 The fourth round of the 2012 Maxxis British Motocross Championship will be remembered as a bittersweet day for the HM Plant KTM UK who pick up one red plate but lose another during a day of very mixed fortunes.
Clear blues skies and blazing sunshine greet racers and race fans alike at a revamped Milton Park for the fourth round of this year’s eight stop series. Having steadily improved throughout the year Elliott Banks-Browne proves just what he’s capable of with three class wins in MX2 that not only give him the overall win on the day but also the lead in the championship as previous pace setter Mel Pocock has a day to forget. Such is Elliott’s dominance he manages to turn a 15 point deficit into a 19 point lead as the championship hits its halfway mark.
By contrast the team’s MX1 rider Kevin Strijbos’ day is one to forget as bad luck and then some more bad luck means he slips from first to third in the championship chase. In race one mud and stones jam on his rear brake on meaning he has to stop and clear the debris by hand before he can charge through the pack from last to ninth. Race two sees the Belgian star take a steady third and then race three ends in a no-score as a freak technical problem forces him to retire. That zero score hands the series lead to STR KTM’s Matiss Karro and dumps Strijbos back to third although he’s still just 10 points behind the leader.
The team’s development rider James Dunn struggles to find his form at the tight and twisty Northamptonshire circuit and ends the day without points. Undoubtedly hampered by switching between two and four-stroke machinery James will be looking to make amends at the next round of the European EMX-125 series where he’s a regular visitor to the podium on his much favoured 125 SX.
After world championship rounds in France, Portugal and Belgium the Maxxis British Motocross Championship resumes with round five at Desertmartin in Northern Ireland on June 24.
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