IMBA European Championship - Burton flying in battle of Britain blast
By Mike Wood on 26th Jul 17
The Union Jack was flying high and proud above the Lower Drayton motocross circuit on Sunday evening after AMCA Team Great Britain produced yet another stunning performance.
In their home round of the IMBA European Championship, Luke Burton stormed to three MX1 wins and extended his lead at the top of the title standings.
He was joined on the podium in third by wildcard Gary Gibson.
The Brits were in a ruthless mood as James Dodd, Shane Carless, Paul Neale, Andrew Smart, Ryan Crowder and Edward Briscoe also finished inside the top ten.
Just one week earlier the GB MX2 team had totally dominated the podium places at the French round of the IMBA series - and incredibly they were at it again.
This time Ray Rowson took the win from Josh Waterman and young wildcard rider James Wainwright.
And with Lewis King, Jack Cox and Clinton Barrs bagging overall top-ten placings on the day, the IMBA MX2 table also makes very pleasant reading with Waterman leading from Rowson.
For Rowson it was an extra-special weekend, after his wife gave birth just 24 hours earlier to a little girl, the couple's first child.
Earlier in the day and on a rather damp and heavy circuit, Luke Burton had posted the fastest MX1 qualifying time before clearing off to win the opening moto.
Throughout this first contest, Ryan Crowder held a great second spot resisting at times heavy pressure from leading Belgian rider Frederic Wiegert.
Next up came a trio of Brits with Gary Gibson in a rather lonely fourth spot as James Dodd just got the better of Paul Neale for fifth after a tough race-long tussle.
Andrew Smart started well with ninth place.
After his strong moto-one performance, Crowder was forced out in the early exchanges of the second clash with clutch problems.
There were no such issues for the immaculate Burton, though, as he took another win from his closest title rival Wiegert, who had earlier worked hard to pass then see off Gibson.
After being surprisingly downfield in moto one, Shane Carless bounced back strongly to get the better of Dodd for fourth with Smart two places back, Ed Briscoe ninth and Neale 10th .
Confirming his maximum points overall win in style, Burton led moto three from start to finish with Wiegert again giving chase.
In a race dominated by Brits, Gibson, Crowder, Carless, Dodd, Neale and Smart finished strongly, the only European to join their party being Swiss rider Daniel Huser.
In the IMBA standings with three of the six rounds completed it's Burton leading the way, 44 points clear of Wiegert, with Dodd third and Briscoe (sixth) and Smart (ninth) going well.
Winner Burton said: "On a track that was heavy I wanted to save the bike as much as possible so I put in a lap fast enough to earn pole position.
"Following my recent knee injury I have been training hard for this and now feel almost back to where I want to be.
"It's not only great to win the home round but also to extend my lead in the series."
Rowson posted the fastest qualifying time then led the opening IMBA MX2 moto from gate to flag.
For the opening three laps, James Wainwright held second before being overhauled by Josh Waterman who had gated in 10th.
After being relegated to third Wainwright then came under heavy pressure from the hard charging Dutch duo of Joshua van der Linden and Jacky Tausch.
Showing great composure and maturity, Wainwright continually resisted the challenge from Holland until the later stages.
Although van der Linden went through, he then crashed handing a deserved third back to Wainwright. Lewis King took a strong sixth despite stalling on the penultimate lap, with next best Brits Jack Cox in seventh and Clinton Barrs 10th .
Buoyed by that strong opening performance, Wainwright was very quick off the mark in moto two before Waterman got through on lap one followed by Rowson.
From there the battle raged all the way to the flag as Waterman just held on for the win with Rowson a very safe runner-up after having thrown away his goggles in the closing stages.
Wainwright again had a great ride for third as Bradley Tranter got the better of Cox for fifth with King four places further back.
In a restarted MX2 moto three, Wainwright led on both occasions before being overhauled again by Rowson and Waterman.
Just like the previous encounter, a fast, exciting tussle unfolded with the roles being reversed as it was Rowson's turn to just hold off Waterman for a narrow victory.
Earning a well-deserved podium place, Wainwright got home in thirrd as Tausch and van der Linden both passed King.
After clashing with Italian Riccardo Vitaliani, Cox took a tumble in this one but still finished eighth ahead of Barrs.
A satisfied Rowson said: "It was nice to bag the win and take the top step on the podium in our home round. Now I can't wait to get home and see my new baby daughter."
With three rounds to come in Switzerland, Italy and Germany it's still all to play for.
Sunday's meeting also featured the opening round of the AMCA 85cc/150cc Youth Championship.
In moto one, Alfie Rickwood made a flying start only to lose all that momentum when his machine developed a serious misfire.
Despite being passed by Brandon Hill, Alfie still somehow nursed his bike home as runner-up ahead of Max Lewis.
ith his bike then back on full-song, Rickwood blasted to a brace of wins in the remaining motos chased home by Hill, with Joshua Fletcher Williams, Lewis, Jake White and Josh Ames right up there and battling hard.
Results
IMBA MX1 European Championship (Rd 3)
Moto One: 1 Luke Burton (GB), 2 Ryan Crowder (GB), 3 Frederic Wiegert (Belgium), 4 Gary Gibson (GB), 5 James Dodd (GB), 6 Paul Neale (GB).
Moto Two: 1 Burton, 2 Wiegert, 3 Gibson, 4 Shane Carless, 5 Dodd, 6 Smart.
Moto Three: 1 Burton, 2 Wiegert, 3 Gibson, 4 Crowder, 5 Carless, 6 Dodd.
Overall: 1 Burton 180 points, 2 Wiegert 158, 3 Gibson 147, 4 Dodd 133, 5 Carless 125, 6 Huser 121, 7 Neale 117, 8 Andrew Smart 115, 9 Crowder, 101, 10 Briscoe, 101 12 Dean Swift, 88.
Championship: 1 Burton, 475, 2 Wiegert, 431, 3 Dodd, 392, 4 Huser, 373, 5 Verhorevoort, 341, 6 Briscoe, 331, 7 van Meer, 315, 8 Smart, 292, 9 Ryan Verhagen, 273, 10 Jeremy Joris, 271.
IMBA MX2 European Championship (Rd 4)
Moto One: 1 Ray Rowson (GB), 2 Josh Waterman (GB), 3 James Wainwright (GB), 4 Joshua van der Linden (Holland), 5 Jacky Tausch (Holland), 6 Lewis King (GB).
Moto Two: 1 Waterman, 2 Rowson, 3 Wainwright, 4 Van der Linden, 5 Bradley Tranter, 6 Jack Cox.
Moto Three: 1 Rowson, 2 Waterman, 3 Wainwright, 4 Van der Linden, 5 Tausch, 6 King.
Overall: 1 Rowson 174 points, 2 Waterman 168, 3 Wainwright 150, 4 van der Linden 141, 5 King 123, 6 Cox 123, 7 Vitaliani 117, 8 Lommers 115, 9 Tausch 114, 10 Barrs, 97.
Championship: 1 Waterman, 624, 2 Rowson, 610, 3 Van der Linden, 590, 4 Vitaliani, 514, 5 Cox 478, 6 Lommers, 469, 7 Tausch, 427, 8 Erik de Bruyn, 424, 9 Jamie Lucas, 344, 10 Rik Rijkers, 327.
AMCA Youth, 85cc/150cc Championship (Round 1)
Overall: 1 Alfie Rickwood 174, 2 Brandon Hill 168, 3 Max Lewis 145, 4 Jake White 139, 5 Josh Ames 123, 6 Aiden Woodman 119.
