Molson Kawasaki walked the top step of the podium once again in the Maxxis British Motocross Championship thanks to Gareth Swanepoel’s results of fourth and first at Manor Farm, Langrish last weekend.
The South African showed no signs of jet-lag after arriving back from Japan earlier this week and his second moto win at the fast circuit under pleasant conditions on Sunday confirmed his third career win on British soil.
The 2008 contest is now at the halfway stage after Langrish represented the fourth round from eight on the schedule. Swanepoel suffered with a sticking throttle in the first moto which meant that he could not challenge Americans Mike Brown or Sean Hamblin for the lead and finished some way behind title rival Tommy Searle but comfortably ahead of the fifth placed rider. The 21 year old countered his dose of bad luck in the second race with a perfectly executed performance to register his third moto win from the last four.
“The day went pretty good,” he evaluated. “I had some bad luck in the first moto because there was a problem with my throttle from the fourth lap and it kept on sticking open. It made the rest of the race quite difficult and long! I managed to salvage some points for fourth.”
“In the second moto I had a good start and fought my way to the front on the first lap,” he continued. “From that point on it was pretty straightforward because I made the lap-times and then only had to worry about the backmarkers. I kept focussed and it was good to win that one. For sure it was important to finish in front of Tommy. I only took one point away from him but at least it was something and we’ll keep on trying to beat him.”
Tom Church had a hard first moto after a heavy crash left the 25 year old needing to come back through the pack to eleventh, just behind reigning champion Carl Nunn. He fared better after a more positive launch from his qualification spot of fifth in Moto2 and ran with Swanepoel for a while before engaging in a fight with Sean Hamblin and finally finishing third for his third top three moto appearance of the season.
“It was a hard track and really fast,” he said. “I had a big crash after losing grip after a jump on a patch of ground that had been watered. I managed to get up and finish the race but was feeling pretty stiff. I had a decent start in the next moto and followed Gareth for a while before fighting again with Hamblin like I did in the last GP. Jason Dougan broke down, or something happened to him that just left the both of us and I was happy to get third at the end.”
Molson supported rider Ray Rowson had two steady outings with a brace of seventh positions for the same overall ranking. The teenager is now feeling fit again after his knee scare at the Italian Grand Prix and is looking to wrap up the British Under 21 title – a series he currently leads and has been dominating - in the coming months.
Swanepoel now trails Tommy Searle by just eight points. Church is further back in sixth but just four points from breaking into the top five. Rowson, who has been in fantastic form in the Under 21s, winning seven from eight motos, is ninth.
Molson will head to St Jean d’Angely on the west coast of France for the seventh round of the FIM World Championship next weekend.
MX2 Moto1:1. Mike Brown,
2. Sean Hamblin,
3. Tommy Searle,
4. Gareth Swanepoel,
5. Elliot Banks - Browne,
6. Jason Dougan,
7. Ray Rowson,
8. Shaun Simpson,
9. Martin Barr
10. Carl Nunn,
11. Tom Church
MX2 Moto2:1. Gareth Swanepoel,
2. Tommy Searle ,
3. Tom Church,
4. Sean Hamblin,
5. Carl Nunn,
6. Shaun Simpson,
7. Ray Rowson,
8. Martin Kohut,
9. Jake Nichols,
10. Martin Barr
MX2 Overall result:1. Gareth Swanpoel 53,
2. Tommy Searle 52,
3. Sean Hamblin 50,
4. Mike Brown 40,
5. Tom Church 35,
6. Shaun Simpson 34,
7. Ray Rowson 34
MX2 Series standings after 4 of 8 rounds:1. Tommy Searle 200,
2. Gareth Swanpoel 192,
3. Mike Brown 176,
4. Shaun Simpson 167,
5. Sean Hamblin 159,
6. Tom Church 155,
7. Martin Barr 124,
8. Jason Dougan 106,
9. Ray Rowson 97,
10. Lewis Gregory 94
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