HAWKSTONE FAREWELL
After last years wash out the final round of the British motocross championship took place in warm overcast conditions with quite possibly the last sighting of MX1 British champion Brad Anderson as strong rumors could see him off to contest the Australian championship next season. With both MX1 and MX2 titles already won before the gates dropped the crowd attendance was lower than it would of been but the racing for the podium positions was as fierce as ever. MX2 was missing two of the main men with Zach Osborne out injured and Elliot Banks-Browne electing to rest his injured wrist it left the door open for Pocock, Mackensie and Nicholls to move up the leaderboard. Sumsung Yamaha's Ray Rowson was still in 10th position despite having not raced the last few rounds through injury and again wasn't on the start line.
MX1 was a titanic battle for runner up spot between current second placed rider, Samsung Yamaha's Kristian Whatley and KTM rider Martin Barr. Qualification saw Barr top the order with Whatley in 4th, so to 'Superpole', where gate pick would be determined, reigning champ Anderson snatched pole with Barr in 2nd but Whatley was feeling the pressure and down in an uncharacteristic 5th!
Race 1 saw Ando stamp his authority on the championship, with the title already in the bag he was riding with no pressure and lead from flag to flag but the eyes of the Samsung Yamaha team where firmly on their rider Whatley as he was behind championship rival Barr! Barr had tucked in behind Anderson and held a good lead over Whatley who was down in 4th. Barr's fellow KTM rider Tom Church wasn't about to make it easy for the Samsung rider to get past and held him at bay for two laps allowing Barr to settle into a good rhythm one which Whatley couldn't break. Across the line it was Ando, Barr and Whatley.
Race 2 and it was now very tight for runner up honors with Barr on top form and Whatley still not fully recovered from his shoulder injury sustained back in July it was going to be a tough remaining 2 races. The gate dropped and it was no surprise to see Anderson hit the front, followed by two orange machines of Church and Barr, Whatley was no where in the top ten! Barr had picked up his pit signals and knew this was his chance, on lap four he moved past both Church and Ando to take the lead and went on to take the win closing the points gap to what would turn out to be single figures! Whatley was pushing hard but suffering from lack of training and could only fight through to 5th.
Race 3 and Whatley needed to be in touch with Barr when the checkered flag came out. Anything more than 2 places adrift would see his second place go to the KTM rider. As the dust settled after the gate dropped it didn't look good for the Samsung Yamaha pilot, Barr was lying second behind Church and Whatley had again not made a good start and was in the back order of the top 10! Anderson was third and putting pressure on Barr and the two swapped places for what seemed the entire race until lap 7 when Ando found his way past Church and went on to then take the win. Barr was no the one feeling the pressure as his pit board was telling him Whatley was moving up the order he needed to get past Church and put some riders between himself and the Samsung rider. Instead luck was on Whatley side as Kawasaki's Gert Krestinov was now hounding Barr, Krestinov put a move on Barr on the final lap to finish 3rd with Barr 4th and Whatley safe in 5th.
So the championship got very tight at the end for Samsung Yamaha with Whatley just hanging on to second place by 5 points from Barr in third.
A mention also for Jackson Evans who was again riding the big 450 in his first Maxxis. Proving he really needs to get some serious start training he still managed to get an abysmal start coming past the timing truck at the start in 27th! By lap 4 he was in the points! 20th position and still moving forward, by the time the flag came out he was in 18th position.
The Samsung Yamaha youngster backed it up again in both the next two races mixing it up with established stars such as Lewis Gregory in race 2.
MXY2 rider Joe Bamfield moved up to the MX2 class for the final round of the series and proved he had the pace running just outside the point scoring positions in race 1 until a fall dropped him down the order.
Race 2 saw the Samsung rider with a similar start running just outside the points but problems on lap 3 saw him retire and take no further part in the days racing, but another rider that will feature in the points in 2012 for sure.
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