One in the Bank for Billy
By TMX Archives on 12th Jul 07
SUNSHINE, torrential rain, a superb track with a large, very vocal crowd, spectacular racing with some even more spectacular crashes, a championship race turned on it's head, and even a bit of controversy - the sixth round of the Maxxis British Motocross Championship at Skelder Bank, Whitby, had the lot!
The controversy arose in a rain affected MX1 classwhere championship leader, De Groot Kawasaki's Billy MacKenzie, tookthe overall win from CAS Honda's Ken De Dycker and home town hero JamesNoble on the Multitek Honda, courtesy of an opening moto win over thepair, which turned out to be the only result which stood by the end ofthe day - at least at the time of T+MX going to press.
Amid a torrential rainstorm, the second moto wasred flagged on safety grounds, but confusion arose as to whether therace had run the required two thirds distance to allow the race to beclassified.
Following protests and much conjecture across thepaddock, it was found the race had not run the required distance andthe result was scrapped, denying race leader at the time, Noble, a verypopular overall win at his home race and saving both MacKenzie, who wasfuming that the race had been stopped in the first place, and De Dyckerlosing points after they both had hit the deck during the race and wererunning well down field.
The MX2 class action was just as riveting and,after the glorious high of the previous weekend's Swedish GP where hescored his first heat win, Tommy Searle came crashing down to earth indramatic fashion with a completely luckless day filled with crashes andmechanical troubles that saw him score only one ninth place finish anddrop from a healthy 37 points clear at the top of the championshiptable to two points off the pace behind new championship leader MikeBrown and Gareth Swanepoel.
It was another hard fought, close run battle forthe class honours at Skelder Bank but on the day it was Swanepoel and aresurgent Carl Nunn who took the moto wins with Swanepoel scooping theoverall too from Nunn and Brown.
It was a day which threw the championship chasewide open again and set-up what promises to be a thrilling,nerve-racking final two rounds to decide who will be crowned 2007British Champion.
BRITISH MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS Rd 6 Skelder Bank, nr Whitby, North Yorks
(Whitby MCC)
1 Billy MacKenzie (450F DeGroot Kawasaki) 30
2 Ken De Dycker (450F CAS Honda) 27
3 James Noble (450F Multitek Honda) 25
4 Brad Anderson (450F Pioneer Yamaha) 23
5 Gordon Crockard (450F PAR Homes Honda) 21
6 Neville Bradshaw (PAR Homes Honda) 19
7 Wayne Smith (PAR Homes Honda) 17
8 Mark Eastwood (250 Wiseco Honda) 15
9 Jody Smyth (Wiseco Honda) 13
10 Bryan MacKenzie (450F Twisted7 Kawasaki) 11
11 Danny Smyth (Wiseco Honda) 10
12 Mark Hucklebridge (Motoxtreme Kawasaki) 9
13 Dorren Coutts (Honda) 8
14 Glen Phillips (5Bands Kawasaki) 7
15 Jordan Rose (450F Albion KTM UK) 6
16 Jamie Lewis (Hockey Honda) 5+0=5, 17 RichardLawson (450F Twisted7 Kawasaki) 4+0=4, 18 Aston Bird (450F Nigel ArnoldKTM) 3+0=3, 19 Chad Yarranton (450F PAR Homes Honda) 2+0=2, 20 BrettHillman (450F RB Honda) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Billy MacKenzie, 2 De Dycker, 3 Noble,4 Anderson, 5 Crockard, 6 Bradshaw, 7 Smith, 8 Eastwood, 9 Jody Smyth,10 Bryan MacKenzie, 11 Danny Smyth, 12 Hucklebridge, 13 Coutts, 14Phillips, 15 Rose, 16 Lewis, 17 Lawson, 18 Bird, 19 Yarranton, 20Hillman.
SERIES STANDINGS after 5.5 (of 8) rounds: 1 BillyMacKenzie 290 points, 2 De Dycker 274, 3 Noble 253, 4 Crockard 251, 5Anderson 240, 6 Eastwood 175, 7 Rose 134, 8 Danny Smyth 117, 9 JodySmyth 111, 10 Phillips 107, 11 Bradshaw 89, 12 Hucklebridge 82, 13Bryan MacKenzie 67, 14 Lewis 62, 15 Bales 52, 16 Bird 47, 17 Rach 46,18 Coutts 41, 19 Columb 40, 20 Vehvilainen 40, 21 Lawson 37, 22Freibergs 36, 23 Yelland 33, 24 Kovalainen 30, 25 Stuart Flockhart 24.
