The GTCI Revo Kawasaki team were back to full strength at Foxhill Moto Park for Round 3 of the Revo ACU British Motocross Championship, with Mel Pocock returning from injury to deputise for Dylan Walsh in MX2, Tommy Searle feeling much more healed from his injured ribs, and Billy Askew looking to defend his perfect record in the 250cc Youth class.
Images courtesy of Elliot Spencer
The atmosphere at Foxhill was electric with a bigger crowd than usual, but the day was cut short after the first block of racing due to a tragic fatal accident at the end of race one. The team send their deepest condolences to the family of Simon Mitchell, the photographer who sadly passed away on the scene, and who they all knew well.
After qualifying fastest by over four seconds, Billy didn’t get the best of starts in his race, and contact with another rider broke his front brake lever, causing him to crash soon afterwards. He remounted quickly into 7th before a red flag halted the race halfway around their second lap. Team Manager Sam Yates was “able to quickly get a replacement lever” and fix the problem before the re-start.
Billy jumped into the early lead from “a decent start” and proceeded to pull away from the pack, grabbing the Kecks Fastest Lap Award on the fourth circulation. “I just relaxed into it and really enjoyed it, the fans were awesome.” He was over 42 seconds clear of the next 250cc machine at the flag and extends his championship lead to 29 points. Sam is “seriously impressed with his progress”.
In MX2, Mel stunned the early crowd by qualifying in 3rd behind two GP riders at a circuit he truly enjoys. “After a phone call from Mark Yates, asking me to stand-in for Dylan Walsh, I said my training isn’t as sharp as it used to be and I haven’t raced a 250 since 2019, but I can still ride a bike and we agreed that I was the man for the job!”
The first race saw Mel make a quick pass for the lead, and he battled with old rival Elliott Banks-Browne like it was 2012 again!
“First race I got out front – haven’t done that for a while – and with me & Elliott it was like old times, seeing who would get tired first! I faded but kept it upright and Jack Chambers got me on the last corner which left me in 6th.”
Still very happy with that, Mel is looking forward to Blaxhall in two weeks’ time, throwing the gauntlet to some other old rivals: “Maybe Jake Nicholls will come out to play next time!” he said!
Sam said: “We’re really impressed with Mel, if his fitness was there he would have won that race, so we’ll get him off the cider and back into the gym, see if he can get on the box at Blaxhall!”
Qualifying 5th in MX1, Tommy was feeling much more like his usual self and the team had done a lot of testing with him prior to Foxhill. He had enjoyed some online banter with old GP sparring partner and wildcard Jeffrey Herlings, and after getting a great jump from the gate it was the #100 that cut across the front of the #84 into the first corner:
“I knew that you have to be on the inside in that turn, so when I ripped the start I had to move over, problem was I went a little too far and ran wide, going from 1st to 5th. That was a shame because I could have got onto the back of that group and that would have helped me. I’m quite happy with the day and know what I can improve, I’ll be back up front with a little more time.”
His 4th place finish moved him up from 9th to 6th in the standings with four rounds to go.
As Sam Yates said though: “All of our thoughts are with Simon’s family at this sad time.”
