Team GB & JMR101 victorious at VMXDN Foxhill 2023 – Race Report, Results, Interviews & Edits…

There has been plenty of talk about the size of the massive Vintage event in Wiltshire, and it has quickly grown into this behemoth of a festival, attached to a weekend of Motocross racing on older bikes. So how about the on-track action? Does it justify such a fervour?

Report by Ben Rumbold – Images by Dave Rich

Truthfully, yes I can say that it does. With a rare format of 5-lap races, a pair of team events, and a fine mixture of veteran riders and even current professionals racing two-strokes from 15 or more years ago, it serves up the spectacle of the old GP days and even the crowd noise that you got when a Brit did well in those events. Several times over the weekend I would have goosebumps from the cacophony of premix perfume, barking 250s, purring 500s, and the cheering with airhorns.

The races comes thick and fast with 9 races per block, and two blocks for each day. In a seemingly random order – the new Wright Engineering team race was the second of the nine races, the International team event coming eighth – there was always plenty to see and someone rare to watch. So let Dirthub run you through the movers, the shakers, the chargers, and the mischief-makers from each serving of the VMXdN Foxhill hot-pot.

International Team Races

The star race that everyone must get trackside for each time is doubtlessly the VMXdN International class itself. With Team USA running as reigning champs and a seemingly innocuous late change of Tyler Bowers, “The Bear” riding “The Unit”, a KX500 to you and me, stepping in for Ryan Villopoto, they still looked like challengers, especially now that Zach Osborne wasn’t tied to a weird 250 Husky and could ride a Yamaha instead. The strong Northern Ireland team was unchanged, but Team GB brought in replaced 58-year-old Kurt Nicoll with 34-year-old reigning British Champion Tommy Searle, and alongside crowd favourites Brad Anderson and Mel Pocock they looked strong. Even a bit of healthy banter between Mel & Tommy added spice among the teammates, who would go all out to beat each other let alone anyone else.

With a dry track the longer, 7-lap races still flashed by, and it was the number 15 of Evgeny Bobryshev who emerged out front, racing for the “Rest of the World” team alongside Belgian Kevin Wouts and late stand-in Steve Bixby – who took the place of Japanese star Yoshi Atsuta. Bobby is a real showman and threw his big white SC Sporthomes Husqvarna branded “CR500” into the valley, sideways on occasion and even overjumping dangerously at times! Behind him in race one though, the Brits were already packing the places, with Brad Anderson working his way forward to join his teammates in a 2-3-4 first moto finish, while USA languished in 8th for Mike Brown, 11th & 18th for the other two. Northern Ireland had 7th & 8th for Nev Bradshaw & Graeme Irwin, solidly backed-up by Gordon Crockard in 18th. The Brits already had a clear lead, despite the worry of a leg injury for Mel Pocock that the tough ginger charger fought through from the middle of the first moto onwards.

The 500cc machines are known to be a good tool around the Wiltshire valleys, despite the jump-infested nature of the track. Billy Mackenzie was an early challenger to back up his pre-race smack-talk, but it was Elliott Banks-Browne, a teammate of Bobby’s but not even trying to pretend he was on a Husky with his all-red 500 Honda, that laid claim to a stunning second race victory, as Searle again moved forward to chase Bobryshev across the line behind Elliott. EBB was racing Team Mercia while their stand-in rider Kris Keefer, the American tester, was struggling. His other teammate Josh Spinks was flying his KX500 well enough however.

Pocock beat his old buddy Osborne for 4th as Billy Mac clung onto 6th. There were more issues for Brown in 10th and Bowers wrestled “The Unit” to 19th as the track had taken some rain by this point. Team Northern Ireland went a solid 9-11-12 and were given hope when Ando’s 250 Honda cried enough, leaving the Geordie sitting at the bottom of the biggest valley on the last lap, registering a 32nd place score. Even with that, Team GB were still in front.

On Sunday, at the height of a sunny afternoon, the crowd got a real treat as Bobryshev, Irwin, Pocock, Osborne, and Searle battled together for the whole race, but just as Tommy was catching the Russian towards the final lap, Evgeny skated sideways on a hairpin and gave the Brit a last lap to savour!

It was undoubtably the high point for British fans as Tommy proceeded to spend the entire last lap looking, nodding, waving, and at times shouting at the crowd all the way around as the valley went bananas for the YouTube favourite. The atmosphere was simply incredible, and it lifted an in-pain Pocock to 5th as Ando was 11th. Zach O got past Bobby as well to 2nd place with Irwin & Bradshaw 4th & 6th for Team NI to keep them in the hunt!

