MX Diary: Jake's back on Maxxis charge
By Sean Lawless on 15th Jun 16
Following a couple of injury-hit seasons Jake Nicholls finally found himself on top of a Maxxis British Motocross Championship MX1 podium after running 1-3 at Desertmartin.
At his Hitachi REVO Husqvarna team's home round he took advantage of his rivals' mechanical misfortunes in the opening moto to move from third into the lead. He backed this up with an intelligent ride in race two, staying out of trouble to come home third and make sure of the overall.
"I'm very happy with the way things went," he said.
"It's been a long time coming. I took my time a little bit in the first race - it was raining pretty much all day so it was slick to start with - and it paid off because Tommy [Searle] cooked his bike and Graeme [Irwin] crashed and snapped his bars.
"I'd passed Kristian Whatley by that point so I got into the lead and that was that.
"In the last race I had a good start and was third and then passed Graeme for second behind Tommy. I dropped it - it wasn't a big crash but the bike was buried in a bank - and lost my rhythm a bit and Graeme passed me but I knew I was in line for the overall so I used my head.
"I'm really, really pleased to get the win at Roger's home race - there isn't a better place to do it - and I'm looking forward to carrying this form into the British GP next weekend."
The result moves him from fifth in the championship table up to third.
With James Dunn suffering from delayed repetitive concussion and sitting out Desertmartin, Oli Benton was the team's only other rider in action. After finishing the first MX2 race in 23rd his determination paid off second time out and he scored his first top-flight championship points with a battling 18th.
"Jake rode extremely well today and I'm very happy that we've won the overall at our home round," said Team Principal Roger Magee. "I'm delighted. Jake's making progress all the time and it'll give him extra confidence going into the British GP next weekend.
"It was great to see Oli score his first points in MX2 as well. He's a young man who's growing in confidence and his hard work is starting to pay off."
