Pont's make prizes
By TMX Archives on 20th Sep 07
IT has been a long, intensely fought and at times brutal season but they finally did it. Billy MacKenzie and Mike Brown are the new 2007 Maxxis British Motocross Champions.
It went right down to the wire in a pair ofnail-biting final motos at a gloriously sunny, spectator packedPontrilas on Saturday afternoon, but both riders did what they need to,and while overall victory on the day might have gone to MacKenzie'sKawasaki team-mate Tanel Leok and sensational Fork-Rent Suzuki teamsterJason Dougan in MX2, the championships never really looked likely togoing elsewhere.
Heralded as a future British, even world championfrom way back when he was on 80's, MacKenzie had endured the bitterpain of losing a title at the death to Steven Sword in 2002, but theScot put thoughts of that defeat at the back of his mind at Pontrilasand put in the two solid rides he needed to take second overall, keepthe challenge of outgoing champ Ken De Dycker at bay and claim hisfirst (but almost certainly not his last) Maxxis British Motocrosscrown.
And while there was disappointment for CAS Hondaat having lost out in the MX1 title race for the first time in sevenyears, it was short lived as the breathtaking MX2 championship race wasdecided in the favour of the Honda teams veteran American, Mike Brown.
The 35-year-old showed the kind of tenacity thathas won the hearts of fans across the globe over the years and afterhaving to give second best to the flying Dougan in moto one, theusually fast-gating Brown overcame some tense moto two moments afterfluffing the start, and a valiant final charge by Tommy Searle, tocross the line fifth and third overall, champion by five points.
It was exciting, tense, at times controversial,and all played out in fantastic weather on a superbly presented trackand in front of big crowd. It was everything the final round of achampionship that has been this thrilling deserved.
BRITISH MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 8 - Howton Court, Pontrilas, Hereford (Oxford Ixion MCC)
1 Jason Dougan (250F Fork Rent Suzuki) 30 + 27 = 57
2 Tommy Searle (250F KTM UK) 25 + 30 = 55
3 Mike Brown (CAS Honda) 27 + 21 = 48
4 Sean Hamblin (250F Swift Suzuki) 23 + 23 = 46
5 Gareth Swanepoel (250F Molson Kawasaki) 13 + 25 = 38
6 Carl Nunn (250F BikeIt Yamaha) 17 + 19 = 36
7 Tom Church (250F Molson Kawasaki) 19 + 15 = 34
8 Shaun Simpson (Wulfsport Kawasaki) 21 + 13 = 34
9 Martin Barr (250F Bike It Yamaha) 15 + 17 = 32
10 Lewis Gregory (250F Relentless Suzuki) 11 + 11 = 22
11 Ray Rowson (Molson Kawasaki) 10 + 10 = 20
12 Carlos Campano (250F Bike It Yamaha) 7 + 9 = 16
13 Kristian Whatley (250F Ruddock KTM) 9 + 7 = 16
14 Ashley Greedy (250F PAR Homes Honda) 8 + 5 = 13
15 Scott Probert (LPE Kawasaki) 5 + 6 = 11
16 Alex Snow (250F Relentless Suzuki)6+4=10, 17 Elliot Banks-Browne (250F Swift Suzuki) 0+8=8,18 Alex Butler (DB Racing Honda) 4+3=7, 19 James Dodd (Sandiford Honda)2+2=4, 20 Luke Remmer (250F Pioneer Yamaha) 3+0=3, 21 Chris Bastick(250F Danger UK KTM)1+1=2.
RACE ONE: 1 Dougan, 2 Mike Brown, 3 Searle, 4Hamblin, 5 Simpson, 6 Church, 7 Nunn, 8 Barr, 9 Swanepoel, 10 Gregory,11 Rowson, 12 Whatley, 13 Greedy, 14 Campano, 15 Snow, 16 Probert, 17Butler, 18 Remmer, 19 Dodd, 20 Bastick.
RACE TWO: 1 Searle, 2 Dougan, 3 Swanepoel, 4Hamblin, 5 Mike Brown, 6 Nunn, 7 Barr, 8 Church, 9 Simpson, 10 Gregory,11 Rowson, 12 Campano, 13 Banks-Browne, 14 Whatley, 15 Probert, 16Greedy, 17 Snow, 18 Butler, 19 Dodd, 20 Bastick.
