It's a Weston win for RHL Activities
By Sean Lawless on 12th Oct 16
A crowd of 70,000 spectators watched 19-year-old Todd Kellett race to victory at the 34th HydroGarden Weston Beach Race on Sunday.
The Crescent KTM rider, 10th in this year's Maxxis British MX2 series, took the holeshot and traded places with MVR-D Husqvarna's Tanel Leok for virtually the full three hours before taking the chequered flag less than 10 seconds ahead of the Estonian.
Gareth Hockey, Director of event promoter RHL Activities, hailed this year's race as one of the best since his company took over the event.
"Everything worked well, the weather of course has helped and we had a massive, massive crowd,” he said. "I've really enjoyed it and we've had some excellent racing which has been great to watch.
"I'd like to congratulate Todd, who is a local rider, on taking the win and providing us with some great entertainment.”
The traditional end-of-season bash always attracts a mixture of superstar names and weekend warriors and this year was no exception with FMX legend Robbie Maddison, hard enduro champion Jonny Walker and MotoGP rider Scott Redding all competing.
Even three-time world 500cc champion Dave Thorpe was tempted out of retirement to compete on a Honda Africa Twin.
"Man, this has been one of the coolest experiences I've had in a long time,” said Maddison, who finished in a fighting 46th. "I haven't raced motocross for over 18 years and I've not been on a start line in that intense situation for a very long time.
"It seems brutal but it was also a lot of fun and it's a different technique to normal riding with the sand like it is. It was cool to be racing and it brought back memories of the past – I could hear my dad's voice in the back of my head telling me to look forwards and get on my footpegs.
"I'm so stoked to finish in the top 50, I wasn't even sure I'd finish the race. I 100 per cent want to come back and bring some friends – I just had such a great time over here and the fans were great. It was an awesome weekend, an awesome event and I'd like to support it.”
Kellett's older brother Ty, who was almost killed racing Weston in 2009, finished ninth to make it an extra special day for the Somerset siblings.
"It's a really emotional win,” said Todd. "I think everyone knows what happened to my brother so this has turned out to be the best weekend of my life. I did over two hours on a quad yesterday and I woke up this morning wondering if it was a good idea but it's been great fun.”
