Hawkstone International 2019
The highs and lows of Motocross! This weekend the team took 3 riders to Hawkstone International, Brad Anderson on his Two-Stroke alongside team mate, Liam Knight in MX2 and Dominic Lancett in the MXY2 Open Class on his 250 F.
Hawkstone International always attracts some of the world’s finest riders and this weekend certainly did that. Both MX1 and MX2 had extremely stacked classes which attracted a huge crowd to this iconic venue.
Young Dominic Lancett did extremely well wrapping up the MXY2 class and taking the top step of the podium, whereas Liam Knight got wiped out in the 2nd Moto damaging his knuckle and Brad Anderson had a huge crash resulting in the Ando being carted off to hospital with facial injuries.
Dominic Lancett – MXY2
Dominic got off to a flying start in qualification taking the fasted lap straight off, then bettering it in lap 4 and finishing pole position. Both Race 1 and Race 2 showed a similar story. He holes hot them both and although he slipped off at the top of the hill in race one, he still managed to pull back the lead to finish P1 in race 1. In race 2 Dominic led from beginning to end to finish 1-1 for 1st overall. Fabulous bit of racing from young Dominic who was making his debut on his 250F. It was the first time he had rode this bigger bike at Hawkstone.
Liam Knight – MX2
This was Liam’s first ride in his new team and the nerves kicked in a little, especially in qualification. He looked extremely fast but the class was stacked. 15 GP riders. All but 2 of the best 250 riders in the world. Liam managed 24th gate pick which wasn’t ideal on a concrete start. Unable to prep his gate with sand, left him at a disadvantage. Despite this, Liam had an excellent first race, finishing 12th in Moto 1. Moto 2 was going even better and his was sitting in 9th position when Martin Barr washed out in front of him, leaving his bike on the floor right in front of Liam. With nowhere to go, Liam crashed out. He managed to get up and finish the race but having bashed his hand pretty hard he struggled to grip the bars and only managed a 29th position. It was a day of crashing for many riders and even with a 12-29, Liam managed to finish 17th overall for the day. However, with his hand now swelling up, he chose not to race in the Super final.
Brad Anderson – MX2
Brad qualified ok. He started off in 4th position. The track was very slippery with the loose sand covering a very hard compacted surface. By the end of the session Brad was sitting in a comfortable 15th place, so just an ok pick of a gate.
Race 1 saw Ando get an excellent start and he was soon leading the pack on his Two-smoker, against 15 GP 4 stroke riders. It was hard to keep out front and he moved down a few positions to 7th place. Then it all went terribly wrong. As he came out of the woods both Brad and Jed Beaton took the same line and both came off. Although Jed managed to get back up and carry on, Brad and his bike cartwheeled throwing Brad off into the ditch. It all happened so fast but it appears that his bike hit him mid-air, probably knocking him unconscious before he landed. The race was stopped whilst Brad was moved to safety.
The good news is that although Brad was taken by Ambulance to hospital, he has no broken bones. He has made a bit of a mess to his face but has been lucky to just require 7 stitches and lots of pain killers. His face is very bruised and swollen with a cut near his eye and on his lip. Brad Anderson is one very tough cookie.
Quote from Team Manager, Adrian Kirk:
One emotional weekend. Gutted for Ando and obviously we have been very worried about him. So relieved that his injuries aren’t too serious. He was going well on his 2-stroke too.
Liam was going well too, especially in the second race. It was such a stacked class to race in. Hopefully his hand injury won’t be anything too serious.
And Dominic put a smile on all our faces and cheered up the mood by taking the top step of the podium with a 1-1 win in the Open MXY2 class. He rode awesome. So pleased for him. He has adapted quickly to the 250 F. Hopefully this result is the first of many to come.
