The opening round of the Revo ACU British Motocross Championship took place over the weekend at the all-new sand circuit of Oakhanger in Hampshire. Heading to the opening round, SJP Moto riders Reece Jones and Josh Vail were both looking to start the season strongly, while team-mate Jayden Haigh was forced to miss the opening round due to a recent pre-season ankle injury.
Images courtesy of Image Rich Media
The day started with the Practice and Qualifying session for both the Big Wheel 85cc and the 125cc class. In the Big Wheel 85cc class, Josh Vail posted a dominant lap time and claimed pole position by nearly 6 seconds ahead of the second-place rider. In the 125cc class, Reece was the fastest 125cc rider of the combine Youth class and finished third fastest across the two groups.
Next up it was time for the opening Youth race of the year for Reece, when the gate dropped Reece suffered a bad start and was buried in the pack on the opening lap. Reece quickly began to push forward and was soon the leading 125cc rider in the race. During the second half of the race Reece continued to push forward into second place in the race and claimed the 125cc class race win.
The opening Big Wheel 85cc race saw Josh Vail make a good start and narrowly miss the holeshot, but soon moved into the race lead. Once in the lead Josh quickly worked to produce a large gap at the front of the field. As the race ended, Josh managed the race lead, to take the victory by nearly 6 seconds over second place.
Later in the day it was time for the second 125cc race and this time Reece made a better start and quickly moved forward and was into second place in the race and leading the 125cc class. In the second half of the race Reece continued to push forward and started to close the gap on the leader but had to settle for the second in the race. The 1-1 score gave Reece the overall victory and championship lead.
The final race of the day was the second Big Wheel 85cc race and after starting inside the top 3, Josh quickly moved into the race lead and pushed forward. Once in the lead Josh was running at a pace of 4 second a lap faster than the rest of the field and took the race win by 44 seconds to claim a 1-1 scorecard and the overall victory and championship lead.
Leighton Haigh – Team Manager – “We couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. Unfortunately, Jayden had to miss the opening round as he continues to recover from an ankle injury and both Josh and Reece arrived at the new venue looking for the strong start and to avoid any dramas. The guys went even better by topping every session from qualifying and both races and finished with a 1-1 scorecard each and leading the championships going into the second round in two weeks’ time.”
