Molson Kawasaki’s Stephen Sword takes over as MX2 British Championship series leader while team mate Tom Church holds down 5th in MX1 after Canada Heights.
On a cold wintery day at Canada Heights in the South East of England Stephen Sword gave the Molson team plenty to smile about by taking the MX2 British championship lead with consistent 2-4 finishes on his KX250F-SR. With track conditions quite tricky due to deep ruts and a slippery surface Stephen rode smartly and smoothly to take second overall on the day and take a comfortable 10 point lead in the series.
“Although I didn’t put my fast time in during the right part of timed qualifying – I should have done it at the start but mine was set near the end – I was reasonably happy to get second position,” claimed Stephen later.
“In the first race I got a good start but by the time I got into second Simpson had a sizable lead and he was riding really well so I just concentrated on what I was doing and rode as hard as I could but I stayed in second.
“I was looking forward to the second race because I knew I could still win the overall if I won the race. But I got caught in a first turn accident and although I didn’t go down I lost a lot of time. I had to come through the pack, which was quite difficult because it’s quite tight here but I felt I was riding really well – much better than I did in the first race. My lines were good, I was attacking well and I’m generally just really happy with that race even though I only finished fourth.
“Overall it was a really good day for me. Two good consistent rides again which is what you need during the early part of the season and I also took the lead in the championship by 10 points – a really good day.”
In the MX1 division Tom Church is fast and smooth all day on his KX450F but suffers a little bit of bad luck in the opening moto. Crashing on lap one of the 30-minute plus two lap race Tom’s forced to charge hard all moto long and proves his speed and fitness is good by passing at least one rider a lap and running lap times similar to the race winner’s on his way to an 11th place finish.
Moto two is much more positive for Church as he gates in the top five before moving into third place where he battles briefly with Brad Anderson for second place before settling for third after making some small rider errors late in the race.
“The first race I went down on the first lap and it took ages to get going again,” explained Tom. “I just had to put my head down and make the most of a bad race and charge hard until the end which resulted in an 11th place finish. I felt good on the bike and my pace at the end of the race was the same as the leaders’.
“In the second race I got a much better start but took a little bit too long to get around Smyth who was running third and by the time I had the first two had gone. I ended up third in the second race after making a couple of mistakes, which was a much better result.
“I learnt a lot today and I now know what I need to work on before the first GP at Valkenswaard in a couple of weeks time.”
Also in action this weekend was Gautier Paulin who made his race comeback at the 39th Annual International motocross of Wuustwezel in Belgium. Now fully healed from his pre-season hand injury the Frenchman used the three mixed capacity motos to test out his speed on the KX250F-SR in readiness for the first GP of the season at Valkenswaard in two weeks time. Improving in each of the three races it’s anticipated Gautier will be up to full speed in time for the start of the world championship.
Gareth Swanepoel was unfortunately not in action this weekend due to the fact that the South African is recovering from a minor operation that will help aid mobility and ease pain in the Molson team rider’s wrist.
