ARB Tuning Kawasaki enjoyed a cracker of a race meeting at Dean Moor in Cumbria this past weekend. The second British Masters Motocross series round enjoyed much nicer weather up north than some other areas of Europe; dry conditions with some dust definitely were a change from the cold and wet experienced by the World Motocross Championship in Spain.
The new schedule in the series runs the qualifying sessions for the Pro classes on Saturday afternoon, while the youth classes are given opportunity to race four races. The team's youth rider Vytautas Bucas qualified in sixth in the Youth 125 class earlier in the morning; Mark Jones and Jamie Lewis qualified in both Pro classes, Mark in fourth and third respectively, Jamie in sixth and seventh.
The Saturday youth races saw mixed results for Vytautas. The first race was a good race between the main protagonists of the class, with Vytautas in second for the majority of the race but ending fourth. The second race was more mixed; a start in fifth turned into a runner-up position, but a crash dropped him back to seventh. The races on Sunday again saw solid performances by Vytautas; the first race was a solid run in third after starting in fourth, the second was a strong battle with leader Mel Pocock. The weekend result was a third overall.
For Mark the first race in the Pro 125 class was a race for the lead. Starting in fifth he soon battled with Neville Bradshaw, taking over from his rival two thirds into the race. The second Pro 125 race was even easier than the first. The battle with Bradshaw was short-lived this time, leaving Mark with the win again, and the day overall win. The first Pro Open race was somewhat tougher for Mark as he had to battle with formidable opponents in this class. Riders Mark Hucklebridge and Jordan Rose had to make way for him, and he snatched the race win away from Wayne Smith in the last few seconds of the race. The second race was a walk in the park. Leading from start to finish, Mark walked away with day overall honours again.
Jamie got into the swing of things too; although he suffered from blisters on his hands, Jamie posted four top ten results in both classes. Battling with the likes of Kristian Whatley, Mark Hucklebridge, David Campbell and Richard-Mike Jones, Jamie took two top fifteen starts in each of his first two races to turn them into a ninth and a fifth respectively, while the second Pro 125 race was a solid ride in sixth and then fifth. The last race of the day saw Jamie crash and lose five places and end in ninth again. Jamie's day overall were a sixth and a seventh place.
Team owner Mark Bishop declared himself very satisfied with the day, especially so with Mark's four wins:
"Yes, we had a very good weekend. We had dry weather with some dust, which made a good change from last weekend. Mark won both Pro 125 and Pro Open class races, Vytautas had a great battle with Mel Pocock in his last race and good top five results in the others, and Jamie unfortunately suffered from blisters, or else he would've had four top five results too."
The team next travels to Lyng in Norfolk for the fourth round of the Maxxis British Motocross Championship on Early May Bank Holiday weekend.
