Brown's King of Belfast
By TMX Archives on 1st Dec 06
AMERICAN Mike Brown emerged King of the Odyssey following two nights of spectacular thrills and spills racing at the sixth Belfast International Supercross where local hero Gordon Crockard, riding the Eastwood Tele Bet Honda, returned to his brilliant best giving the CAS Honda rider a real run for his money.
In the Events 22 promoted event, Brown and Crockard had the packed arena on the edge of their seats on Saturday night as they fought out a titanic duel in a no holds barred, handle bar to handle bar finale to what was arguably the best supercross race ever seen at the Odyssey.
FRIDAY
THE hot action began on the Friday evening with the new CAS recruit, Brown, setting his stall out in the SX Lites class by romping to a first heat 11sec win from newly crowned Australian supercross Lites champion Ryan Marmont.
Heat two and David Willett holeshot the action only for Brown to hit the front before the end of the first lap as Shaun Simpson and KTM new boy Tommy Searle engaged in a hectic scramble for second.
For Simpson, this was a dramatic comeback from injury and he eventually filled the runner-up spot when Searle stalled.
Heat three was one of the races of the weekend as Brad Anderson on the Pioneer Yamaha (and riding in a cracking set of pyjamas-Graham) took the lead and held off the challenge of Brown, Searle and Simpson in a nose to tail battle.
All eyes were on the SX1 class and the one-off appearance of home-star Crockard riding a two-stroke Honda rather than the thumper he had ridden all season for Wulfsport.
SATURDAY
SATURDAY night's action got off to a rather ragged start as the starting gates went down sluggishly for the first Lites heat and Brad Anderson was left trailing the field led by 16-year-old Elliott Banks-Browne who had an opening night to forget.
Banks-Browne held the lead of the opening heat for two laps before Mike Brown launched the CAS Honda into the lead passing second placed Tommy Searle and Banks-Browne in one lap to take a race winning lead. A lap later and Searle had an almighty purler on the whoops eliminating him from the race and nursing a knee injury.
Ryan Marmont and Shaun Simpson also got past Banks-Browne and locked horns in a battle for second that eventually saw the two collide on landing after the ‘Crockard double' allowing Anderson, who had made rapid strides from the rear of the field, to clinch second with Banks-Browne third and current Youth champion Ashley Greedy fourth.
Belfast International Supercross Odyssey Arena, Belfast, NI
Friday
SX Lites Heat One: 1 Mike Brown, 2 Ryan Marmont, 3 Brad Anderson, 4 David Willett, 5 Tommy Searle, 6 Shaun Simpson.
Heat Two: 1 Brown, 2 Simpson, 3 Marmont, 4 Searle, 5 Anderson, 6 Neville Bradshaw.
Heat Three: 1 Anderson, 2 Brown, 3 Searle, 4 Simpson, 5 Marmont, 6 Bradshaw.
SX1 Heat One: 1 Gordon Crockard, 2 Billy MacKenzie, 3 Erick Vallejo, 4 Ryan Voase, 5 Wayne Garrett, 6 Kyle East.
Heat Two: 1 Crockard, 2 MacKenzie, 3 Xavier Hernandez, 4 Jacob Saylor, 5 Voase, 6 Vallejo.
Heat Three: 1 Crockard, 2 MacKenzie, 3 Jeff Dement, 4 Vallejo, 5 Saylor, 6 Hernandez.
King of the Odyssey One: 1 Brown, 2 Searle, 3 MacKenzie, 4 Dement, 5 Simpson, 6 Anderson, 7 Marmont, 8 Hernandez, 9 Voase, 10 Crockard.
Saturday
SX Lites Heat One: 1 Brown, 2 Anderson, 3 Elliott Banks-Browne, 4 Ashley Greedy, 5 Bradshaw, 6 Simpson.
Heat Two: 1 Brown, 2 Marmont, 3 Anderson, 4 Searle, 5 Greedy, 6 Simpson.
Heat Three: 1 Brown, 2 Anderson, 3 Marmont, 4 Greedy, 5 Bradshaw, 6 Simpson.
SX1 Heat One: 1 Crockard, 2 Vallejo, 3 Voase, 4 MacKenzie, 5 Hernandez, 6 Garrett.
Heat Two: 1 Crockard, 2 MacKenzie, 3 Hernandez, 4 Vallejo, 5 Garrett, 6 Dement.
Heat Three: 1 Crockard, 2 Saylor, 3 MacKenzie, 4 Voase, 5 Garrett, 6 East.
King of the Odyssey Two: 1 Brown, 2 Crockard, 3 Marmont, 4 Simpson, 5 Bradshaw, 6 Dement, 7 Anderson, 8 Greedy, 9 Hernandez, 10 Vallejo.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX News, Friday, December 1, 2006