Kawasaki Racing Team’s Billy Mackenzie scored sixth position at a chilly and windy Moneyglass Demesne circuit for the Grand Prix of Northern Ireland and the thirteenth round of fifteen in the FIM MX1 Motocross World Championship. Tanel Leok unfortunately could not pick up any points as the season begins a rapid countdown.
The new racetrack at Moneyglass Demesne had been principally created with a view towards the 2008 Motocross of Nations. The venue did not enjoy the kindest of inaugurations as heavy rainfall on Friday and Saturday forced the organisers to cancel most of Saturday’s practice sessions.
A 45 minute period (including 30 minutes of Timed Practice) decided the order in the start gate for the MX1 and MX2 classes. The bikes were pushed to the limit as the riders strained the engines through the deep and thick mud. On Sunday the cloud was much higher and a strong and cold wind meant that the terrain swiftly dried. Work had been carried out on the course (with big jumps and some technical sections) during the night and overall the track received a lot of positive feedback for the lines and options it offered even if the jump take-offs and landings were too rough and soft and verged on dangerous.
Leok and Mackenzie qualified with 5th and 8th positions despite having only 45 minutes to get accustomed to the conditions and force their way through the swamp.
Mackenzie started ahead of Leok as both filled places in the top ten on the first lap. Mackenzie looked confident and pushed up to fourth with some aggressive and brave riding but then suffered a near-crash that forced him to drop his pace. He was also a little unsatisfied with his machine set-up and by the end of the moto could rise no higher than seventh. Leok was struggling to make any ground on the leading pack and slipped off the bike in the corner approaching the wave sections. He caught his left leg under the machine and retired far behind everyone else and with some pain in his knee.
British Championship leader Mackenzie was happier with some technical alterations for the second moto and chased leader Sebastien Pourcel on the first lap before a small and slow speed tumble in the same place as Leok had gone down earlier dropped him out of the top five. Leok was in the lower reaches of the top ten but was hit by James Noble over a jump and crashed, bending his bars and meaning another trip to the pits. Mac was passed by Steve Ramon in the closing stages and missed out on fourth position.
“This was my kind of track but I was having bike problems all weekend really,” he said. “The changing weather meant that we did not get hardly any practice time to set things up and I felt it was down to jetting. We sorted it out for the second race and I was feeling much better on the bike. It was a pity about the crash at the start because I was ready just to go away. I have closed some ground in the championship now and Donington is next so I’m looking forward to that.”
“Yesterday and qualification was OK but otherwise it was a really bad GP for me,” said Leok. “I did not get a good rhythm in the first race and then crashed and hurt my knee; I could not believe I had another DNF but it would get worse. I was seventh or eighth at the start of the second race and was feeling better compared to the first but I passed Noble and then we jumped together and collided. The handlebars broke in the crash and there was nothing else I could do.”
The double DNF for Leok hit his plans to rise higher in the standings and allowed Mackenzie to draw within eight points of the Estonian even though the 23 year old is still tenth. Both KRT representatives still have a decent chance of making the top seven as Jonathan Barragan lies fifteen points away from Leok and twenty-three for Mackenzie.
The Northern Irish Grand Prix was the first of three in a row for KRT as the world championship reaches a fast conclusion. Mackenzie will face his home round at another newly built track inside the Donington Park complex next week and the Grand Prix of the Netherlands closes the international calendar the weekend afterwards at the popular but demanding Lierop circuit near Eindhoven.
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