What' a year for Kristian
By TMX Archives on 20th Jan 10
KRISTIAN Whatley proved once again that consistency wins championships as the youngster on a LEP Kawasaki only won two out of the 12 British MMX Open Class championship races, but strong high place finishes in the rest clinched him the crown, from an on-form Brad Anderson.
It all started way back in February at Little Silver in Devon where track conditions were prefect.
The start line for the first race looked like a who's who from the best of English motocross with most of our GP runners entered and using the event for a world championship warm up as there is no better practice than actual racing.
This first start of race one was red flagged as Jonathan Pettit and Matt Stephenson had a horrible crash off the start line as their bikes became entangled, but Carl Nunn on his
MVR-D Suzuki got the holeshot at the re-started race and went on to take the first race win of the year.
While Nunn was out in front, Anderson was in the wars having tangled with another rider at the re-start when his clutch cable was broken and, despite his efforts to get it to work again, he was stranded out on the track and recorded an unusual DNF.
Stephen Sword, on his Red Bull KTM, and Tom Church riding, a CCM, chased Nunn over the line with Whatley fourth.
In race two, it was Anderson all the way as Sword tangled with Nunn off the line, making their race more difficult than it needed to be.
Church made his way into second place by the halfway stage as Sword, after his trouble, found a way past Lewis Gregory, on his MotoXtreme Kawasaki, for third.
Church and Sword ended the day on equal points with Church climbing on the top step of the podium on race two results, but the GPs called for these two riders and that would be the last time we saw then in the championship.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 2010
Kristian Whatley took the title with strong riding and consistency, finishing on the podium in all but round one.