The Apico Honda team rode hard come rain or shine this weekend at School House MX track for a round of vital point scoring in round 7 of the Dirt Store ACU British Motocross Championship.
The weekend had mixed weather and emotions as the Apico Honda team were riding high after the successes of the VMXdN. All races for the team took place on the Sunday where Tom and Martin were ready to put tread to track in the MX1 class!
Tom Grimshaw: Tom held a strong start into qualifying with his first lap being his fastest through this stage, with a 3.8 second difference behind 5 times world champion Jeffery Herlings. Tom pushed hard through qualifying to secure a favoured position on the table in 7th going into the competitive heats.
Tom produced “a good start to race 1” however “managed to tag someone on the second corner” resulting in “a game of catch up from a few positions”. Tom exhibited progressive riding through race 1 as he actively climbed the ranks and held great battles throughout the 15 laps. Tom positioned himself inside the top 10 from lap 3 onwards and was able to reach a ranking high of 8th position through laps 8-12 in this heat. After battling with the likes of Bobby Bruce through a lot of the race, Tom and the surrounding riders “rode as a train through the course”, making any attempts on advancing a difficult task. Tom fought his battles well throughout, ultimately taking 9th position.
Race 2 saw Tom staying true to his word of wanting “2 really good starts to the races” with him clocking his first lap in 4th position. With all to play for, Tom pushed to climb from “behind the pack I want to be leading”. Tom found consistency from lap 6 going forward and fought tooth and nail against the weather and the competition for his place within the top 10. Tom finished the 2nd race in 8th position and 8th overall. Tom showed a competitive mindset to the very end with a tight 3.9 second window between him and 7th, and his fastest lap of race 2 being his final. Tom states “I’m happy with the way I was riding. School House is a fun track but can be a struggle to carve up at times. I hope to be at the front of the pack again in the future and there are positives to take away but always lessons”.
Martin Barr: Flying into qualifying with his fastest lap being his first, Martin showed real grit going into the event. Martin set himself up well for the races to come, having qualified in 8th position.
Martin exhibited a strong start out of the gate and a good hit on the first jump. Martin then found himself in amongst the pack where “a few of us went down around the first corner” where, once back on the bike he “put on the charge” to pull back vital positions. Having completed lap 1 in 21st following the drop, Martin climbed the pack with ferocity throughout the race; pushing through various battles across the course, Martin managed to pull back a considerable number of places and points to finish in 10th position. Martin performed well and even though “it wasn’t ideal, I’m happy with my riding and effort coming through the pack”.
Setting up for the gate drop of race 2, Martin was “looking forward to redemption” through his riding and results. A strong start saw him climb from 15th to 11th by lap 2. After battles from the likes of Sam Nunn and Dan Thornhill, Martin found his rhythm until “halfway through, my goggle’s roll off system stopped working” causing visual issues for the remainder of the race. This progressed to Martin removing his goggle after “keeping them on for as long as possible before I just couldn’t see”, resulting in “being hit in the eye by a stone”. Despite the adversities faced, one thing undamaged from the race was Martins spirit; the climb continued and the battles for top 10 as tense as ever, with Martin just missing out and taking 11th place, as well as taking 10th overall.
With 0.2 seconds outside the top 10 Martin describes the weekend as “a frustrating event, the starts weren’t too bad but to finish in P11 is very very frustrating.” Martin followed up with his determination to “finish the season strong and the results from last weekend to now show the highs and lows of motocross for you”.
Dylan Brown: “The weekend was feeling promising after the success from the previous weekends result from Foxhill VMXdN, but that was short lived. Both Martin and Tom qualified inside the top ten, and the lap times were very tight from fourth to tenth so it was all to play for both riders. I was happy with them both and their performance on track, however it didn’t really show in the overall results. Tom had two great starts, Martin crashed in turn one in the first race and didn’t get the jump in race two which made for a difficult race, overall it was a little disappointing but we go again at Preston Docks for the final round in a couple of weeks.”
Words and Images by Apico Honda
