Mills & Bintcliffe - A pair of Brits abroad
By TMX Archives on 16th Mar 17
Earlier this year both Christopher Mills and Jack Bintcliffe signed on with new teams for 2017.
Both have plenty of European experience already in the tank and will be hoping to make a significant mark in this year's ultra tough EMX 125s.
Mills stays Yamaha mounted – just as he was for the second half of last year – and this year he'll be with the Pro Grip Motocross Team, a new outfit in the GP paddock this year.
Former Honda UK rider Bintcliffe has signed on the dotted line for Hitachi Ktm UK and just like Mills he's based in Europe full time now.
That said, Jack will be back on home turf for all rounds of the Maxxis MXY2 championship this year.
For Mills as well as the EMX series he'll be full-throttle taking on a Dutch double challenge in the Masters and ONK championships and both guys will be looking forward to having a tilt at the World Juniors at the end of July.
While Bintcliffe is a newbie in EMX 125cc action, Mills had a season at this level last year. After switching to Yamaha mid season results improved for him and considering his 2015 success at 85cc level – Mills who will be 16 in April – will be hoping for some top returns this year.
It was one of the rising stars on the European stage, Danish hotshot Emil Weckman, who narrowly beat Bintcliffe to the Honda EMX 150cc title in 2015.
Fifteen-year-old Weckman was European champion again last year and he's in the 125s mix this year too.
Bintcliffe's decision to move over into 125s followed something of a tough rookie year last term on Honda 250F.
In Jack's corner this year helping out with training and guidance he has both Jamie Dobb and Max Anstie.
Warming up for the EMX opener at the European Grand Prix (Valkensward April 23) Mills' first championship outing of the year was at Herde – round one of the ONK series.
"I qualified first in my group so went to the line in second place,” he said.
"The races were a different story.
"I felt ill all day so I knew I didn't have a lot of energy so made it easy on myself and pulled two good starts and was running top five in both races but two crashes messed up my day.”
Running 11-13 ultimately meant tenth overall for Chris as Holland's Rick Elzinga beat fellow Dutch rider Raivo Dankers for the podium top spot.
Last weekend at Mill for round two of the series, Chris went 4-3 to claim third overall as this time around Dankers beat Elzinga to top spot.
Down at Culham for the opening round of MXY2 Bintcliffe qualified in sixth place, after that, though, it was something of an uphill battle ending in 19th overall.
The muddy conditions made it especially difficult up against the four stroke crew.
That said, Jack will be heartened with two decent starts and some competitive lap times.
