The final round of the Revo ACU British Motocross Championship fuelled by Gulf Race Fuels saw the SJP Moto team head to Landrake in Cornwall.
Images courtesy of Image Rich Media
Coming into the final round Josh Vail was in great form following his recent strong results at World Junior Championship in Finland and victory at the final MX National round. Josh arrived at Landrake looking to claim his first British overall victory.
With the Youth 125 Championship already secured, Charlie Heyman moved up to the Pro MX2 class on a 250cc 2-stroke for the last round, while Reece Jones made his return from injury earlier in the year.
On Saturday, the day started with qualifying and in the Big Wheel 85cc class, Josh showed everyone that he was the fastest on track by going pole, while Reece Jones finished 13th fastest in the combine 125/250 session.
In the first Big Wheel 85 race, Josh started inside the top 5 and battled his way into the lead late in the race and took the race win. Josh then followed this up with another top 5 starts in the second race and this time pushed forward to claim second place at the finish. To round off the Saturday, Josh started in 4th and quickly moved into second on the first lap before taking the race lead at the halfway point and claiming the race win by over 13 seconds.
On Sunday Josh had one final race remaining and started in the top 5 and was able to move forward into 3rd but could not progress any further and took the 3rd place finish to secure his first British Championship overall win and second in the Championship standings.
In the 125cc class, Reece had a strong opening moto where he claimed 5th place in the 125cc class. He then followed it up with an 8th place finish in the second moto and was looking forward to the remaining two races on Sunday.
In the first race of Sunday, Reece started just outside the top 10 and was looking good for a strong result, but unfortunately, Reece had a small crash and was clipped by another rider. Reece remounted to finish the race in 11th place but decided to sit out the final moto and claimed 12th overall on the weekend.
Sunday saw Charlie Heyman make his Pro debut in the MX2 class and the day started well with Charlie posting several fast laps during qualifying and finishing the session 6th fastest, giving him a good gate pick for the races.
In the opening race, Charlie made a good start and was just outside the top 10 on the first lap and quickly moved into 8th on the second lap. Once inside the top 10, Charlie looked comfortable and continued to move forward and worked his way up to a fantastic 5th place at the finish.
After a great first race result, Charlie was hoping for another strong result and when the gate dropped Charlie fired into the first corner and the race lead. Once in the lead, Charlie quickly looked to pull away from the chasing pack and opened a lead early on. Charlie was riding well at the head of the field and kept the lead until lap 4 when he slipped to 2nd and remained there until later in the race when he finished in 4th place. The 5-4 scorecard saw Charlie claim 4th overall on the day as he narrowly miss out on a podium finish on his Pro debut.
Charlie and Josh will now head to the Coupe de l’Aviner to represent Team GB in the annual team event held in Belgium.
Leighton Haigh – Landrake was a great way to round off the British season, Josh came into the event in great form after victory at last week’s MX Nationals and was keen to get his first British Championship overall. Over the weekend he rode fantastic taking race wins and the overall, along with second in the Championship, so as a team we could not have asked for anything more. Reece also made his return at Landrake and rode well on Saturday and got some good results, but a small knock in the first race on Sunday saw him opt out of the final race to avoid risking an injury before the winter programme starts.
For Charlie, it was a great chance to step up to the Pro MX2 class with the 125cc Championship already clinched. What can we say? Charlie did what as a team we know he is capable of and proved that he can run with the best riders, to go 4-5 and just miss out on the podium on his debut was great. Both Steve and I and the whole team couldn’t be prouder of Charlie and everything we have achieved together over the last few years and wish him all the best for the future.
