|
After competing in the Red Bull Pro Nationals last weekend, the Moto One KTM
team this week turned their attentions to the Maxxis British Championship for
Round three, which was being held at Duns in Scotland.
 WORDS DARREN WILSON - TEAM MANAGER
New team signing, American
star, Mike Brown, was due to make his debut in the MX1 class but a problem
regarding his AMA race licence meant he will now have to wait until the next
round to get out on the race track, this left the team with Josh Waterman and
Ricky Mair competing in the MX2 class.
There was mixed fortunes for the riders in qualification as Josh quickly got
to grips with the track and put himself in 12th position, but Ricky found himself
down the order in 31st place.
As race 1 kicked off, both guy’s got poor
starts and on lap 1, Josh was in 16th position and Ricky was in 30th, Josh
was charging though and was soon finding the pace he had in qualifying and
passing riders. Ricky’s race
wasn’t going so well though, a big crash in the early stages of the race
left him in last place, he soldiered on to the finish but was in pain and decided
to call it a day and not go out for the final two races. Josh had found his
way into 13th by the half way stage and set about after 12th position, three
laps later he made his move and took 12th and then a lap later he made another
pass for 11th, by now there was just two laps remaining and 11th was where
Josh would finish.
Race 2 started much better for Josh and he found himself
just inside the top ten in 9th, the pace was frantic and he was in a group
of three riders battling for 8th, 9th and 10th.
Position’s were changing
constantly between the three throughout the race, and as they crossed the line
with three laps to go Josh was in 8th, but he slipped back to 9th and then
on the last lap he unfortunately lost another place and finished the race in
10th.
Josh got another good start in the third and final race and was this time
in 8th place around the first lap, but he was passed on lap 2 and dropped to
9th. A few laps later he lost a couple more places and then on lap six he made
a mistake and dropped back to 15th. Then two laps later a crash on the far
side of the track saw Josh go down and after re-mounting the bike he came round
to the pit area and pulled out of the race.
Josh’s two point scoring rides
were good enough to give him 21 points on the day and 13th overall, he now
lies in 16th position in the championship and Ricky is yet to score any points
this season.
Team Managers comments:
Mike Brown
With a mad rush trying to get the former A.M.A. National Champion
onto the start line for the Team’s home round this weekend, only to be
let down at the very last minute with a licence problem. Both Mike and myself
were disappointed not to have him on the track and banging bars with some of
his old foes. Mike will be back and on a Moto One Ktm for Round 4 at Lyng.
Josh
Waterman
After a few hours to reflect on the day’s racing, I was more
than happy with Josh Waterman as he continues to gel within the team. The atmosphere
the young 2009 Bymx / Mxy2 Champion is surrounded by, seems to be working in
his favour. His performance on the track is beginning to cause a few upsets
amongst the more established riders in this heavily contested Championship
class. We will go to the next round of the Red Bull Nationals with a slice
of confidence as we aim to aid Josh to reach his full potential.
Ricky Mair
This was Ricky’s first time back at the Maxxis Championship after a
few years concentrating on the Enduro Scene, the pace at this year’s
races is fast and the young lad from Inverness struggled with qualifying. We
will continue to work hard with Ricky to get him on top of his game to start
to challenge for points. |