Wet, windy and cold weather marked the fifth round of the Maxxis British Motocross Championship as the full ARB Tuning Kawasaki team returned to Northern Ireland's Desertmartin track for yet another wet weekend. Although Saturday's arrival was in good conditions, the weather turned sour throughout the night. But - Desertmartin being what it is, soaked up the rain without too much trouble, and just turned into a very rough and choppy surface that would be challenging for the day ahead.
The team's riders all qualified for their respective classes, Vytautas Bucas in twenty-ninth in the MX2, Mark Jones and Jamie Lewis in fifth and thirteenth respectively in the MX1, which bade well for the day ahead.
Vytautas started his first race in the top twenty, and although some of his rivals got past him in the early laps, Vytautas soon picked them off as the race came to a close, finishing where he started and earning him his first points in the MX2 class this season. His second race did not go as well as it should have; bike trouble after a crash in the third lap meant that he was unable to continue past the halfway point, and had to return to the paddock. However, his day overall of twenty-fifth, tied with Utag Yamaha's Lewis Tombs now puts him into the championship standings.
Mark returned to very much his old self in both races. After a small operation to remove the cartilage that had caused his agonising retirement at the British Grand Prix at Mallory Park at the beginning of the month, the knee, while still painful, allowed Mark to retain a top five finish and a top four ranking in the championship. Starting in fourth, Mark kept his place behind fellow Kawasaki pilot Tom Church and stayed ahead of Brad Anderson. In the second race, a slightly tougher start meant that Mark had to work hard staying ahead of Jordan Rose, but was unable to reel Anderson in for a third place.
Jamie struggled early on with blisters on his hands which made getting into a rhythm slightly more difficult. A top fifteen start gave Jamie the drive to attempt a top ten finish, giving Mark Eastwood a run for his money. However, in the end Mark would not give up his place in tenth, leaving Jamie just outside the top ten. In the second race, Jamie came off the start better and got back into a rhythm much quicker than in the first. After beating Jody Smyth and Jim Murro, Jamie put pressure on Jamie Smith until he was able to get past. Running in ninth for the remainder of the race, a top ten finish was assured. A last lap pass by Jamie Law meant the loss of one position, ending in tenth, but ninth overall on the day.
Gary Fletcher, standing in for an injured Mark Bishop, declared himself to be very happy with the weekend's proceedings. "The performance for the whole team today was brilliant. I'm very happy for Vytautas for qualifying and for earning his first points in the championship," he enthused.
"Jonesy obviously had an operation two weeks ago on his knee so this was purely damage limitation. But still, he pulled in a fifth overall on the day, beating some of the factory teams. Jamie, again, good, solid finishes after some DNFs earlier in the season which slowed him down a bit in the championship, but a ninth overall today is a good solid performance as well."
The team now moves on to the fifth round of the British Motocross Masters series at Pontrilas in a week's time.
