Maxxis British Motocross Championship opens 2011 season

Title-sponsor Maxxis reports that the 2011 Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship got underway in Exeter on Sunday 6 March with five different winners from six races, leaving both the MX1 and MX2 classes “wide open”. Despite the cold weather, Maxxis says the season opener drew a large gallery of spectators who watched Shaun Simpson on the LS Racing Honda CRF450 take victory in the MX1 Class ahead of Buildbase CCM-Racing’s Tom Church and Jason Dougan of the Bike It Cosworth Wild Wolf Yamaha team. Despite a win in race three, the fact that pre-event favourite Stephen Sword did not finish the first two motos means he is lying in 14th position with some catching up to do.

A solid performance by Maxxis Henderson LPE Kawasaki rider Gert Krestinov, during which he posted ninth, seventh and eighth place finishes put him in eighth on the standings. Arnaud Tonus, Dougan’s Bike It Cosworth Wildwolf Yamaha team mate, scooped the overall win in  the MX2 Class, ahead of Mattis Karro (Route 77 MVR-D Honda) and Jake Nicholls (HM Plant Red Bull KTM).  Teammate Zach Osborne, another pre-event favourite, won the opening two MX2 races but failed to make it on to the podium after mechanical failure put him out of the third moto. Maxxis Henderson LPE Kawasaki’s Bryan Mackenzie struggled in the first race, but went on to finish seventh and fourth in the following two motos to net overall eighth position.

The MX1 and MX2 races were supported by a Veterans event in which Maxxis Henderson LPE Kawasaki’s Brian Wheeler, Greg Hanson (MotoXtreme Kawasaki) and reigning champion
Terry House set the pace – finishing over five seconds ahead of the next rider in the 34-strong field in the opening race. Hanson leads the standings ahead of Wheeler, who won the opening moto and backed this up with a fourth place in race two, and then House, but all three made it clear they intend to continue where they left off in 2010.

Round two of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship will be held at the famous Canada Heights circuit in Swanley, Kent, on 27 March. The MX1 and MX2 stars will be in action again along with the MXY2 Youth Class riders, who will embark on their first outing of the season.

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