Last weekend the Dirt Store Kawasaki team headed to Sellindge in Kent to conclude the Fastest 40 series, in a special collaboration event with the Apico 2 Stroke Festival. Tommy Searle and Joel Rizzi entered the final round with a strong Championship points lead, sitting 1st and 2nd, and were looking to end on a high.
The weekend’s format would offer a great chance to battle in two combined MX1 and MX2 motos. In Race 1, Tommy had a solid start, coming round in P4 after lap 1. He quickly passed the early leader, Stuart Edmonds, to move into 3rd and begin chasing the 450 riders, Dylan Walsh and Taylor Hammel. Searle put in very consistent laps to keep the pair in sight, but couldn’t find any further way forward. After 14 laps, Tommy brought his 250 home for P3 in the race, but P1 in his class.
After a bad jump out of the gate, Joel Rizzi had his work cut out to come through from P11 on lap 1. By lap 10 he had made his way up to P7 and was chasing down Billy Askew. In the final laps he was cutting the deficit but was unable to make any further passes as the track got more rutted and hard packed. Joel would finish 7th in the moto, but 3rd in the 250 class.
Tommy’s first race win was enough to secure the title, so for Race 2 Tommy was sporting a golden number 1 Championship plate. A better start in this moto put Searle in 2nd round the first turn, and he quickly moved past Brad Todd for the lead. He would be closely chased by Walsh on his 450 for the next couple of laps before Tommy would slip back into 2nd. Over the remaining 8 laps, he would edge out a gap on Hammel in P3 to secure a P2 moto finish and another 1-1 in the 250 class.
Unfortunately, Joel’s second moto was cut short after just 2 laps, giving him a P3-DNF score for the day. Not the perfect ending, but still another 20 points to his Fastest 40 campaign and a very strong 2nd place in the Championship.
As it was a special collaboration event with the Apico 2 Stroke Festival, the team also had an additional one-off bike under the awning. Shoutout to Ben Lambert-Williams, who was aboard a retro Kawasaki KX500 two-stroke for the weekend. It was great to see an old-school build sporting the team branding, and Ben brought home a solid 5th place in his class.
As a team, we would like to give our thanks to everyone involved in the Fastest 40 series this year. Congratulations to both Tommy and Joel for their final results – a very dominant performance for Kawasaki in this year’s 250 class. Again, we are grateful for the support of our partners and sponsors who have supported us through each round.
We now turn our attention to the remaining 2 Rounds of the Dirt Store ACU British Motocross Championship. Rizzi and Searle are currently P3 and 4 in the points, behind Cas Valk and Jack Chambers. We’re confident we can keep up a late charge for the title and are looking forward to getting back to the action at Schoolhouse.
Report by Dirt Store Kawasaki – Images by Cult Moto
