Jor dropper!
By TMX Archives on 17th Jun 15
Round three of this years Thor British Youth Nationals took the best of the countrys young motocross riders to Pontrilas last weekend, where the changeable weather conditions provided an extreme test.
Heavy rain on Friday and for most of the night turned the natural hillside track into a slippery mess but just after lunch the rain stopped and the track dried out very quickly.
Jordan Eccles (DRF Husqvarna) was the man to beat in the Open class as he won five out of his six races, with just a simple mistake in race two when the track was at its most treacherous costing him a maximum score.
That's not to say Eccles had it all his own way. In race one he was pushed hard by Luke Smith (Harris KTM) who didn't finish out of the top three all weekend and George Grigg-Pettitt (Aim KTM) revelled in the muddy conditions on Saturday, winning race two as Eccles played catch-up.
Eccles passed the fast-starting Robbie Dowson (Eurotek KTM) at the halfway stage in race three for his second win, coming home almost eight seconds clear of Grigg-Pettitt and Smith as Dowson hung on for fourth place.
It was a start-to-finish win for Eccles in Sunday's opening moto with Dowson, Smith and Grigg-Pettitt crossing the finish line 10 seconds behind him.
With Eccles and Dowson spending all of race five in first and second the interest came from the battle between Smith and Grigg-Pettitt for third.
The two swapped places until the halfway stage when Grigg-Pettitt made a mistake and let Smith pass him with Joe Hodgson (G Force KTM) following Smith through to fourth.
Dowson gated second to Eccles in the sixth and final Open class race of the weekend and put him under pressure for the first four laps before passing him for the lead with just three laps to go.
But a crash on the last lap let Eccles through for his fifth win of the weekend with Smith taking second and Dowson third.
Overall it was Eccles from Smith, Grigg-Pettitt and Dowson with Hodgson fifth. In the championship Eccles now holds a 57-point lead over Smith, Grigg-Pettitt and Dowson.
A disappointingly small entry took part in the 125cc race but the fact there were only 11 who started didn't detract from the quality of racing and with three wins and three second places Alexander Brown (KTM) won the overall from Oliver Benton (Hitachi Revo KTM UK) and Callum Green (Husqvarna).
In race one Green stormed into the lead and was never really challenged as Joe Cadwallader was caught and passed by Brown on his way to second place.
Benton made things hard for himself by having to come from eighth at the start to finish third.
He made up for his bad start in race one by getting the race two holeshot and going on to win as Brown spent all race in second place with Green passing Dee-Jay Walker on the opening lap to get third.
Brown led race three from start to finish and was followed home by Benton and Green with the same happening in race four.
Benton turned the tables on Brown in race five with Walker third and in the last race Walker got his best result of the weekend
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX NEWS, JUNE 18, (ISSUE 1976)