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Mike Brown 376 points, 2Searle 371, 3 Swanepoel 343, 4 Church 315, 5 Simpson 298, 6 Dougan 289,7 Barr 246, 8 Nunn 240, 9 Hamblin 224, 10 Gregory 176, 11 Rowson 167,12 Nicholls 133, 13 Greedy 100, 14 Banks-Browne 99, 15 Campano 83, 16Wayne Smith 83, 17 Snow 68, 18 Willet 59, 19 Sword 52, 20 Whatley 48,21 Law 46, 22 Probert 40, 23 Dark 36, 24 Chatfield 30, 25 Butler 28.
BRITISH MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 8 - Howton Court, Pontrilas (Oxford Ixion MCC)
1 Tanel Leok (450F DeGroot Kawasaki) 30 + 30 = 60
2 Billy MacKenzie (450F DeGroot Kawasaki) 25 + 27 = 52
3 Ken De Dycker (450F CAS Honda) 27 + 23 = 50
4 James Noble (450F Multitek Honda) 23 + 25 = 48
5 Brad Anderson (450F Pioneer Yamaha) 21 + 21 = 42
6 Mark Jones (450F Wulfsport Kawasaki) 17 + 19 = 36
7 Mark Hucklebridge (Motoxtreme Kawasaki) 19 + 15 = 34
8 Neville Bradshaw (PAR Homes Honda) 15 + 17 = 32
9 Steven Clarke (450F Max Sol Suzuki) 13 + 11 = 24
10 Danny Smyth (Wiseco Honda) 8 + 13 = 21
11 Wayne Smith (PAR Homes Honda) 10 + 10 = 20
12 Mark Eastwood (250 Wiseco Honda) 11 + 9 = 20
13 Wayne Garrett (KTM) 7 + 7 = 14
14 Jamie Law (450F Relentless Suzuki) 3 + 8 = 11
15 Dorren Coutts (Honda) 5 + 5 = 10
16 Glen Phillips (5Bands Kawasaki) 9+0=9, 17 BryanMacKenzie (450F Twisted7 Kawasaki) 6+1=7, 18 Oliver Sandiford-Smith(450F KTM) 0+6=6, 19 Jamie Lewis (Hockey Honda) 0+4=4, 20 Ben Saunders(450F Honda) 4+0=4, 21 Tommy Merton (???) 0+3=3, 22 BenLambert-Williams (450F SMX KTM) 0+2=2, 23 David Campbell (450F Honda)2+0=2, 24 David Williams (450F Honda) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Leok, 2 De Dycker, 3 Billy MacKenzie,4 Noble, 5 Anderson, 6 Hucklebridge, 7 Jones, 8 Bradshaw, 9 Clarke, 10Eastwood, 11 Smith, 12 Phillips, 13 Danny Smyth, 14 Garrett, 15 BryanMacKenzie, 16 Coutts, 17 Saunders, 18 Law, 19 Campbell, 20 Williams.
RACE TWO: 1 Leok, 2 Billy MacKenzie, 3 Noble, 4 DeDycker, 5 Anderson, 6 Jones, 7 Bradshaw, 8 Hucklebridge, 9 Danny Smyth,10 Clarke, 11 Smith, 12 Eastwood, 13 Law, 14 Garrett, 15Sandiford-Smith, 16 Coutts, 17 Lewis, 18 Merton, 19 Lambert-Williams,20 Bryan MacKenzie.
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Billy MacKenzie 394points, 2 De Dycker 384, 3 Noble 339, 4 Anderson 334, 5 Crockard 251, 6Eastwood 227, 7 Bradshaw 159, 8 Danny Smyth 152, 9 Rose 144, 10 JodySmyth 132, 11 Phillips 124, 12 Hucklebridge 116, 13 Bryan MacKenzie110, 14 Lewis 82, 15 Smith 81, 16 Leok 60, 17 Bird 60, 18 Coutts 59, 19Bales 52, 20 Jones 51, 21 Lawson 50, 22 Rach 46, 23 Columb 40, 24Vehvilainen 40, 25 Freibergs 36.
For full story and pictures, see T+MX NEWS, Friday, September 21, 2007.
