Best Motocross brakes by EBC are great in tough conditions at the British GP

Posted by admin

August 23, 2011

RACE REPORT – British GP

Matterley Basin just due east of Winchester hosted the most anticipated event of the British motocross calendar this weekend – The British Motocross Grand Prix. Boost Energy KTM was once again given the opportunity to field both riders, and the team looked forward to making a good impression in front of its fans and sponsors.

Saturday morning’s free practice set a good time for riders Martin Barr and Nathan Parker as they familiarised themselves with the extraordinary circuit. Pre-qualifying practice later in the afternoon set the starting positions for their qualifying race at seventeenth and twenty-fourth. While Barr cemented his position more firmly in the qualifying race late on Saturday, Parker had to make do with twenty-sixth.

Then Sunday dawned – Race day. Although the start for Parker left him in the rear of the pack and the usual first-lap pushing and shoving dropped him back even further, he worked relentlessly to push forward again, returning to twenty-fourth by half-distance. However, much to the team’s disappointment, Parker landed short off a downhill jump, banging his head on the bars and aggravating the neck injury sustained originally at the German Grand Prix. This earned him a trip to the local NHS hospital to make sure there was no serious damage and he forfeited his place in the second race. He nonetheless returned to the circuit later in the afternoon to lend his support to team-mate Martin Barr.

For Barr, the first race started off in the middle of the pack after a good start. He struggled to make much progress through the pack, having his hands full with regular Grand Prix veterans Kevin Strijbos, Jonathan Barragan and Xavier Boog. By the half-way mark, Barr found himself settled into a rhythm, and soon chased after Carlos Campano and Tom Church to the end. Fifteen position and another three points in his pocket was the reward.

The ill-fated second race got off to a bad start, and Barr found himself in the back of the pack trying to make up time quickly. After a bad landing, Barr sprained his wrist and tried to continue, which only made matters worse. With the fifth round of the Red Bull Pro Nationals being held on the next weekend he made the decision not to jeopardise his current second place in the standings and pulled in just before the red flag was raised for an incident elsewhere on the circuit. The decision not to race the restarted second race was made without much ado.

The points earned in the first race gave Barr a twenty-third overall for the day, and places him thirty-fourth in the world championship overall.

“What can I say?” mused team principal Steve Turner at the end of the day.

For Martin the first race was pretty steady, got stuck in there and finished with an eighteenth which was not too bad. In the second race he was running alright and looked comfortable, but then he landed wrong off a jump and bent his wrist back. It wasn’t worth the risk trying to finish because of our races next week. Nathan injured his neck again after short-jumping a down-hill jump and that was the day done for him. All in all, not the best day we’ve had, but I’m hopeful that the lads will be okay for the Red Bull at Hawkstone.”

Nathan Parker:

Good. Bad. Worse. Disaster. That’s how it went for the whole weekend for me. Free practice on Saturday went well before we had a little rain shower that made the track pretty slippery. I struggled a little bit in pre-qualifying practice, made a few big mistakes and ended up twenty-fourth. In the qualifier I was up to twenty-second when I made a few mistakes and they dropped me back to twenty-sixth. In the only race today I had a terrible start and was pulling through the pack in the first few laps. Then I cased one of the big step-down jumps into the middle and hurt my neck again like I did in Germany and that was the end of my day. I’ll be straight down to the Physio to see if he can get me back into shape for next week ”

Martin Barr:

The weekend started off OK, in first free practice I was twelfth and in pre-qualifying practice dropped back to seventeenth. For the heat race I got a pretty good start and it took me a few laps to get my rhythm going and eventually finished seventeenth. In the first race today I got an OK start, but I’m just not used to the races being so long, and compared to the British championship it’s hard to jump in at the deep end. I had an eighteenth in the end but I wasn’t happy with that result. I wanted to be in the top fifteen or twelve. In the second race I had a really bad start and was trying to come through; I landed short on one of the table tops, bounced into the braking bumps after and sprained my wrist. I tried to continue riding but it just wasn’t happening, I was making mistakes and I didn’t want to go down and get hurt again, so I pulled out. Overall I am pretty disappointed with the way things went but I’m hopeful that my wrist will be okay and I’ll be fighting for the win at next week’s Red Bull Pro’s.”

Regards

Steve Turner