Billy Mackenzie won his second Maxxis British Championship event of the season, after the sixth round of the 2007 series at the Whitby circuit was reduced to a one moto scorecard. The Scot aced the first moto for his third chequered flag from eleven and a return to the podium steps after a brace of fourth positions two weeks ago in Northern Ireland. The second race was started and ran in torrential rain. Mackenzie fell on the first corner and was hit by another machine. The impact to his KX450F-SR bent the gear lever. The 23 year old pitted to see if repairs could be carried out but had to rejoin the fray in last position and use second gear for long stretches of the remaining race time.
The Japanese Grand Prix winner rode superbly to make his way up to fifth position, passing fallen main-title-rival Ken de Dycker, but the sodden moto was then red-flagged and the provisional results taken from the previous lap placing the KRT representative down in eighth. The team lodged a protest as the race should have been cancelled with the classification not counting towards the overall score as outlined in the rule-book. The decision has so far been provisionally confirmed meaning that Mackenzie has his second national win of the year and has stretched his lead in the series by three more points over de Dycker which now stands at sixteen.
“It was a complicated day but I was riding well and feel like I deserved the win,” Mackenzie said who qualified second quickest. “The first race was great. I got away and had a six second lead. De Dycker got close as we found the backmarkers but I put some hard laps down and kept smooth to take the moto.”
“The rain really plummeted throughout the whole of the second moto,” he continued.
“I went down at the start and someone ran over me. The gear lever was gone and there was nothing that could be done in the pits so I went out and kept smooth and was riding well. I made up a lot of time and was enjoying myself. De Dycker had crashed so I passed him and reached fifth but then they put out the red flags. The results should not have counted and we made our protest for the second moto which was accepted. In my opinion the track was still rideable and I was still doing all the jumps. As far as I know the meeting will only count from the first race which gives me another overall and a couple more points in the championship.”
Mackenzie has been on the podium in five from the six rounds run so far. He fronts the MX1 standings in his first season in the bigger class by 16 points with two rounds and 120 points left. KRT travel to Italy this week for the tenth round of fifteen in the FIM World Championship at Faenza for the Grand Prix Citta di Faenza.
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