NEXT ROUND: Aug 12 - Low Gelt, Brampton, nr Carlisle (West Devon MXC).
BRITISH MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS Rd 6 - Skelder Bank, nr Whitby, North Yorks
(Whitby MCC)
1 Gareth Swanepoel (250F Molson Kawasaki) 30 + 27 = 57
2 Carl Nunn (250F BikeIt Yamaha) 25 + 30 = 55
3 Mike Brown (CAS Honda) 27 + 25 = 52
4 Shaun Simpson (Wulfsport Kawasaki) 21 + 23 = 44
5 Martin Barr (250F Bike It Yamaha) 19 + 21 = 40
6 Jason Dougan (250F Fork Rent Suzuki) 23 + 15 = 38
7 Tom Church (250F Molson Kawasaki) 15 + 19 = 34
8 Stephen Sword (Molson Kawasaki) 11 + 17 = 28
9 Carlos Campano (250F Bike It Yamaha) 17 + 11 = 28
10 Jake Nicholls (250F Fork Rent Suzuki) 10 + 13 = 23
11 Lewis Gregory (250F Relentless Suzuki) 9 + 10 = 19
12 David Willet (Bladez Honda) 7 + 8 = 15
13 Tommy Searle (250F KTM UK) 13 + 0 = 13
14 Ray Rowson (Molson Kawasaki) 0 + 9 = 9
15 Alex Snow (250F Relentless Suzuki) 5 + 4 = 9
16 Jamie Law (250F Relentless Suzuki) 6+3=9, 17Kristian Whatley (250F Ruddock KTM) 8+0=8, 18 Elliot Banks-Browne (250FSwift Suzuki) 0+7=7, 19 Scott Probert (Nigel Arnold KTM) 1+6=7, 20 AlexButler (DB Racing Honda) 0+5=5, 21 Luke Remmer (250F Pioneer Yamaha)4+0=4, 22 Joseph Dark (250F Meredith Suzuki) 3+0=3, 23 Ashley Greedy(250F PAR Homes Honda) 0+2=2, 24 Wayne Garratt (250F Moto-One KTM)2+0=2, 25 Kristjan Ratsep (250F Moggstar KTM) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Swanepoel, 2 Mike Brown, 3 Nunn, 4Dougan, 5 Simpson, 6 Barr, 7 Campano, 8 Church, 9 Searle, 10 Sword, 11Nicholls, 12 Gregory, 13 Whatley, 14 Willet, 15 Law, 16 Snow, 17Remmer, 18 Dark, 19 Garratt, 20 Probert.
RACE TWO: 1 Nunn, 2 Swanepoel, 3 Mike Brown, 4Simpson, 5 Barr, 6 Church, 7 Sword, 8 Dougan, 9 Nicholls, 10 Campano,11 Gregory, 12 Rowson, 13 Willet, 14 Banks-Browne, 15 Probert, 16Butler, 17 Snow, 18 Law, 19 Greedy, 20 Kristjan Ratsep.
SERIES STANDINGS after 6 (of 8) rounds: 1 MikeBrown 268 points, 2 Swanepoel 267, 3 Searle 266, 4 Simpson 247, 5Church 241, 6 Barr 191, 7 Dougan 184, 8 Nunn 179, 9 Hamblin 159, 10Gregory 130, 11 Rowson 123, 12 Nicholls 107, 13 Banks-Browne 84, 14Wayne Smith 83, 15 Willet 55, 16 Campano 53, 17 Sword 52, 18 Greedy 52,19 Snow 47, 20 Law 43, 21 Chatfield 30, 22 Whatley 30, 23 Dark 24, 24Kohut 23, 25 Probert 23.
NEXT ROUND: Aug 12 - Low Gelt, Brampton, nr Carlisle (West Devon MXC).
For full story and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, July 13, 2007.