London calling...
By TMX Archives on 5th Feb 09
THE intense rivalry that started two-weeks ago at rounds two and three of the British Supercross Championship in Liverpool between Zach Osborne on his Utag Yamaha and Red Bull KTM-mounted Mike Brown carried on a week later at Saturday's fourth and final round at a sell-out O2 Arena in the heart of London.And what an evening of fast, close Supercross racing it was with the large crowd cheering on all of the riders with oohs' and aahs' when anyone crashed out.
Tons and tons of earth were transported from the local area into the arena where the American builder made full use of the rather small track area with all the usual jumps and whoop combinations you would expect. The star feature on the track was a large triple, situated right in front of the main stand area.
With all the qualifying heats, quarter finals and last chance races taking place in the afternoon the top riders were all sorted out and ready to go at it as the seven o'clock start-time approached and the now legendary (!?!) commentator Jack Burnicle whipped the crowd up to fever pitch of anticipation.
Report and Pictures: DICK LAW
BROWN got the holeshot in the SX1 final, but as he and Osborne went over the first set of jumps side-by-side, Osborne had the inside line into the next turn, giving him the advantage and the lead going into the rest of the lap.
PAR Homes Honda's Gordon Crockard was in third by the end of the lap with Canadian champion and previous Brit Supercross winner, Colton Facciotti, in fourth.
Ryan Mason crashed his way to the back of the field on lap two after a bad start.
Two laps later Crockard lost two places after a smaller mistake.
Crockard's error enabled Facciotti and Kyle Beaton to move up to third and fourth, but by this time the leading pair were already long gone and into the back-markers.
Brown was doing all he could to catch Osborne and in the last half of the final lap he gave it his all and even managed to get alongside Osborne over the final triple. However, Osborne just managed to hold on for the win, with Facciotti third and Beaton fourth.
Osborne may have won the race, but Brown won the SX1 championship by 16-points from Osborne, Beaton and Facciotti but that may have been a different story if Osborne had contested the opening round of the series.
THE start of the SX2 final was almost a copy of the SX1, with the fast starting Brown getting the holeshot, with Osborne darting ahead of him again before the second turn. This time Facciotti was third and Neville Bradshaw, on his DB Racing Honda, fourth.
The top four, all travelling in close company were inseparable for the rest of the race and finished in that order. However, behind them, Broc Hoyer had fought his way up from eighth on the opening lap to take fifth place and was the last rider on the lead lap.
Carl Nunn on his Suso Suzuki started well, in fifth, but had an up-and-down race, first fighting off Beaton, and then in the closing stages, Hoyer.
So once again Osborne was the winner of the race, but again Brown was the winner of the series from Facciotti, Osborne and Bradshaw.
After racing had finished for the night, Brown said: I had a great time tonight, but Zach (Osborne) was riding a bit too good for me. I still enjoy my racing and that's what I am here for. If I am healthy and still feel good about my racing, I will be back next year.
BRITISH SUPERCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 4 O2 Arena, London (Future West Promotions)
PRO SX1: 1 Zach Osborne (US - Utag Yamaha), 2 Mike Brown (US - Red Bull KTM), 3 Colton Facciotti (CAN - Utag Yamaha), 4 Kyle Beaton (CAN - Utag Yamaha), 5 Broc Hoyer (CAN - DK Kawasaki), 6 Jean Sebastian Roy (CAN - Utag Yamaha), 7 Gordon Crockard (GB - PAR Homes Honda), 8 Ryan Mason (GB - Shock Tech Yamaha).
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Brown 91 points (CHAMPION), 2 Osborne 75, 3 Beaton 74, 4 Facciotti 55, 5 Hoyer 44, 6 Crockard 41, 7 Bradshaw 35, 8 Phillips 33.
PRO SX2: 1 Osborne, 2 Brown, 3 Facciotti, 4 Neville Bradshaw (ZA - DB Racing Honda), 5 Hoyer, 6 Beaton, 7 Carl Nunn (GB - SUSO Suzuki), 8 Carl Brogden (GB - KTM).
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Brown 87 points (CHAMPION), 2 Facciotti 81, 3 Osborne 65, 4 Bradshaw 56, 5 Nunn, 52, 6 Hoyer 43, 7 Danny Tollet (GB, Kawasaki), 8 Harry Bertram (GB, Twig Kawasaki).
BRITISH OPEN: 1 Bradshaw, 2 Nunn, 3 Steven Bixby (Yamaha), 4 Crockard, 5 Glen Phillips (KTM), 6 Paul Smith (Sandbach KTM), 7 Bertram, 8 Dan Brough (Danger UK KTM).
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Nunn 86 points (CHAMPION), 2 Bradshaw 83, 3 Crockard 81, 4 Smith 45, 5 Phillips 45, 6 Brough 40, 7 Ashley Greedy (Talbot Cabs Suzuki) 35, 8 Tollet 34.