Bobby & Tommy were level for the individual win going into the last moto, but again the Russian got the start and held it to the flag, completing a win that he thoroughly deserved after a torrid couple of years. Tommy moved forward, and Anderson even more so, as the Brits took home 2nd & 3rd with a struggling Pocock 10th in the end, his leg black-and-blue but heroically still 3rd overall in the individual points. Banks-Browne, after having his 500’s steering column break in the previous moto, did well on a 250 to move forward to 4th, just pipping Billy Mackenzie. Irin & Bradshaw, then Osborne & Brown brought it home from 6th to 9th as Team NI grabbed 2nd overall from the Stars N Bars.

The podium was absolutely manic as the Brits enjoyed their win, and for sure the team will remain the same barring any issues before next year’s events – running 1, 2, and 3!

VMXdN International Team Event Scores
1st – Great Britain (Tommy Searle, Brad Anderson, Mel Pocock) – 48 Points
2nd – Northern Ireland (Gordon Crockard, Graeme Irwin, Neville Bradshaw) – 102 Points
3rd – USA (Zach Osborne, Tyler Bowers, Mike Brown) – 121 Points
4th – Rest of the World (Kevin Wouts, Steve Bixby, Evgeny Bobryshev ) – 134 Points
5th – Scotland (Bryan Mackenzie, Gavin Robertson, Billy Mackenzie) – 164 Points
6th – Belgium BV (Tom de Belder, Stijn Vertrepen, Jasper van der Mieren) – 227 Points
7th – Mercia (Elliott Banks-Browne, Kris Keefer, Josh Spinks) – 238 Points
8th – Isle of Man (Jon Barfoot, Daniel McCanney, James Lassu) – 239 Points
9th – Fairhurst Wessex (Jake Nicholls, Jamie Skuse, Keith Johnson) – 243 Points
10th – South Africa (Ian Topliss, David Goosen, Damon Strydom) – 263 Points
11th – Latvia (Martins Alexandrovics, Lauris Freibergs, Matiss Karro) – 271 Points
12th – Ulster (Trevor Cubitt, Chris Bell, Phillip Loughlin) – 320 Points
13th – AMCA (Corey Hockey, Matt Chaplain, Joe Russell) – 390 Points
14th – Munster Ireland (James Sinnott, Hilton Hicks, Garry Sullivan) – 400 Points
15th – Finland (Leif Pajala, Eddie Tuomikoski, Mikko Lehmus) – 444 Points

Wright Engineering National Team Event

Running second in the block, the “Any Age” rider event saw a host of British Championship regulars facing several names from the past, but the JMR 101 team of Sam Nunn, Liam Garland, and Tom Grimshaw, all on 250 Yamahas, were a class apart, even withstanding both a puncture and a mechanical for Garland, as every single team suffered at least one DNF as the older bikes got a thrashing from the younger stars of the day.

Beach Racing star Todd Kellett had a hectic weekend, winning the first and last motos before suffering a collision with Steven Clarke in race two of the team event, before a massive crash at the start of race three cost him any shot of the overall in this class. Sam Nunn was simply brilliant however, the regular Cab Screens Crescent Yamaha man always starting well and going 2-1-1-3 for a clear-cut overall win ahead of teammate Grimshaw who went 8-3-2-2.

Carlton Husband was barely seen in the Livestream with his beautiful Winfield Kawasaki replica but claimed 3rd overall individually, helping his Stafford Van Sales RHR team to 2nd overall. Jamie Law and Louie Kessell, at opposite ends of their British Championship careers, rode well for 4th & 5th individually, as Kellett was backed-up by Kristian Whatley to put the

Team Stolen Brand squad onto the overall podium in the team event.

Wright Engineering Team Race

1st – JMR 101 (Sam Nunn, Liam Garland, Tom Grimshaw) – 75 Points
2nd – Stafford Van Sales RHR (Charlie Heyman, Charlie Cole, Carlton Husband) – 140 Points
3rd – Stolen Brand (Dylan Woodcock, Kristian Whatley, Todd Kellett) – 162 Points
4th – Dirt Worx (Josh Coleman, Liam Knight, Sam Winterburn) – 165 Points
5th – Ultimate Wheels Honda (Brad Todd, Cody Williams, Louie Kessell) – 167 Points
6th – Team Brenron (Luke Burton, Aaron Patstone, Howard Wainwright) – 168 Points
7th – S Briggs Commercials (Matt Bayliss, Stuart Edmonds, Jim Davies) – 185 Points
8th – Apico Factory Veterans (Matt Burrows, Martin Barr, Jamie Law) – 190 Points
9th – Oakleaf Joinery (Alex Snow, Shane Carless, Tommy Alba) – 228 Points
10th – Team Design (George Boyce, Harry Bradley, Jamie Wainwright) – 250 Points
11th – Club MX (James Rutter, George Clarke, Jordan Carrier) – 317 Points
12th – Munster Energy (Fin Wilson, Aidan McDonough, Stephen Mullaly) – 318 Points
13th – Drink Generate/Store 114 (Steven Clarke, Gordon Crockard, Scott Probert) – 389 Points
14th – North of England (Lee Holland, Michael Ogden, Richard Mason) – 486 Points

