It's a mad Maxx finnish
By Team TMX on 7th Oct 15
Shaun Simpson (Hitachi Revo KTM UK) won the eighth and final round of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship powered by Skye Energy at FatCat Motoparc last Sunday and in doing so made a clean sweep of the series.
The Scot successfully retained his MX1 title at the previous round but the race for the MX2 championship was turned on its head after series leader Max Anstie (Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki) was injured at the Motocross of Nations.
Anstie held a 44-point lead but his no-show meant all Steven Lenoir (Dyer & Butler KTM) had to do to become champion was score well in all three of his races.
Anstie's team fielded three wildcard riders – Petar Petrov, Darlan Sanayei and Reece Desoer – in a bid to limit Lenoir's scoring but first they had to get in front of the flying Frenchman who nailed three great starts.
Lenoir holeshot the first MX2 race with Bryan MacKenzie (Pendrich Kawasaki) in tow followed by Jordan Booker (JBR KTM), Steven Clarke (Apico Husqvarna) and James Dunn (Hitachi Revo KTM UK) as Adam Sterry (Wilvo Forkrent KTM), Ben Watson (Hitachi Revo KTM UK) and Gary Gibson (Heads & All Threads Suzuki) all lay in a heap in turn two.
Petrov had gated seventh and after passing Carlton Husband (MBO Power ASA Yamaha) on the opening lap he set off after the leaders while Sterry was scything his way through the backmarkers.
MacKenzie was putting Lenoir under enormous pressure and on lap five the Scot hit the front but by this time Petrov was already in third and Sterry was up to seventh.
With six minutes left Matiss Karro (Route 77 MVR-D Honda) pulled into the work area with the silencer missing off his machine while Watson pushed his bike back to the paddock with a seized engine.
With four laps to go MacKenzie went wide out the back of the circuit allowing Lenoir to briefly regain the lead and Petrov closed in on the leading pair as Sterry chased Dunn for fourth.
As the two-lap board came out Petrov snatched the lead from MacKenzie for the win with Lenoir coming home third, closing the gap to Anstie to 24 points.
Sterry was in Lenoir's wheel tracks for fourth with Dunn fifth.
Lenoir got his second holeshot of the day in race two with Sanayei, MacKenzie, Clarke and Watson all chasing although MacKenzie's race only lasted half-a-lap when his bike went bang. By the time they came round to complete the first lap Sanayei was in the lead after passing a nervous Lenoir and Watson and Clarke pushed him down to fourth a lap later.
Watson was in the lead at the start of lap three with Clarke pushing him hard but while all this was going on Petrov was making up for a bad start and was already behind Lenoir.
At the halfway stage Petrov was up to third but by the time he had got there the two leaders had already opened up a big lead.
Chasing
Watson took the win by just under two seconds from Clarke with Petrov a distant third.
Lenoir's fourth place meant he needed just eight points from the last race of the year to be champion.
Watson led the third and final race of the day from start to finish with Lenoir, after chasing Watson round the opening lap, starting to slip backwards from lap three.
First Clarke went by him on lap three with Sterry following him through a lap later.
With two laps to go Dunn relegated him to fifth place with Alfie Smith (JK Yamaha) pushing him back to sixth on the last lap but that was good enough for Lenoir to take the title.
"It's an amazing feeling,” said Lenoir.
"It's been so much work and effort getting to this point and it's been an up and down sort of day and very dramatic.
"But finally a bit of luck went my way as in the past I have had victory snatched from me by a bit of bad luck. Each race seemed to be a day long and every minute I could feel the pressure as I knew the Kawasaki boys were coming after me.
"But I made it happen out of the gate and rode three solid races and that's what matters.”
Kristian Whatley (Buildbase Honda) holeshot the first MX1 race with Elliott Banks-Browne (Geartec Suzuki), Ashley Wilde (Toughsheet Honda), Brad Anderson (MBO Power ASA Yamaha), Jake Nicholls (Wilvo Forkrent KTM) and Graeme Irwin (Heads & All Threads Suzuki) chasing.
Simpson, initially holding seventh, upped his pace lap after lap and was in second with three laps to go but Whatley just kept his speed high enough to hand the Scotsman only his third Maxxis moto defeat this season.
Wilde found a way past Banks-Browne with three laps to go for third as Gert Krestinov (Buildbase Honda) crossed the line fifth from ninth place at the start.
Simpson was not hanging around in race two, passing Irwin on the opening lap and cruising to a comfortable win from Whatley. Irwin held onto third while Anderson spent the whole of the race in fourth until, with a lap to go, a mistake cost him a couple of places to Tanel Leok (LPE Kawasaki) and Krestinov.
In the third and final MX1 race of the year Simpson led from the drop of the gate to the chequered flag with Whatley following him over the finish line almost three seconds down. Krestinov spent all race in third place while Leok got the better of a battle with Matt Moffatt (Drysdale Husqvarna), Anderson and Jamie Law (LPE Kawasaki) for fourth.
"With the injuries from the last two weeks I have not been 100 per cent today and wasn't riding like the usual Shaun Simpson,” said Simpson. "I feel as this track is to my liking I should have won all three races but the main goal today was to win the overall and keep my 100 per cent record and that we did.”
In the MXY2 class Jordan Eccles (Dream Ride Husqvarna) was on form as he stormed to two convincing wins and a second place for first overall.
He led the first from start to finish but had to work his way from fourth to take the lead on lap four on his way to his second win. In the final moto he struggled to pass Oli Osmaston (MXW Honda) and had to settle for second.
The championship was all about Osmaston and Robbie Dowson (Eurotek KTM) but with Osmaston putting in two strong rides and topping that off with a race win he became the 2015 British MXY2 champion.
