After a long winter of preparation the SJP Moto Husqvarna made the trip to Culham Moto Parc near Oxford for the opening round of the 2019 Judd KTM British Youth Championship. With a bumper line up of riders for the new season, the team were hoping for a great start to the season.
When the team arrived at the venue on Friday the track was in prime condition and with 65cc and 85cc classes stacked with riders it was going to be an exciting weekend of close racing.
The Saturday morning started with the qualifying sessions for the all groups and it provided an insight of the results ahead for the weekend, with a number of the team’s riders posting lap times inside the top 5.
In the 65cc class Reece Jones started the weekend in fine style and claimed the opening race win in his first ever National Championship event. Reece backed this excellent result up with another race win on Sunday morning and three solid results to secure 5th overall at the end of the weekend, Reece’s results also saw him take 2nd overall in the Rookie Class. Alongside Reece in the 65cc class was Archie-Jay Girdham who showed his consistency all weekend long. Archie started the weekend with a 5th place finish and followed it up with three 4th place finishes and rounded the weekend off in 3rd place for 4thoverall just ahead of Reece.
The Small Wheel 85cc class featured three team riders including Finley Evans, Billy Askew and their female rider, Lucy Barker. For the team Finley Evans was to produce a fantastic weekend of results on route to claim number of firsts. Finley ended the Saturday by claiming his first National race win and the followed it up with a second on Sunday morning and with his other top 3 results Finley went on to claim his first ever National win.
For Billy Askew it was to be a tough weekend after coming into the event on the back of a challenging few weeks of crashes. The lead up to the event left Billy struggling to find his flow and finished the weekend in 16th overall and 8th overall in the Rookies. Female rider Lucy made a strong start to her first season in the Small Wheels and finished 31st Overall and 19th in the Rookies ahead of the opening round of the Girls Nationals.
In the Big Wheel 85cc class the team were due to have four riders competing but unfortunately Hudson Roper was still recovering from a broken arm in Spain but was still at Culham to support his team mates. On the track Charlie Hayman dominated the proceedings and rode fantastic all weekend taking three race wins and two seconds to claim the overall victory and second overall victory of the weekend for the team.
Team mate James Barker and Jayden Haigh finished the weekend of solid results on tied points with James taking the advantage. Jayden came into the weekend looking for a comfortable start to the his first season racing at National level and took 11th overall and 8th in the Rookies, while James was moving up from the Small Wheel class and made a solid start to the year in 10th and 7th in the Rookies.
After a stunning set of results at the opening round, the team are now looking forward to the heading to the second round at Pontrilas.
Leighton Haigh – Team Manager – this weekend has been a fantastic weekend for the team with some great results. With two overall victories and to have 5 of the 8 riders finish inside the top 10 and another tied for a top 10 finish it is great. Charlie and Finley both rode great to take victories. I’m also really pleased for Reece after he claimed the first race win at his first ever National event. Overall it has been a fantastic weekend for all the riders and the team and we can’t wait to head to the second round now.