CLUBMAN LITES: 1 Carl Jones (Motopross Honda), 2 Chad Yarranton (Kawasaki), 3 Jarad Goodwin (KTM), 4 Tom Bennett (Honda), 5 Brad Nixon (Wildmoor Honda), 6 Mark Thompson (Six Physio Honda), 7 Ross Clarke (No Fear Suzuki), 8 Harry Saywell (Lassu KTM).
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Yarranton 85, 2 Jones 74, 3 Goodwin 58, 4 Kristofer Ayres (Honda) 49, 5 Nixon 41, 6 Ryan Mason (Shock Tech Yamaha) 40, 7 Alex Smith (Danger UK Kawasaki) 40, 8 Oliver Brunskill (Yamaha) 36.
CLUBMAN OPEN: 1 Yarranton, 2 Jones, 3 Goodwin, 4 George Purchase (MX World KTM), 5 Edward Briscoe (Doug Hacking Kawasaki), 6 Nixon, 7 Martin Downer (Suzuki), 8 Christy Harnett (KTM).
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Yarranton 100 points (CHAMPION), 2 Jones 62, 3 Purchase 52, 4 Briscoe 51, 5 Smith 40, 6 Goodwin 40, 7 Harnett 29, 8 Gareth Rees Jones (KTM).
YOUTH LITES: 1 Rowan Hill (Wildmoor Honda), 2 Ross Clarke (No Fear Suzuki), 3 Christy Harnett (KTM), 4 Jim O'Neill (SP Honda), 5 Bradley Doyle (XL Yamaha), 6 Edward Briscoe (Doug Hacking Kawasaki), 7 Matt Ogden (Honda), 8 Jacob Joyce (Yamaha).
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Hill 87, 2 Clarke 67, 3 Harnett 62, 4 Brough 52, 5 Kristofer Ayres (Honda) 43, 6 Briscoe 43, 7 O'Neill 43, 8 Sean McDonald (KTM) 41.
SUPER MINI: 1 Ben Watson (CI Sport KTM), 2 James Dunn (Relentless Suzuki), 3 Ben Howell (KTM), 4 Corrie Southwood (Williams Suzuki), 5 James Harrison (KTM), 6 Chris Chapman (KTM), 7 Callum Sloman (Suzuki), 8 Bradley Ward (Team Green Kawasaki).
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Watson 88 points (CHAMPION), 2 Dunn 85, 3 Howell 80, 4 Ward 60, 5 Neal 43. 6 Hawkins 38, 7 Southwood 31, 8 Harrison 30.
SMALL-WHEEL 85cc: 1 Bradley Ward (Team Green Kawasaki), 2 Tom Neal (KTM), 3 Corrie Southwood (Williams Suzuki), 4 Ben Watson (CI Sport KTM), 5 Max Acres (Fox Suzuki), 6 James Harrison (KTM), 7 Nathan Dixon (KTM), 8 Robbie Dowson (KTM).
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Watson 93 points (CHAMPION), 2 Ward 85, 3 Neal 77, 4 Southwood 67, 5 Acres 64, 6 Dixon 49, 7 Harrison 46, 8 Neale 41.
JUNIOR 65cc: 1 Gradie Featherstone (DFB KTM), 2 Dylan Hodgkins (Super MX KTM), 3 Josh Coleman (KTM), 4 Sid Evans (KTM), 5 Alfie Bowtell (Period Homes KTM), 6 Tommie Schofield (KTM), 7 Troy Willerton (KTM), 8 Conner Hughes (KTM).
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Evans 90 points (CHAMPION), 2 Featherstone 87, 3 Bowtell 83, 4 Hodgkins 66, 5 Eddie Remmer (KTM) 56, 6 Hughes 56, 7 Daniel Knight (KTM), 8 Willerton 37.
Auto: 1 Jamie Clark (DEP Cobra), 2 Dylan Woodcock (KTM), 3 Brandon Sharples (Thorncraft KTM), 4 Christopher Mills (CMRMX KTM), 5 Harry Kimber (LEM), 6 Carl Budge (KTM), 7 Jed Etchells (KTM), 8 John Verdugo (KTM).
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Woodcock 91 points (CHAMPION), 2 Clark 84, 3 Albie Wilie (KTM), 4 Sharples 67, 5 Mills 66, 6 Etchells 59, 7 Budge 55, 8 Kimber 45.
QUAD: 1 Carl Bunce (Suzuki), 2 Justin Read (Team Can-Am), 3 Richard Tordoff (Yamaha), 4 Paul Holmes (KTM), 5 Oliver Sansom (Cromwell Trucks Suzuki), 6 James Behan (Fourtech Honda), 7 Simon Vowles (Yamaha).
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Holmes 43 points (CHAMPION), 2 Tordoff 42, 3 Reid 40, 4 Sansom 36, 5 Bunce 25, 6 Ben Harman Can-Am) 16, 7 Andrew Lawton (Honda) 15, 8 Behan 15.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2009
Despite taking runner-up spot on the night in the British Open class, Carl Nunn narrowly snatched his third British Supercross title.