The Milden' touch
By TMX Archives on 9th Apr 09
KRISTIAN Whatley (Hanson Kawasaki) climbed on to the stop step of the Open class winners podium at round two of the ACU British MMX championship where crashes, breakdowns and a narrow rough track made putting two high place finishes together very difficult indeed.
In the two other MMX classes staged at the event, Scott Elderfield got to grips with the conditions to take two convincing wins in the PAR Homes Under 21 Championship, while ATV World's John Mitchell stunned the crowd with a fantastic display of quad racing. After winning race one, he battled through from the back of the field after a crash just after the first turn to claim an amazing second win.
It was a very nice spring day for round two of the Solo classes and the opening round for the Quads at the sandy well-watered track at Mildenhall, nestled in the shadow and flight path of the American Air Force base in Suffolk, but the lack of a commentary – local by-laws prohibit them – robbed the event of the atmosphere you would expect at a British Championship event.
OPEN CLASS
LOCAL hero Carl Nunn got the holeshot at the start of the first Open class race as Luke Kennett crashed in turn one and Brad Anderson went over the bars at the first jump.
Nunn still led at the end of the first lap, but had Whatley and Alex Snow in his wheel tracks as the leading trio had already gapped the rest of the pack, which was headed up by Scott Columb.
Whatley forced his way to the front on lap five, Stuart Morrison's mount resembled a pogo stick down the straight as his rear shock gave out.
Two-laps later Nunn's bike came to a stop with clutch problems, handing second place to Martin Barr, who had made his way up from eighth on lap one. Meanwhile, Anderson, despite doing all he could from his first turn spill, had only climbed as high as 22nd spot.
UNDER 21
BOTH Under 21 races were all about Elderfield. In race one he got the holeshot and just cleared off into the distance.
Shane Carless completed the opening lap in second with Lewis Tombs, Joe Dark, Graeme Irwin and James Cottrell all in hot pursuit.
Irwin's smooth riding style lent itself to the bumpy track and the youngster soon passed Dark, who had made a mistake, and a faltering Tombs, while all the while Elderfield stretched out a very healthy lead.
With ten-minutes left on the clock, Irwin finally found a way passed Carless for second, but try as he did he couldn't close the gap on leader Elderfield.
By the time Elderfield crossed the finish line, the gap was down to a more respectable (for Irwin) 9.5-seconds, while third place man, Carless, was a further 20-seconds adrift.
QUAD
LINDSEY Duke led the 32-strong Quad contingent round the first lap of this the season opener for the Quad Championship, but by the time the lap was completed, Dutch import, Joe Maessen was in the lead ahead of Mitchell, Jason MacBeth, Paul Holmes and reigning champion, Paul Winrow.
With a third of the race gone, Mitchell was in control and slowly pulling away from Maessen, as Duke slipped down the field.
With five laps to go, Holmes made a mistake which allowed both Winrow and Stefan Murphy through. However, he quickly re-grouped and managed to re-pass Murphy before the end of the race.
Mitchell crossed the finish line almost ten-seconds clear of Maessen, with MacBeth third, a further 20-seconds behind.