Apico Honda headed to the rolling hills of South Wales to compete at round 5 of the Motul British Motocross Championship at Monster Mountain last weekend. With stand-in rider Tom Murphy sidelined due to a practice crash earlier in the week, it was down to Tom Grimshaw aboard his Honda CRF450R 2026 to fly the Apico Honda flag for the weekend.
When the team arrived at the track on Friday, you wouldn’t have thought it was the same track as Sunday’s racing! With all the water gone and the conditions prime, Tom headed out for practice and put in a solid third lap for 7th fastest in the class. With Jeffrey Herlings, Conrad Mews and Ben Watson taking the top 3 spots, and Tom’s time being just over a second behind Watson, times were close.
Tom got a decent start inside the top 10 and quickly moved to 5th by the end of the first lap. The racing with Oliver and Purdon was close initially, then Tom dropped to 6th for most of the race and was unfortunate to get grit in his eye in the last laps, after which Sterry and Hammal passed him, leaving him 8th across the line.
In race 2, Tom had a slightly better start and was in 6th place. He lost places in the early part of the race to Purdon and Oliver, though he was hot on their heels over the course of the next few laps. As Tom was closing on Bruce looking for the pass, he got it wrong and lost the back end, going down hard and losing 4 positions. Tom pushed on, taking back most of the places he’d lost in the crash and crossed the line for 9th and 9th overall in the Apico Pro MX1 Class.
Dylan: “The results on paper may not have been Tom’s best this season, though the way he rode in the first race and the way he came back from the crash in the second race was encouraging.
Tom Murphy, who has been standing in for Josh Gilbert, had a heavy crash whilst practising the week before and decided not to race Monster Mountain.
We now look to the next round of the Motul British Motocross Championship at Canada Heights in July. Thanks to all the sponsors and the Apico Honda staff who make this possible.
