This weekend the SJP Moto Team made the trip back to the stunning Matterley Basin circuit in the South Downs National Park for the rearranged opening round of the FIM World Motocross Championship.
Images courtesy of Architech Media
After the week’s delay, the team were ready to compete in the opening round of the EMX 125 Championship with Charlie Hayman, one of Britain’s best youth 125cc riders and Reece Jones, who lined up as one of the youngest riders in the field after making the jump from a Small Wheel 85cc at the end of last year and straight to the 125cc machine.
The day started with the Free Practice session which allowed the riders to get to grips with the Grand Prix track for the first time. At the end of the session, Charlie was 13th fastest with teammate Reece 26th fastest.
Next up was the Timed Qualifying session where both riders had to ensure they were inside the top 40. Both Charlie and Reece posted several fast laps with their fastest time coming towards the end of the session as Charlie finished 17th fastest and Reece 30th fastest.
Saturday afternoon saw the first of the two races over the weekend take place. When the gate dropped Charlie got a good jump out of the gate and was just outside the top 10 on the opening lap. Unfortunately, Reece didn’t get such a good start and was around 30th on the opening lap, but soon started to push forward. At the front Charlie soon moved into the top 10 and continued to battle forward as he crossed the finish in a great 8th place. Reece battled all race long and charged into the top 20 by lap 4 and continued to push forward as he finished in 14th place and claimed a great result for the 13-year-old.
The second race took place on Sunday morning and when the gate dropped Charlie Heyman made a good start and was inside the top 10 from the beginning, while Reece made a better start this time around. Unfortunately, early in the race Reece slipped back to 26th and had to push forward to recover to 22nd at the finish and narrowly missed the points and claimed 20th overall. Meanwhile, at the front of the pack, Charlie battled hard and moved up to 9th place before the finish and secured 6th overall and was the top British rider in the EMX 125 class.
Haigh Claims Two Top 4 Finishes at FatCat
Away from the British GP at Matterley Basin, the teams other rider Jayden Haigh was competing in the 90MX Racing event at FatCat Moto Parc across the two days.
Jayden was competing in the Adult class against a number of British Championship MX1 and MX2 riders. On Saturday Jayden produced a number of strong results against the likes of Carlton Husband, Sam Atkinson, Ben Edwards to secure 4th overall with a 5-5-4 scorecard. On the Sunday Jayden once again rode well to secure another 4th overall with a 3-5-4 scorecard.
Steve Parkin – Team Owner – This weekend has been great for the team, Charlie rode well in every session and got more comfortable as the weekend went on. Finishing 8th and 9th in the races and claiming 6th overall on the weekend and being the top Brit was great. Young Reece also had an impressive weekend, as a 13-year-old kid who has skipped the Big Wheel 85 and coming straight off the Small Wheel last year, it was amazing to see him score a 14th place in the opening race. He was unlucky to miss out on the points in the second race. Away from the British GP, Jayden continued his preparation for the forthcoming season by taking two 4th place overall finishes over the weekend at FatCat against a number of British Championship MX1 and MX2 riders.
