Matiss Maxxi'mus!
By TMX Archives on 6th May 09
THE Romans arrived at Carlisle in the north of what we call England in the winter of AD72-73 to continue their battle for domination of what we call Britain but, not even the battle hardened legions of Rome could have been so bar bangingly dominant in the area on Sunday than the men from County Durham and, er, Latvia
Organisers, East Cumbria MCC, had spent nearly a month re-vamping the big hillside circuit for the ‘Circus Maxxis(imus)' arrival at it's Low Gelt Farm circuit, just outside Brampton, a Roman's catapult throw from Carlisle and famous for a major part of the famous Hadrian's Wall.
The wall was built in an attempt to keep out the marauding hoards of Picts invading from the then forsaken north, which we call Scotland nowadays, between AD122 and AD130, however Tow Law (County Durham) man Brad Anderson invaded the venue on Sunday and saw off all attacks to take the spoils of the third round of this year's Maxxis Championship war in the MX1 class as Latvian and World Junior 125cc champion, Matiss Karro, showed exactly what he's capable of with a similar display of dominance in the MX2 class, both going home with double race victories. James Noble played a blistering role in the second MX1 race to push Anderson for the win but he had to settle for an eventual second place after a first race third spot which helped him snatch the overall runner-up spot on an exciting race day.
Jason Dougan rode hard, fast and confidently all day to complete the podium in third place
after two consistent fourth place rides.
With Karro taking a maximum MX2 points haul, Jake Nicholls also showed what he is capable of with second and third places in consecutive races to take the runner-up place away from KTM UK team-mate, Stephen Sword, in third.
Sword however, goes from a two-point deficit in the series standings, behind early leader Shaun Simpson, to a 16-point advantage over new second place man Karro and is the series' new leader after three rounds.
Shaun will now be missing from the series for a couple of months as he recovers from a shattered ankle injury sustained in a training crash in Holland during the previous week.
MX2
AS usual, the qualifying sessions threw up some surprises and top of the surprise league was Ulsterman Martin Barr with fastest time just under half-a-second quicker than Karro and just over the half a second from teenager Elliot Banks-Browne and new father, Sword.
The gate dropped on the first moto and light-weight Karro rocketed off the line for the holeshot ahead of Mel Pocock – returning to action for the first time in over eight months after an arm break – Shane Carless, Michael Phillips, Nev Bradshaw and Graeme Irwin.
However, Cumbrian Wayne Smith didn't quite get to the first corner before he was upside down after coming together with another rider and re-started when everyone was out of sight.
Then, another coming together at the first sharp right-hander saw boulder-hitting Pocock, Irwin and Carless seemingly out of contention and stopped in their tracks.
Karro led through the first lap like he was being pursued by the Roman army with his MRV-D Suzuki barking a salute, followed by Bradshaw, Joe Dark, Jake Nicholls and the lesser known Rickard Sandberg (who hails from Sweden).
Sword had had a mid-pack start but was up to sixth by the end of the opening lap and was chasing after the leaders.
Karro was off and running as Bradshaw suffered a heavy spill on lap five and dropped down the rankings, gifting second spot to the speedy Sword who had a job on his hands to fend off his team-mate Nicholls. The teenager won that little battle on lap six and went through.
Nicholls set off after Karro but, with an early 11-second gap, it looked a difficult job. However, Nicholls took back seven seconds before just failing to catch the Latvian steam train at the flag.
Karro took the win from Nicholls and Sword.
Scott Elderfield continues to improve and stay consistent with fourth spot ahead of fifth placed Graeme Irwin who stormed through from his first turn pile up to that cracking final position.
Pole-sitter Martin Barr had been fifth at one time before crashing heavily and had to contend with his Relentless Suzuki being stuck in third gear for much of the race, and down in an eventual 15th spot at the flag.
MX1
EVERYONE was expecting local hero and current Maxxis MX1 series championship leader, Brad Anderson, to head to Brampton with all guns blazing, but he was
in for an early shock. His old friend and rival from their Youth racing days, James Noble, threw down his gauntlet to set fastest time in the morning's timed qualifying session.
‘Ando' had to be happy to be one of SIX riders under half-a-second slower than Noble including Billy MacKenzie, Gareth Swanepoel, Jason Dougan and American Zach Osborne, who was actually just a fraction over half a second slower.
Brad was in the mood for splitting from the rest of the pack straight from the drop of the gate and he ripped out ahead of Swannie', Jim Murro, Osborne, Jamie Law, Alex Snow and Stuart Edmonds.
However, an all too common occurrence this season for British champ Billy MacKenzie is a crash on the start straight and down he went again, starting dead last yet again.
But, the champ isn't a champ for nothing and up he got and set off after the rest of the pack.
However, a man who wants to keep the red plate of series leader, Anderson was setting a fast pace at the front with initially Carl Nunn in pursuit before Dougan took over from the Suzuki man, before he got arm pump and had to let the Kawasaki-mounted Swanepoel through, and then the hard charging Noble, for second and third places respectively.
Noble is fast becoming the master of the late charge, blasting right up to the tail pipe of Swannie at the flag, just inches from taking second place before the flag dropped, with Anderson the victor just feet ahead of them.
Dougan placed a creditable fourth with solid arms. Nunn just pipped Scott Columb and Kristian Whatley for fifth as the trio were split by a hair's breadth at the flag in another exciting climax to a race.
MacKenzie battled back to an eventual tenth, despite a second fall, behind Zach Osborne and Welshman Mark Jones in eighth and ninth respectively.
If we thought the opening race was a belter, race two exploded on to the track.
MXY2
IF we think the battles in the adult classes are awesome, check out the business end of the MXY2 class this season.
Round two of the 2009 Youth championship ad-ded an extra special dimension to the proceedings at Brampton as series leaders Luke Hawkins and Josh Waterman went head-to-head and the pair are now locked together on the same points after four races.
Both lads have shared two victories and two second places so far since their series kicked off at Langrish last month.
On Sunday, PAR Homes Honda man, Hawkins, took the first race victory from Danger UK's Waterman then they exchanged positions in the second outing after some very professional and decidedly mature racing.
The Scotsmen, Ewan McLaren and Gary Sharp, took third and fourth places overall on Sunday after two consistent races for both lads.
Ewan had a lonely race in the opener, 30 seconds behind the front two and 15 ahead of Sharp.
However, in the second outing, a second and a half split Ewan, Gary and fifth-placed man Lewis Abbott, to provide the spectators with more close racing.
Waterman – on Red Plate holding duties – and Hawkins, now go into the next round at Hawkstone in June locked on 94 points apiece.
Who's going to try and separate them? Connor Walkley is in third place, currently 29 points adrift, but as the pair at the front are sometimes over 30 seconds ahead of third it's going to be very difficult to split them, so it's going to be a very nail-biting series for the stars of the future.
For full report see T+MX NEWS, Friday, May 8, 2009
Matiss Karro set off like a rocket in both MX2 motos and, proving just how much he liked the Brampton track, dominated the class.