Raising the Barr
By Dick Law on 16th May 13
With three strong top-three finishes, but without a race win in the class Jonathan Barragan climbed to the top step of the MX1 podium for the first time at the third round of the Maxxis British Motocross championship at Milton Park.Meanwhile, winner of the first two motos and the man on form, series leader Tanel Leok ground to a halt on the wet and slippery final race of the day with a dead engine.
In the MX2 class things were normal as Elliott Banks-Browne (HM Plant KTM) stormed to two convincing wins in races one and two, but maturely settled for a comfortable second to Frenchman Steven Lenoir rather than risk throwing away 22-points chasing down the leader in the testing conditions.
It was like riding two different tracks over the course of the weekend.
When racing started on Sunday morning the track had been watered to a just-right condition, but halfway through the afternoon it started to rain, turning the polished surface in some places to an ice-like condition with yellow flags popping up all over the track as racing continued.
In MX1 race one Leok holeshot followed by Nicolas Aubin and Barragan and for the rest of the race the three European riders gradually pulled away from the rest of the chasing pack.
Kristian Whatley from ninth at the end of the first lap passed ex-world champion Steve Ramon then multiple British champion Brad Anderson on his way to fourth at the flag.
Jason Dougan was having a day he would like to forget as he dropped out of fourth place with five laps to go and would go pointless for the day, while Shane Carless was quietly going about his business finishing his first race of the day in sixth, just behind Ramon.
Carless got the holeshot at the start of race two until, on lap three, first Barragan then Leok found a way past him.
But at the halfway stage, Barragan slid off, letting Leok through and into the lead, with Carless following him into second place.
It took Barragan just a lap to re-group and re-pass Carless, with Whatley, from tenth at the start, pushing Carless down another place with just one lap to go.
Anderson had a steady ride coming home fifth just in front of Gert Krestinov.
The change in the weather and track conditions made for a very interesting final race of the day, as Aubin got a flyer out of the gate and was into turn one a bike's length in front of the chasing pack.
Leok was second, with Whatley
third as the yellow flags came out in force with riders sliding off everywhere on the challenging track surface.
Barragan came from eighth to pass Anderson, Scott Elderfield and Carless, before five laps of the 13-lap race was completed.
It started to go wrong for the leaders on lap eight, as first Whatley had his roll-off come off his goggles then, after he threw them away was doing his best to stay out of the other riders' roosts.
Then, with four laps to go Leok's bike stopped, letting Whatley into second ahead of Barragan.
But with Whatley struggling with vision and with the help of a back marker, Barragan came through to take the overall from Whatley, with Carless a happy third and Leok a dejected fourth.
Leok still has the leader's Red plate, but is just 18 points clear of Whatley, with Barragan eight further adrift.
After the race Barragan said: "In the first and second races I think my speed was really good.
"My start in the last race was not so good though and I was really lucky that Tanel's bike broke.
"I lost some points at the last round so an overall win is very good to make up some ground.”
