Gareth Swanepoel is now second in the MX2 Maxxis British Championship and just one point off the lead after taking his fourth victory of the year and fifth career success at a sodden Whitby circuit in northern England yesterday. The South African, who was second fastest in qualification, rode to first and second positions, taking his fourth chequered flag of 2007 on the KX250F Molson Kawasaki. The Whitby course hosted the sixth round of eight in the premier national series. The venue was damp and challenging with rainfall making things extra difficult for the riders.
Swanepoel took the holeshot in the first moto and held off a late challenge from Mike Brown to seal first place. In the next race he recovered from a mediocre start to pass a lagging Tommy Searle and then also Brown again for the lead until the heavens opened and torrential rain soaked the circuit. Reigning champion Carl Nunn adapted well to the new conditions and passed the Molson rider in the closing moments.
“It was an incredible meeting actually, simply to win four from six rounds now and get within one point of the championship lead,” Swanepoel said. “The first race was pretty good. I enjoyed the track and had a good rhythm going through the ruts. I had a bit of a battle with Brown and then pulled a gap until we got to the backmarkers where I lost some time but was able to win it. In the second I didn’t have such a good start and was stuck behind Tommy for a while as he had brake trouble. Once I was in second I closed down Brownie and passed him with six minutes remaining. It was about then that the rain really came down. The track became really slick and I have been in situations like that before where I have thrown a race away in the last two laps, so I took it easy and just wanted to bring the bike home. Nunn came from nowhere to pass me but I knew I had the overall.”
Tom Church finished seventh overall with results of eighth and sixth after struggling to find some lines that allowed him to make positions. He slipped out of the top five in the first moto and was then held up by backmarkers in the second that caused him to lose time from the leaders. “It was a tough race and the track was hard,” he admitted. “The conditions were not the best and the rain started to come down three or four laps before the end of our second race. It wasn’t the best day.”
The 25 year old placed just ahead of team-mate Stephen Sword who was eighth with tenth and seventh. The Scot and one of only five British winners of a Grand Prix this century is slowly coming back to race fitness and will enter his second world championship event next week after missing more than fourteen months away from the track through injury.
Molson supported teenager Ray Rowson last week extended his run of victories in the Under-21 British Championship to six races and enjoys a 38 point lead in the competition with two rounds left. Rowson had a technical problem that caused a DNF in the first moto but he did pick up nine points for twelfth in the second outing and was fourteenth overall.
Swanepoel is second in the championship standings and now right back in the hunt for the title after leader Searle failed to score in the second moto. ‘Swanie’ lies behind Brown by just one point with two rounds and still 120 points left to race for. Church is now fifth. Sword has already made his way into the top twenty after just two meetings and Rowson clings onto the top ten.
Wulfsport Kawasaki rider Shaun Simpson, who earlier this year led the championship, is now fourth after taking the same ranking at Whitby.
Molson Kawasaki will now have a hot appointment next week for the tenth round of the FIM World Championship as the series heads to Faenza, Italy for the Grand Prix Citta di Faenza.
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