Molson Kawasaki’s Tom Church came within one point of overall victory at the Desertmartin circuit for the fifth round of the Maxxis British Championship in Northern Ireland last Saturday as the team fielded a full-strength line-up for the first time this season.
The 25 year old picked up 3rd and 2nd positions in the two motos at the circuit 30km from Belfast. The layout was not popular with the riders as the fine terrain yielded a stony and rocky surface and the course was extremely fast.
Church was the team’s best performer. He was pipped to second position on the final lap of the first moto and this result would prove to be decisive in the overall classification as he hole-shotted and then briefly led the second race eventually securing second place behind Carl Nunn. Series leader Tommy Searle was able wrap-up the overall by one point from Church. “It was not a bad weekend but obviously it was disappointing to miss the win because I lost one position at the end of that first moto,” he commented. “I was satisfied with my riding though and the track was not easy because it was so fast and stony; I think the sand has pretty much worn away there now. I was pleased to get the holeshot in the second moto and the overall points are good for the championship.”
The conditions would catch out Gareth Swanepoel in both sprints as the South African suffered a blow to his championship aspirations. A protagonist in both heats ‘Swanie’ nevertheless suffered a heavy fall while running with the leaders in Moto1 and could only finish 18th. Left feeling dizzy and with a black eye the gusty rider climbed aboard his KX250F for Moto2 and proceeded to pull out a gap of more than twenty seconds over the pack along with series leader and main title rival Searle.
Attempting to seize the lead Swanepoel again hit the red dirt and finished the 30 minute and 2 lap distance in 8th. “It was a bad day with two poor races” he evaluated. “The track was tight and really fast. I had a pretty big crash in the first moto and hit my head. I felt all-over-place and was far behind. In the second I was fighting with Tommy and we pulled away from the others by quite a lot. I got really close and went to overtake but just clipped him and went over the berm. It was another pretty heavy fall and I hurt my ribs and just wanted to finish from there. After having some bike problems at the start of the year I knew we could not afford any more mistakes but we will keep trying for this title until the end.”
Stephen Sword completed his first British Championship meeting for more than a year with two top ten finishes. The Scot is coming back from a broken right leg sustained at the German Grand Prix in May 2006 and was content with his 10th and 9th positions in Ireland despite struggling with some arm-pump.
“Obviously I’m happy to be back racing,” he said. “It feels like such a long time. The motos went OK and it was positive to get those results under my belt. I started well in the first one and was running fifth for a while but I had some arm-pump and my lap-times slowed. Towards the end they came back to me and I was able to pick up the pace. I didn’t get such as good start in the next one but rode quite well and felt positive about the experience. I have been mainly riding motos during the week and now I feel that I am missing race time. I will just aim to get quicker and build from here.”
Sword will compete again in the UK next week before the following round of the British series at Whitby in Yorkshire in a fortnight’s time. He will make his return to the world championship at the Grand Prix Citta di Faenza at Faenza on July 15th.
Talented teenager Ray Rowson, who is dominating the Under 21 British competition, claimed 7th position in the first moto after a poor start but had to pull out of the second after a fall. His machine was struck by Lewis Gregory and the subsequent damage meant that he had to pull into the pits.
In the points table Swanepoel is now third and staring at a gap of 43 to Searle at the top. Church is fourth and 3 behind his team-mate. Rowson is tenth.
Molson Kawasaki will now take a few days to regroup before heading across the North sea to Uddevalla for the Grand Prix of Sweden and the ninth round of the FIM World Championship.
MX2 Moto1- Tommy Searle
- Martin Barr
- Tom Church
- Jason Dougan
- Mike Brown
- Carl Nunn
- Ray Rowson
- Shaun Simpson
- Elliot Banks - Browne
- Stephen Sword
MX2 Moto2- Carl Nunn
- Tom Church
- Carlos Campano
- Tommy Searle
- Shaun Simpson
- Mike Brown
- Jason Dougan
- Gareth Swanepoel
- Stephen Sword
- Wayne Smith
MX2 Overall result- Tommy Searle (53 pts)
- Tom Church (52 pts)
- Carl Nunn (49 pts)
- Mike Brown (40 pts)
- Jason Dougan (40 pts)
- Shaun Simpson (36 pts)
- Martin Barr (27 pts)
- Carlos Campano (25 pts)
- Stephen Sword (24 pts)
- Elliot Banks – Browne (23 pts)
- Wayne Smith (21 pts)
- Gareth Swanepoel (18 pts)
- Ray Rowson (17 pts)
MX2 Championship Standings (after 5 of 8 rounds)- Tommy Searle (253 pts)
- Mike Brown (216 pts)
- Gareth Swanpoel (210 pts)
- Tom Church (207 pts)
- Shaun Simpson (203 pts)
- Sean Hamblin (159 pts)
- Martin Barr (151 pts)
- Jason Dougan (146 pts)
- Carl Nunn (124 pts)
- Ray Rowson (139 pts)
21. Stephen Sword (24 pts)
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