Barr grills ’em!
By TMX Archives on 1st Apr 15
Martin Barr (ERT KTM) made a welcome return to the top step of the podium when he won the MX1 class at last weekends opening round of the 2015 Pirelli British Masters MX championship while in MX2 Frenchman Steven Lenoir (Dyer & Butler KTM) cruised to two comfortable wins.
The Hawkstone Park track is always a challenge to both man and machine but last weekend's heavy overnight rain turned it into a bike-wrecking monster, handing most of the teams DNFs and big parts bills to look forward to.
In the first MX1 race Barr got the holeshot from Brad Anderson (MBO Power ASA Yamaha), Graeme Irwin (Heads & All Threads Suzuki) and Ashley Wilde (Toughsheet Honda) with Kristian Whatley (Buildbase Honda) making his way to fifth from a bad start by the end of the first lap.
By the second lap Barr had already opened up a sizable lead as he revelled in the challenging conditions and Anderson dropped to the back of the pack after losing an argument with a trackside tree.
Whatley was now in third but struggling to find a way past Irwin on the one-lined track and at the halfway stage Barr had a 16-second lead as Irwin came under pressure from tough man Tanel Leok (LPE Kawasaki) and Whatley slowed with arm pump.
With three laps to go Leok passed Irwin to snatch second place, 13 seconds behind Barr.
Whatley struggled home in fourth from Wilde, Jamie Law (LPE Kawasaki) and Dan Thornhill (Cab Screens Yamaha).
The teams all had their work cut out getting ready for race two and as the gate dropped Anderson led the pack into turn one from Luke Hawkins (Dave Thorpe Honda), Irwin, Wilde and Barr but come the end of the lap Barr was back in the lead and was already pulling away.
Leok and Whatley had messed up their starts but were pulling through the pack together and by the end of the second lap were putting Anderson under pressure for his second place.
Leok's race came to a halt when his machine stopped on lap four as Whatley managed to find a way past Anderson with Wilde still in fourth place as Gert Krestinov (Buildbase Honda) took over fifth from ninth at the start.
With two laps to go Barr slowed with a machine problem as Whatley pounced and took the lead and the win. Barr held on to second from Anderson, Krestinov, Wilde, Hawkins and Irwin.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX NEWS, APRIL 2 (ISSUE 1965)
