3 Paul Holmes, 4 John Mitchell, 5 David Wray, 6 Justin Reid.
Championship Standings after 6 (of 9) rounds): 1 Paul Winrow (Winrow Honda) 268 points, 2 Paul Holmes (Team KTM UK) 241, 3 Jason MacBeth (proppa.com Four Tech ATV ) 218, 4 Leon Beda (ATV World Yamaha) 155, 5 Justin Reid (Team Can-Am) 150, 6 Carl Bunce (Anderson ATV Suzuki) 149, 7 Stefan Murphy (SMR Honda) 149, 8 Willie Waggott (KIK Honda) 122, 9 Mark Watson (Anderson ATV Suzuki) 119, 10 James Behan (Lakeside Four Tech) 110.