Snow had a Silver-lining!
By TMX Archives on 7th Jan 09
THE 2008 MMX British Under 21 Championship was the closest for many years with no fewer than five different moto winners from the 12-race series.But, in the end, when all the points where tallied up, Alex Snow was the winner just twenty points ahead of Kristian Whatley and the destiny of the crown was decided at the very last race of the series. Snow's campaign got of to a flying start at round one at Little Silver in Devon, a switch from the originally slated Matchams Park, and that was back in late February.
At the start of race one, Snow lead the pack of 40-youngsters into turn one, followed by Shane Carless and Daniel Preston.
With the race clock showing that half the time had gone, Carless was still on Snow's case and keeping the pressure on the race leader. By this stage James Dodd was a lonely third with Preston, Josh Waterman and Joe Dark all squabbling over fourth spot.
As the finish flag fell, Snow crossed the line just over 1.5-seconds in front of Carless, but though he crossed the finish line in third, Dodd had a one- minute penalty imposed for a noise infringement when his machine it was found to be over the permitted post-race limit.
Whatley, mounted at this time on a Robinsons KTM, raced into turn one at the head of the pack in race two with Snow snapping at his heels. Thus the stage was set for a race-long duel with both riders just going for it. Then, with two laps remaining, Whatley made a mistake and Snow was there to take full advantage to snatch the win. Dark finished third place with Matt Moffat fourth.
Round two was a couple of months latter at a remarkably dry Whiteway Barton track – considering it had snowed overnight. Another round in Devon.
Preston and Snow lead the pack into turn one in the opening Under 21 moto with Whatley and Dark in hot pursuit. Snow moved through into first position by the end of lap four.
Whatley took the lead at the half-distance mark as the leading pair opened up a small gap on the rest of the pack. However, in the closing stages, as Whatley opened up an ever increasing lead, Preston closing in on Snow, while Ashley Greedy passed Darren Shears for fifth place.
So, Whatley took the win by 11-seconds as Snow and Preston crossed the finish line almost together.
James Dodd dived under Moffat to snatch the holeshot in race two, but by the end of the opening lap Smith was putting Dodd under pressure and ousted his rival for the lead on the very next lap as Dodd exited the race.
Whatley had had a poor start and was charging his way up the leader-board from 12th spot. He slotted into third place at the mid-point.
The fast trio of Smith, Snow and Whatley kept up the pace till the flag to finish almost 30-seconds in front of the rest, headed up by Carless, Moffat and Dark.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2009