Maxxis British Motocross Championship 2007
Preview – Rnd 1 Canada Heights – Sunday
11th March
British Motocross fans are in for another treat this Sunday
when the Sidcup Club hosts the opening round of the 2007 ACU
Maxxis British Motocross Championship at the famous Canada
Heights circuit in Kent. Not only have all of the top British
riders entered, the club are also pleased to announce they
have used the wildcard rule to the limit with the full allocation
of four being used in the MX1 class.
Obviously heading the entry and looking for his second championship
title is Belgian Ken De Dycker. However, the tall CAS rider
will have his work cut out with Gordon Crockard, James Noble
and Billy MacKenzie all wanting to get off to a good start
in the series opener which finishes in September. Four wildcards,
Danny Theybers, Marco Kovalainen, Jussi Vehvilainen and Jurgen
Van Nooton will also be jostling for podium positions and
could well take vital points from the four favourites if mistakes
are made. Brad Anderson, Mark Hucklebridge, Jordon Rose now
riding for the Albion KTM team who have been absent for two
years, Mark Jones making his championship debut on a Wulfsport
Kawasaki and Neville Bradshaw will all be hoping to spoil
the party for the rest.
The MX2 class is even more open. With a change of team to
the Bike It Optoma Loans Yamaha, Carl Nunn will want to make
a good start in defending the title he narrowly won last year
at the final race of the season. On paper his main challenge
is likely to come from either Mike Brown with CAS Honda backing
in the MX2 class for the first time, or Tommy Searle who has
picked up Nunn’s vacated KTM seat. Apart from these
three, Gareth Swanepoel also has the speed to run at the top
together with Tom Church, Sean Hamblin, Shaun Simpson and
Martin Barr. It will also be a baptism of fire for current
BYMX champion Luke Remmer who rides for the high profile Pioneer
Yamaha Team. On their day, Wayne Smith, Martin Kohut and Lewis
Gregory are all capable of taking a podium position and all
are contesting the whole eight round series.
During the winter months the Sidcup Club, who actually own
the circuit, have changed it considerably. Apart from reversing
the direction of racing they have linked it together differently
and introduced a new loop just above the lagoon, which was
built twelve months ago. Two new spectator tunnels have been
added which now allows spectators access to the centre of
the circuit whilst racing is taking place so the opportunity
to watch each race from a couple of different vantage points
also exist.
Re introduced this year, the top riders will be presented
to spectators on the podium at 11.45am when you can be sure
ace commentator Roger Warren will want to get an update on
how timed training went for each of them. Obviously, this
will also be a good time for fans to grab an autograph before
settling down to watch the action that begins with a support
race for the non-qualified riders at 12.30pm. The first of
four championship races starts at 1.05pm with the MX2 class
and from here on its non-stop action right through to the
final MX1 race at 4.30pm.
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