British Motocross ChampsQualifying: Steve Dixon's Cosworth Bike it Yamaha Team scored three wins out of four in the Qualifying sessions of the opening round of the series at an overcast Little Silver circuit this morning. In perfect tract conditions, it was Swiss visitor Arnaud Tonus who took the opening MX2 Q2 Qualifying session ahead of his team mate, Zach Osborne. However, in the Q2 Superpole the positions were reversed with the USA rider going over one second quicker. Equally, Jake Nicholls (HM Plant Red Bull KTM) and Mattis Karro (Route 77Energy MVR-D Honda) exchanged placed in Q1 and Q2 ahead of Elliot Banks Browne (DB Racing Honda) and Mel Pocock on the TAS Suzuki.It looked as if Jason Dougan was going to repeat his teams performance when the MX1 class took to the track as he posted the fastest time in Q1 ahead of Stephen Sword (Buildbase CCM) and Shaun Simpson. However, in the all important Superpole it was Martin Barr (Proppa.Com KTM) who lept from a Q1 5th position to a brilliant Superpole win. Dougan finished second with Sword third. A large crowd of spectators and overcast conditions. Racing: In a dramatic start to the season, Bike It Cosworth WildWolf Yamaha riders Zach Osborne (MX2) and Jason Dougan (MX1) won their respective opening races at Little Silver.After dominating the morning qualifying sessions, the Yamaha Teamsters has a dream start to the season, when both riders had relatively easy wins, Osborne taking over the lead at one third distance, whilst Dougan took control of MX1 from lap one. Osbornes team mate Arnaud Tonus took second, ahead of the teams main rival for the championship, Jake Nicholls (HM PLant Red Bull KTM), but the surprise was Samsung Yamaha's recent signing, Ray Rowson who led the opening laps. MX1 polesitter Martin Barr was dead last after a first corner pile up. whilst Dougan stamped his authority early on. Stephen Sword looked strong on the Buildbase CCM, challenging Brad Anderson (PAR Honda) for most of the race until his machine expired with two laps remaining. This allowed Shaun Simpson (Honda) to take over second after coming through from just outside the top five on the opening lap. TAS Suzuki signing, Gordon Crockard put in a strong performance to take fifth behind the second Buildbase CCM rider, Tom Church. Moving up from the MX2 class last year where he won a moto, Graeme Irwin (HM Plant Red Bull KTM) finished in 6th ahead of the first local rider, Alex Snow on the Lanes Kawasaki machine. Barr eventually climbed up to 13th to score a much needed 8 championship points. Veterans: Greg Hanson, Brian Wheeler and Terry House continued where they left off at the end of last season in the Veterans encounter at the opening round of the 2011 series at Little Silver. These three finished over five seconds ahead of the next rider in the 34 rider line up ! Just over one second separated the three in the Qualifying session with Hanson taking the pole position. However, in race one it was Wheeler who just managed to hold off Hanson by less than one second, with House a further eight seconds adrift on a track drying very fast. At the time of this update the Veterans had one more race. Copy courtesy of Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship. |