Two and a half months into the season, the Maxxis British Motocross Championship has reached its halfway point, and iFly Lanes Kawasaki made the trip up the A43 to Milton Malsor for it. Forecasts were dubious about the weather with some heavy showers on Saturday afternoon, but the weather held for much of Sunday before worsening again in the late afternoon.
On Sunday morning, the MX2 class went out for qualifying first and the team’s MX2 riders Lewis Trickett and James Harrison qualified in twentieth and twenty-third respectively, while sole MX1 rider Scott Elderfield qualified in twenty-fourth. In the MXY2 class, Ben Putnam struggled to put in a good time, but with only minutes to go, everything slotted into place just so for the sixth-fastest time in the class.
Trickett’s day was soured by a first-race crash that dropped him from twelfth to the back of the pack. From there it took him the majority of the race to recover to fifteenth place by the chequered flag. In the second race things went from bad to worse; a mechanical problem with the exhaust system forced him to pull out whilst in eighth. Much to the team’s delight, Trickett pulled a solid top ten position out of the bag in the last race after a solid run in ninth, earning him fifteenth on the day and sixteenth in the championship.
Harrison also had a tough time in his first two races. Mid-pack in the first race, he soon found himself in point-scoring positions, only to lose those with two laps to go and ending in twenty-first. In the second, a great start just outside the top ten ended in twenty-second after a mechanical issue manifested itself while Harrison soldiered on to try and salvage points. The final race saw a marked improvement. Here a start in the back of the pack soon turned into a seventeenth place, and a last-lap move gained him another spot for a sixteenth at the finish, and a twenty-fourth on the day.
Putnam’s first race didn’t get off to a good start either. Mid-pack through the first few corners, he clawed his way forward progressively before becoming embroiled in a battle for sixth. With two laps to go, he claimed victory. With track conditions becoming more of a challenge, Putnam had a much better start in the second race, finding himself in third by half time. He then closed the gap to second to under five seconds before the finish line, ending the day in fourth and missing the podium by a mere point. He is now tied for second in the championship.
For Elderfield, things got off to a shaky start too. A start in the back in the first race meant an uphill battle for him; but Elderfield delivered the goods with an eleventh place. In the second, a much stronger start in eighth then developed into a long race wedged between fellow Kawasaki riders Krestinov and Brunell, before he was able to make another last-lap move to seventh. The final race then saw Elderfield at his finest. Getting through the difficult start corner in the top five, Elderfield then ended the race in fifth after a stint in seventh, ending the day in seventh as well.
Dean Lane – Team principal
“It was a good day all-in-all, all the boys rode really well. Ben in the MXY2 put on a really good show all day. In the MX2 we had Lewis and James; it’s a shame that Lewis’ silencer broke in the second race while he was running in eighth. I think he would’ve gone forward from there, but he scored some good points today anyway. James had a sixteenth in the last race, so we’re pumped with that, and looking forward for him to move on from it. Scotty in the MX1 rode solid all day, in the last one he performed really well and came away with a fifth after a good battle with Brad Anderson.”
Lewis Trickett – MX2 #214
“Today started off rubbish; in qualifying I really struggled to get a lap in, just rode really tense, ended up twentieth in qualifying. In race 1, I was going good, was ninth, went down and ended up fifteenth, which was alright. In race 2, I was seventh and then had a failure on the exhaust so had to DNF, which really sucks and I’m really disappointed with that. I managed to pull myself together for the last race, had a good start and just rode smart because the track was really slippery and quite technical. I ended up tenth, not so bad. “
James Harrison – MX2 #153
“Qualifying was good, I never do well in qualifying. I got a twenty-third and was happy with that. In the first race I struggled a bit with arm pump because I was quite nervous before the race. I came home twenty-first; I was just outside the points which I was annoyed with. In the second race, went out there and tried my best to get points, was in seventeenth with one lap to go and my fork just fell apart. In the last race it rained and it was quite wet, and I rode decent and got sixteenth.”
Ben Putnam – MXY2 #11
“Qualifying was a bit of a shock really, I wasn’t going too well and then managed to put a quick lap in in the end. The first race was a reasonable, I scored a few points and ended sixth, and in the second race it started raining, I didn’t feel too confident, managed to get a good start and got a third, so I’m really happy. Just looking forward to the last round now, because it’s getting quite tight in the championship now.”
Scott Elderfield – MX1 #160
“Qualifying started off not too good. In the first race I thought I’d use the inside and it didn’t pan out. I got boxed in and ended up last, but came back through to eleventh which wasn’t too bad really. In the second one I started off on the outside and got a pretty good start and came through and ended up with a good position seventh which was not bad. In the last one I got a good start and kept pushing and managed to end up fifth by passing Waterman on the last lap. I’m pretty pleased.”
