Hawkstone Park – International Moto-X – Sunday
2nd March 2008
Hawkstone International is set to celebrate its tenth
edition
 Sunday
2nd March will see the World famous Shropshire venue of Hawkstone
Park celebrate its tenth running of the now well-established
season opening International meeting. The testing sandy circuit
with its steep and infamous hill will once again welcome some
of the World’s best riders from both the MX1 and MX2
categories to do battle in their new chosen colours.
Salop Motor Club’s international bash will signal the
start of the season proper with many of the riders using the
opportunity to make their debut on their new mounts in front
of what is expected to be one of the largest off road audiences
to gather anywhere in the UK during 2008.
2007 MX1 British champion Billy MacKenzie heads the cast
of home runners, with the ex factory Kawasaki teamster having
shifted to the UK based CAS Honda squad over the Winter break.
The young Scot will have a point to prove to his new team
boss Harry Ainsworth and his rivals, after a poor showing
due to injury at the same meeting twelve months ago. Billy
will be joined by his experienced American team mate Mike
Brown, who clinched the British MX2 title last year, and Yoshi
Atsuta who is flying in from Japan to make a special one off
appearance.
Whilst MacKenzie may carry the hope of the nation in terms
of MX1 glory, vice World champion Tommy Searle has the duty
of leading the home charge in the MX2 class. The KTM youngster
produced two consistent results at the Hawkstone International
last March to take fourth overall in conditions that perhaps
did not best suit the highly technical rider. Once again Searle
will have his older orange compatriot in the form of Tyla
Rattray to gauge himself against, with the South African born
rider having dominated both MX2 motos at the sandy track back
in 2007.
Adding weight to the occasion, Salop Motor Club has already
recruited an equally strong supporting cast to ensure that
the racing will be both fast and furious throughout the day.
Pascal Leuret, Brad Anderson, Elliot Banks-Browne and Jake
Nicolls will form a four prong attack for the highly professional
Suzuki Swift team, whilst Molson Kawasaki will be well represented
by Stephen Sword, Gareth Swanepoel and Tom Church.
The foreign pretenders looking for their first taste of Hawkstone
success will include the twenty two year old Portuguese sensation
Rui Goncalves on his factory KTM and Jeremy Van Horebeek from
Belgium, who is tipped for the top by many in the paddock.
The eighteen year old from the same home land as Stefan Everts
and Joel Smets, will not have missed the fact of just how
important a step it is to win at this historic circuit, and
will arrive with the added incentive of attempting to follow
in the tyre marks of these two Hawkstone legends.
Negotiations are ongoing to secure as many other big names
as possible, with New Zealand’s Josh Coppins and 2007
World MX1 champion Steve Ramon being at the top of Salop’s
want list. Details of further signings will be released over
the coming weeks.
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