Shaun Simpson (RFX KTM powered by PAR Homes) took his second double win in a row in MX1 and Dylan Walsh (REVO Husqvarna UK) repeated this feat in MX2 at round seven of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship supported by Pro Clean at Foxhill on Sunday.
Still playing catch-up after his no-score with technical problems at round five at Desertmartin, Simpson has now narrowed the gap to series leader Tommy Searle (BOS Kawasaki) to 35 points with one round remaining.
“Foxhill was great,” said Simpson. “First in qualifying and two moto wins – I couldn’t have done anything more – but It’s going to be tough trying to make the championship happen at the last round.
“Obviously, Tommy’s just doing all he needs to do at the moment and it’s definitely his title to lose but we’ve kept the motivation high and we’re going to each round trying to get race wins.”
Holding a 12-point lead at the start of the day from his team-mate Alvin Ostlund, Walsh quickly gelled with the track and his maximum score gives him an 18-point lead over the Swede with just one round to go.
“It’s been a great day for me,” said Walsh. “I’m really happy to run 1-1 again. The track’s very similar to the one at my house in New Zealand so I felt pretty at home there and really enjoyed it.”
On the revamped circuit with a reworked lay-out Simpson was unstoppable. Fastest in qualification by over a second, he’d just taken the lead from Harri Kullas (Cab Screens Deos Group Racing Honda) in the opening moto and was about to start his seventh lap when the red flags came out for an injured rider.
With the race past half-distance the result stood so Simpson took the win by just over one-and-a-half seconds from the Estonian with Jake Millward (Chambers Racing Husqvarna) third ahead of Mel Pocock (ASA United KTM). Riding with a broken hand, Searle was fifth.
Searle, who was clearly concentrating on protecting his championship advantage, led the opening lap of race two before Simpson moved ahead and three laps later Elliott Banks-Browne (Geartec Husqvarna) snatched second.
An early pass on Millward gave Pocock fourth with Kullas pulling through from ninth after the opening lap to claim fifth on the final lap and book his place on the second step of the podium ahead of Searle.
The opening MX2 moto was a three-way battle between Walsh, Ostlund and Josh Gilbert (Buildbase Honda) with Walsh and Gilbert trading passes until a dramatic last lap when the pair clashed at the bottom of a hill. Walsh was able to keep hold of the lead but Gilbert lost momentum which allowed Ostlund to pass for second and he was less than a second behind at the flag.
Martin Barr (Crescent Yamaha) was fourth ahead of Michael Sandner (Hitachi KTM fuelled by Milwaukee) who was making his series debut as a fill-in rider on the injury-hit team.
A first lap crash put Gilbert at the back of the field in race two as Walsh and Ostlund broke free from the pack and went at it for the full 25-minute plus two lap duration with the Kiwi again taking the win by under a second.
This time Barr was third to clinch his first Maxxis podium of the season with Gilbert missing out on a tie-break after recovering to fourth ahead of Liam Knight (Verde Substance KTM).
In the fiercely-contested MX2 Youth class Joel Rizzi (RFX KTM powered by PAR Homes) moved another step closer to the title with his 1-2 card earning him the overall from Ike Carter (PGVM Yamaha) who ran 4-1 and Tom Murphy (Team Green Kawasaki) who went 2-3.
With one round to go Rizzi leads Carter by 28 points.
Picture © Imagerich Media
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