Molson Kawasaki’s flying Scotsman Stephen Sword completely dominated round four of the Maxxis British motocross championship - held under sunny skies at Lyng - to further extend his MX2 series lead.
Stephen Sword took another step towards re-winning the British MX2 title by completely dominating round four at Lyng on his factory KX250F-SR. Fastest in qualifying and easily fastest in both races, there was no stopping Sword in Norfolk as he was head and shoulders above the competition with only Shaun Simpson able to nudge ahead for three laps in moto two.
Such was Sword’s speed he won moto one by a massive 20 seconds ahead of Simpson with the third placed rider Jason Dougan over half a lap behind at the finish. The gap between first and second was almost equally as big in moto two with Sword finishing 16 seconds clear of Simpson who charged hard all day.
“In the first race I took the holeshot and put in four or five fast laps in the beginning and managed to stretch out a gap,” said Stephen. “I kept pushing hard and managed to keep on stretching the gap all the way to the finish.
“The second race was a little bit more difficult, I got the holeshot but Simpson was able to pass me going into turn two. I stuck with him and watched his lines and I knew I had the speed to pass him. When I did pass him I was able to pull away again quite easily.
“Overall today has been fantastic and it’s the first time since my injury that I’ve felt really on top of my game. I hope I can continue this form through to the grand prix races and try and get up at the front of those too. At the moment I couldn’t be happier with my riding, the bike is working well and all the team members are working very hard – everything’s going well.”
Molson Kawasaki’s MX1 rider Tom Church qualifies well on his KX450F at the Cadders Hill circuit ending the session in fourth position with a time right up there with the leaders. Despite suffering with a little bit of arm pump in moto one, Church charges from eighth to fourth place in the 30-minute plus two lap moto to finish just off the podium. Unfortunately for Church moto two isn’t as successful as gearbox gremlins end his race early.
“It’s been another one of those days,” said Church. “Qualifying and race one didn’t go as well as I hoped they would but fourth place in both was still okay. I suffered with arm pump in race one which really slowed my pace so I was all set to improve in moto two but my gearbox broke. I’ve got to look forward to Sevlievo now for the next GP where I’ll turn my luck around.”
Molson Kawasaki’s next outing is at Sevlievo in Bulgaria for round four of the FIM Motocross World Championship on May 11 where Frenchman Gautier Paulin will rejoin his teammates Sword and Church.
