Hawkstone International 13th February 2022

Hawkstone International turned out to be a great start to the Motocross season. 

Despite horrendous weather forecasts, the rain kept away for race day and crowds packed in to see an excellent day’s racing. 

The track was not the usual deep sand. The surface had been sealed to protect the predicted rain, leaving a rock-solid track with a slippery top layer. So, our 3 sand riders had an unexpected challenge ahead of them. 

Jake Millward, 303, showed excellent promise in the MX1 class. Going into the first corner in 2nd place, Jake put an impressive pass on Glenn Coldenhoff to take a 1.5 second lead for the first 5 laps.  Millward then made a mistake at the bottom of the famous hill, and he slipped out wide, coming down and causing damage to the bike.  He got back up and pushed hard to catch the pack back, but his clutch had taken a battering in the fall.  After 2 more laps Jake made the decision to pull off, sort the bike out and come back in race 2. 

Unfortunately Race 2 didn’t go quite to plan.  The track had changed and Jake did not feel 100% comfortable with the suspension settings.  Although he got a relatively good jump out the gate, his speed just wasn’t as quick as in race one.  He battled on and came in a comfortable 10th place with the only riders beating him being the regular GP riders. 

Jake therefore finished 15th overall.  He contemplated coming back out in the super final but decided to wait till the first round of the British to show his true potential. 

Kyle McNicol, 57 also had an excellent first race as his debut Verde Shiloh KTM, in the MX2 class.  5th out the gate and the first Brit behind Conrad Mews.  He settled into 6th place and held the position from beginning to end, finishing an excellent 6th place in Race 1, behind Isak Gifting, Tom Vialle, Kay De Wolf, Conrad Mews and Liam Everts. 

Kyle didn’t get as good a jump out the gate in Race 2, heading up the start straight in P14.  He tried hard to repeat race 1 making mistakes due to his eager intent.  A crash in lap 2 pushed him back to P26.  He continued to push and managed to pull back through to 18th, giving him an overall 12th place finish for the weekend. 

Bailey Johnston, 119, had a very steady meeting, and achieved far better results than both the team and he anticipated.  This was his first MX2 meeting, having just moved up from the 125 Rookie Class.  New to the team he was keen to impress but full of nerves pre-race.  Once on the line, it all slotted into place.  He was 14th out the gate, slotted back into 13th and stayed there right to the end with a solid ride. 

Race 2 was pretty much the same.  15th out the gate, settling down to 16th and holding the position to finish Race 2 in 16th place, giving him 16th overall in his first MX2 Pro Race. 

So an excellent start to the race season.  All 3 riders showed potential.  Now with 4 weeks training they should come back even stronger for the first round of the Revo ACU British Championship.