R2. MX Nationals - Landrake - 1st May 2022

TOUGH WEEKEND AT ROUND 2 OF THE MX NATIONALS

MICHELIN UK MX NATIONALS – R2 – LANDRAKE – 1st May 2022

The second round of the Michelin MX Nationals took the team to Landrake, Cornwall. Sadly, we were a rider down with Kyle recovering from an accident that occurred just over a week ago. After a warm Saturday with plenty of sunshine, lots of rain in the night and throughout Sunday made the track a real test for all the riders.  

EXPERT MX2

BAILEY JOHNSTON:

QUALIFICATION:

Bailey took his time getting to grips and learning the track, and managed to secure fifth place in qualifying. This was a solid starting point for the races ahead. 

RACE 1:

A good start in race one, saw Baily complete the first lap in second place (MX2), but he struggled to get into any rhythm and started dropping down the pack; settling in sixth position. Later in the race he started to find the flow and moved up to P5, although a mistake with a few turns to go dropped Bailey a couple of position to P7.  

RACE 2:

Not a great start in race two left Bailey mid pack in a mix of MX1 and MX2 riders. It took Bailey a few laps to find his groove, but he soon got his head down and started to make passes on the hard slick track. Slowly moving forward, he brought it home in P5. 

RACE 3:

Another good start for Bailey in race three saw him sitting in P2 (MX2) after lap one. With all the rain throughout the night, the track was very slippy and it meant tough conditions for all the riders. Three laps in, Bailey lost the back end heading up one of the hills, just before the big step-up jump and went down hard. On one of the steepest parts of the track, it was a struggle for him to get back up and get going again and by the time he had, he was dead last. After fighting through to the finish, he managed to cross the line in twelfth place despite sustaining an injury to his right leg. 

RACE 4:

After being assessed for his injury, Bailey decided to soldier on and head out for race four to try and gain as many points as possible, without denting his championship too much. He gritted his teeth and with a lot of determination he came home in eleventh place.  This was a great result considering he couldn’t take his right leg off the foot peg.  

OVERALL:

Bailey showed great speed and strength once again throughout a tough weekend, finishing eleventh overall. Now it’s time for him to heal up so hopefully he will be 100% for the British Championships this coming weekend. 

QUOTE FROM BAILEY JOHNSON:

Overall the weekend was one to forget for me. On Saturday, I really struggled to find my feet with the track and my head wasn’t with it leading to some not so good results. Then on Sunday I felt really good on the bike in practice, went out for the race and was up the front with first and second, before a really big crash left me with an injury, resulting in me just riding around for points in the last race. Definitely a weekend to forget, and hope I can get back on the bike ASAP.  

PRO CLASS:

JAKE MILLWARD:

QUALIFICATION:

Jake struggled a little to get a solid, mistake-free lap in on the very technical track. He managed to put in his fastest lap of the session on his last attempt, putting him in seventh place at the end of qualifying 

PRO RACE 1:

It wasn’t the best of starts for Jake and he went down at turn one, which put him dead last with a fair gap to the next rider in sight. However, Jake got his head down and showed great motivation and quickly started picking his way through the pack, bringing the bike home in tenth place.   

PRO RACE 2:

Another tough start for Jake saw him come out of the first turn towards the back of the pack. With some smart riding and great speed, Jake managed to quickly move forward and pick his way through the pack up to P7. Unfortunately, due to an issue with the bike, he was forced to retire resulting in an unfortunate DNF. 

OVERALL:

Overall, a day full of bad luck for Jake but with a lot of positives to take from his riding moving on to Round 3 of the British Championships this weekend. 

QUOTE FROM JAKE MILLWARD:

It was another weekend full of bad luck really with a crash on the first lap in race one, but it was good to come from dead last to get back to tenth. This is just a weekend to put behind me, get my head down and hope for some better luck at Lyng this weekend.  

QUOTE FROM TEAM MANAGER, ADRIAN KIRK:

A tough weekend for both riders on a very technical track. Not the results we were hoping for but both gave it their all. Onwards and upwards to the next round of the British Championships this weekend at Lyng.