Rob Hooper Racing Yamaha’s Ryan Houghton continued his good form with 6th position at Hawkstone Park on Sunday in round 6 of the Maxxis British Motocross Championships.
Keeping it in the sixes this consolidates Ryan’s 6th position in the series standings with two rounds to go.
The team were dealt a blow on Sunday with Houghton’s MX1 team mate Kristian Whatley withdrawing for personal reasons. On the plus side MX2 racer Robbie Dowson made an unexpected appearance under the awning, which was a brave move considering the shoulder injuries he suffered at Duns.
Qualifying was a success on both fronts, with Houghton recording his best position of 3rd and Dowson in 21st, which based on his normal qualifying position, was a strong showing.
With the track heavy a good start was pivotal and Houghton’s 2019 Yamaha YZF 450 pulled him to 6th at the first bend in Moto 1, but with carnage ahead early on the first lap, he took avoiding action and in doing so dropped down to 10th. Not finding his flow or the lines to pass, he crashed out dropping him down to 13th. With fresh air ahead of him, he found his rhythm and started to pull in places, eventually ending up 8th just a few seconds off 6th.
It wasn’t the best of starts for Houghton in Moto 2, but as is customary with Ryan he dug deep and fought his way quickly into 7th. With good speed, and with some of the front runners suffering mechanical gremlins, he came home for a fantastic 5th position and 6th overall.
Dowson’s first moto continued his run of bad luck when he got caught in a first bend melee, and with a damaged machine he pulled out of the race. In Moto 2 he was running in the top 15 but a crash set him back to 25th. A good turn of speed saw him pull back to 18th position, earning him another 3 points to his championship tally.
“It was a good weekend.” said Team boss Rob Hooper “Ryan yet again, brought home the result with two gritty races. In the first one he had a couple of little falls, but he worked hard, rode hard and kept pushing. In the second race he didn’t have the start we wished for, but he pushed through the pack early on. He was fortunate with a couple of people having DNF’s and he got a 5th which is a super result and keeps him in contention in the championships. He is still within striking distance of Elliott (Banks- Browne) in fourth place. Maybe the top 3 are beyond him, but if anyone slips up ahead of him he could jump up one or two spaces in the championship.”
On Robbie Dowson’s day Rob said “It was another typical Robbie day, with crashes and setbacks. He tries his hardest, but he doesn’t have the best of luck, but you can never fault him for effort he just needs some luck and he will get a good result.”
Houghton was pleased with his days’ work saying “I had my best qualifying of the season today. I had a good first lap and went pole, but a couple of other riders went quicker and I dropped to fourth, but then I did another great lap and went third. I was really happy with my speed and felt good on the track. It was super technical, it rained all night and made it really hard work, but I felt really comfy out there.
“In the first race I made a good start in about 6th, but (Evgeny) Bobryshev was crashing and came across me and hit Tommy Searle and I hesitated. I went round the next corner and three people passed me and I ended up down in 10th. I just couldn’t get going, it was really one liney, and I was getting frustrated, and I had a big crash and high sided. Once I got myself back up I had a bit of a gap in about 13th and I could get myself into a bit of a flow and got up to 8th, and close to 6th and 7th, so I was happy with my speed going into the last one.
“Then in the second race I had a mare of a start and was about 15th coming round the first lap. I just plugged away in the first half of the race, worked my way up to seventh, then (Ivo) Monticelli and Bobryshev went out so I went up to 5th, and got 6th overall. So it was quite a good day, and I am still 6th in the championships so it’s all positive.”
Robbie was a forlorn figure in the pits at the end of the day and said “It wasn’t a great day. In the first race I went down with loads of people at the start, got tangled up in that, snapped my front mudguard off, lost my peak…
“I have been suffering with an illness all week, and I started to feel dizzy so I pulled out. In the second race I wasn’t doing too bad. I was up in 14th and then had a bit of a spill and winded myself a bit and dropped to 25th. I worked my way back to 18th which wasn’t too bad but not what we wanted.”
Both Kristian and Ryan are in action again this week as they race in the first ever “Rock it ‘til Sundown” Midweek Motocross Classic at Tincleton in Dorset on Wednesday.
Photo Credit: Elliot Spencer
