Blaxhall turned orange

Latest signing to the Hitachi KTM UK team, Todd Kellett, showed his worth by taking the overall MX2 result at Round 6 of the Maxxis British Motocross championship with 4-1 finishes at the Suffolk circuit of Blaxhall.

The sandy Blaxhall circuit, run by the hard-working Woodbridge club in Suffolk, always produces some great racing and even more impressive than Kellett’s win in the second moto was the fact that he had only signed for the team less than a week before the event.

It was also a good day for his fellow Hitachi teammates also on the mighty KTM 250 SX-F, with race one winner, Josiah Natzke, finishing third overall while Ben Watson just missed out on the podium but still managed to increase his championship lead by a point over Martin Barr.

Josiah got the holeshot at the start of the first MX2 race with Todd in fifteenth while Ben, who was riding his second bike and not happy with its setup, was struggling down in eighteenth place.

For the rest of the race, Josiah seemed to be able to open up a bigger and bigger lead and looked smooth and confident. Ben took his time moving up through the pack of rival riders and by the halfway point he was in sixth with Todd just three places behind him but on the same pace.

With three laps to go Ben made a little mistake that allowed Todd and Barr to pass him. Josiah crossed the finish line almost ten seconds clear of Mel Pocock and Lewis Tombs with Todd fourth and Ben seventh place.

It was Brad Todd for the holeshot at the start of the second race from Josh Spinks, Liam Knight and Jay Hague with Kellett in sixth and both Watson and Natzke suffered bad starts, down in the twentieth and twenty-ninth respectively.

By the halfway stage, Kellett found a way past Brad Todd for the lead while Watson was already up to eighth place with Natzke three places further back. As the race came to a close Ben was in second and closing fast on his team mate, but Todd just managed to hold onto the win by under a second as the pair crossed the finish line almost together. Josiah seemed to hit the wall halfway through the race and finished ninth which was enough for third overall and some very useful championship points.

The overall results for the day was Todd Kellett first from Pocock and Josiah, but in the championship Ben now has a 42-point lead over Barr, with Todd moving into third place thirty-two points behind Barr. With two rounds left to go there are loads more points up for grabs and the MX2 championship only going to get more interesting.

Todd Kellett #98 – MX2 overall winner.

Josiah Natzke #33 – MX2 third overall

Ben Watson #919 – MX2 fourth overall and championship leader.

“It’s not been the best of days for me but most of it was out of my hands as we had problems with two bikes today and I had to go out in the last race with an almost standard bike and still came home in second. But we must go away with the positives and although the day should have been a lot better we have increased the championship lead by one point”

Results

MX2, race one:

1 Josiah Natzke (Hitachi KTM)

2 Mel Pocock

3 Lewis Tombs

4 Todd Kellett (Hitachi KTM)

5 Brad Todd

Race two:

1 Todd Kellett (Hitachi KTM)

2 Ben Watson (Hitachi KTM)

3 Martin Barr

4 Josh Spinks

5 Mel Pocock

Overall:

1 Todd Kellett (Hitachi KTM)

2 Mel Pocock

3 Josiah Natzke (Hitachi KTM)

4 Ben Watson (Hitachi KTM)

5 Martin Barr

1 Ben Watson 263 (Hitachi KTM)

2 Martin Barr 221

3 Todd Kellett 189 (Hitachi KTM)