Kellett found redemption in the Evo Plus (1997-2003) class for any age of rider, recovering from a collision with Bobryshev in race one which deterred the Russian from racing the class for the rest of the weekend! Even though he is used to much longer races, he felt battered at the end of the weekend but enjoyed setting fastest time of the whole day on Sunday on his way to the win in the class ahead of the battling Jake Shipton and Aaron Patstone.

The Evo 125 Over 35s class promosed a rematch of Brown Vs Bradshaw, with Carl Nunn and Anderson thrown in! Brown’s wretched weekend continued however, with a mechanical DNF in race two, and a crash which put him out of race three and made him not even bother with race four! It was doubtful that he would have caught Nev anyway, as the South African Northern Irishman was simply unstoppable with a blinding maximum score! Anderson struggled with a soft-looking rear end to 2nd overall ahead of Arenacross star Matt Bayliss, who kept Nunn at bay despite Carl’s retro Camel bib bringing him luck.

The Evo Open Over 30s looked like a benefit for Lewis Tombs against fellow CR500-riding Jack Brunell, but crashes and a collapsed rear end denied Lewis a chance of backing up his first-moto win, so indoor specialist Brunell rode to the overall with a near-perfect 5-point score, ahead of Jamie Skuse and Carl Jones, who had some stunning battles with Ashley Greedy. The last moto was a cracker!

The Evo Ultra class for bikes from 2003 to 2008 and any age rider, saw many of the top modern names back out just two races after the Wright Engineering race, and despite Sam Nunn winning races 1 & 3, a scary first-lap crash in race two and a mechanical in race 4 kept him off the podium, the overall top two steps going to his weekend teammates Grimshaw & Garland, as Liam Knight battled hard to put his Honda onto the podium with consisteet scoring. Grimshaw’s two moto wins were just reward for some great riding, and Garland fought back from a couple of crashes to show great speed on his return from injury.

The Super Evo 125 Over 25s also saw some younger riders on the smaller machines, and Dutchman Luca Nijenhuis took 3 wins out of 4 on a plush 1990 KX125 for the overall win. Rob Holyoake was thwarted by a qualifying glitch that put him and his mint Chiodi-replica Husky on the outside gate all weekend. 2nd overall still didn’t make him happy, despite some ace goon-riding over some of the bigger jumps! Chuck Davies held Bobby Zundorf and Bradley Wheeler off the podium with his gorgeous Splitfire Pro Circuit replica Kawasaki.

The Super Evo Open Over 35s closed the racing for each block, and that class saw good battles between British star Ryan Voase on a 250 Honda, and winner of the first ever MX3 GP Daniele Bricca from Italy. It was good to see Bricca on a CR500 giving some international flavour, and he took the last moto win of the weekend in fine style to deny Voase the maximum, even though Ryan was the class rider of the weekend in this category. Scott Probert brought another CR500 home for 3rd overall.

That international flavour was most prevalent in the Super Evo Over 50s class, with the star guest for the weekend Alessio Chiodi, the three-time 125 World Champion, riding an immaculate 1993 YZ250 to a maximum four wins, all done in an effortless style that made it look like he was riding to work on a Monday morning. He barely ever had anybody in front of him all weekend.

There were great battles behind him to keep the crowd entertained, however, with local favourite Brian Wheeler getting the elbows out against Californian Keith Johnson and the Swede Joakim Karlsson. Johnson put his KX500 into 2nd overall and Jocke, with a fine RWJ Honda just like his old one, but actually an old Stefan Everts bike, taking 3rd overall ahead of Wheeler, ageless American Doug Dubach, and RJ lookalike Gary Hoptrough in 6th.

So yes, the racing was first class all around, and together with the multiple attractions of the rest of this Glastonbury-esque event, should keep the crowd numbers high, and happy, for years to come.

Results

International Team Race 

Moto 1 – Saturday

Moto 2 – Saturday

Moto 3 – Sunday

Moto 4 – Sunday

Individual Overall

Wright Engineering National Team Race 

Moto 1 – Saturday

Moto 2 – Saturday

Moto 3 – Sunday

Moto 4 – Sunday

Individual Overall

Evo Plus – Overall

Evo 125 – Overall

Evo Open (Over 30) – Overall

Evo Ultra – Overall

Super Evo 125 – Overall

Evo Over 50 – Overall

Super Evo Open