Following the recent Double Championships success at the MX Nationals, the SJP Moto team headed to Monster Mountain in South Wales for the final Revo ACU British Motocross Championship round. Coming into the final round both Josh Vail and Reece Jones had healthy points leads in their respective series.
Words: SJP Moto KTM, Images: Michael Rich @imagerichmedia
The weekend started with Practice and Qualification, in the Big Wheel 85cc class Josh went fastest by over 2.5 seconds, while in the 125cc class Reece was fastest by almost 2 seconds.
In the opening Moto of the Youth 125 class, Reece made a good start and quickly moved into the lead of the class and was running third in the combined race. Knowing that the result would see him claim the championship, Reece rode a solid race to cross the line for the win and claim the title and started the celebration with the rest of his team.
The Championship victory saw Reece claim his third ACU British Championship to go with his 65cc and 85cc Small Wheel titles. Unfortunately, the celebrations were short lived as Reece crashed heavily in second Moto while in the lead at the halfway point. With the championship already decided Reece opted to sit out the remainder of the weekends races.
In the first of the Big Wheel 85cc races Josh made a strong start and rode a solid race to finish in third place and move one step closer the securing the British Championship.
Before the start of the second race, Josh missed the closing time for the waiting zone and therefore had to forfeit his pole position and take the last gate pick. Josh didn’t let this faze him as he took the holeshot when the gate drop and dominated the race to take the victory.
In Josh’s final race of the Saturday, he went to the start line knowing that he could clinch the title. After making a good start, Josh moved into second place and knowing that this was enough to claim the title, he settled into a good rhythm and brought it home in second place to wrap up the title.
After claiming the title on the Saturday, Josh went to the line on Sunday for his final race of the season with a relaxed approach and made a good start inside the top 4 and moved into 3rd by the halfway point. Josh settled for the 3rd position and brought it home to end the weekend with second overall.
Speaking after a successful weekend, Team Manager Leighton Haigh commented “What a season for the whole team at SJP Moto. Massive congratulations to both Reece and Josh on an amazing job. Both boys have done the double, winning both the Revo ACU British Championship and the Michelin MX Nationals. Reece rode great in the first race to claim the title but suffered a heavy crash in the second moto and decided to skip the rest of the races, while Josh rode solid all weekend and did what was needed to claim the title. As a team we are so grateful to all our sponsors that help make this possible and without them these titles wouldn’t be achievable.”
