Jake Nicholls (Buildbase Honda) took the lead in the MX1 title chase with a pair of dominant wins as the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship supported by Pro Clean returned to Canada Heights on Sunday.
In the MX2 class Conrad Mewse (Hitachi ASA KTM UK) repeated his double win at the series opener at Culham at the start of the month as a huge sun-kissed crowd flocked to the spectacular Kent circuit.
Nicholls, who won the overall at the opening two rounds of the 2017 series before a dislocated hip in Italy put him out for the rest of the season, took a gate-to-flag win in the opening moto with an advantage of just under 30 seconds at the flag.
On the immaculately-prepped track he made an early pass in race two on Elliott Banks-Browne (Geartec Husqvarna) before checking out to win by more than 14 seconds.
He’ll now head to his home round at Blaxhall on May 6 with a seven-point lead over Russia’s Evgeny Bobryshev (Lombard Express Suzuki with PAR Homes) who won a tie-break for second from Banks-Browne.
“I’m so pleased,” said Nicholls. “It couldn’t have worked out better. Hopefully having the red plate will drag a good crowd into Blaxhall and Elliott’s going all right too which makes it two local riders on form.”
Defending champion and series leader Graeme Irwin (Hitachi ASA KTM UK) stalled in the second corner of race one and had to work hard as he came from the back to 11th. In race two he was a solid third but slips to third in the championship.
In the British Expert MX1 class Shaun Southgate (Herts MX Honda) took the overall from Jordan Divall (Kawasaki) and Carlton Husband (Phoenix Tools Honda).
Mewse was unbeaten at Culham and he dished out more of the same on Sunday. Fastest in qualification by almost two seconds, he failed to get a clean gate in race one but after fighting his way from ninth on the opening lap he hit the front just after half-distance and cleared off to win by over 18 seconds.
In race two he started outside the top five but again worked his way up the field, made a late pass for the lead and went on to win by over 11 seconds.
Mel Pocock (REVO Husqvarna UK) and his team-mate Martin Barr ran 2-3 and 3-2 with Barr taking second overall on a tie-break to advance up to fifth in the championship as Pocock moved into second ahead of Josh Gilbert (Honda Adventure Centre) who ended the day sixth.
In the British Expert MX2 class the overall went to Josh Spinks (M Smith KTM) ahead of Liam Knight (Pope Racing KTM) and Ashton Dickinson (Craigs Yamaha).
Canada Heights also featured round two of the British Two-stroke Championship and it was James Dunn (GL12 Racing KTM) who came out on top with a 2-1 card good enough to get him the decision from team-mate and defending champion Mike Kras.
The Dutchman won the opener but was fourth in race two after suspension issues forced him to back off. Ashley Wilde (RMJ Husqvarna UK) ran 3-2 for third to consolidate his second place in the standings.
“It was a really good second race,” said Dunn. “The track was quite difficult – there were some real deep ruts and hard take-offs and some choppy bumps as well. It was difficult to get a nice rhythm going but we made some changes to the suspension between the first and second race which worked really well.”
Picture © Nuno Laranjeira
