Sunday's penultimate round of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship saw some close racing at the Cusses Gorse venue near Amesbury. The forecasted bad weather largely avoided the circuit, albeit for a few showers during practice allowing for the recent changes to the track layout to provide some exciting racing in all three classes.
In the MX1 class series leader Shaun Simpson on his Hitachi Construction Machinery UK KTM arrived at the hard pack circuit with a healthy lead in the championship and looking to secure the title with a round to go. The first race of day would see 2013 champion Kristian Whatley take his first race win of the season on the MBO Sports ASA Scaffolding Yamaha and delay Simpson’s championship celebrations. It was to be in the second race of the day that Simpson finally clinched his first MX1 British title and second British title of his career with a solid race win over the super-fast Whatley in second.
Simpson would go on to claim the overall victory on the day ahead of Kristian Whatley in second overall whilst Graeme Irwin on the Heads and All Threads Suzuki took the lower step of the podium despite having a heavy crash with two laps to go while leading the final moto. Just off the podium were the trio of Buildbase Honda riders Brad Anderson, Elliott Banks-Browne and Nez Parker in fourth to sixth places overall respectively.
With one round of the championship to go Simpson has already claimed the title ahead of Whatley in second, while the battle for third place is currently between Brad Anderson, Graeme Irwin and Apico LPE Kawasaki's Gert Krestinov.
Following his dominate performance at the previous round Wilvo Forkrent KTM's Matiss Karro repeated his maximum performance at Cusses Gorse to give him a comfortable 39 point cushion ahead of the final round in six weeks’ time. Once again it was the early season leader Mel Pocock on the Hitachi Machinary Construction UK KTM who finished in second overall and lost more valuable points in the championship hunt to the Latvian Karro. Third overall on the day went to Frenchman Steven Lenoir on the Dantec Husqvarna who showed that he had the speed to challenge for race wins and is in good form following his injury earlier in the season.
Outside of the podium was Adam Sterry on the second Wilvo Forkrent KTM in fourth overall after finishing second in the opening race but suffered small crashes in the second and third races. A consistent performance by the Pendrich Heights Kawasaki rider Bryan MacKenzie gave him a well-earned fifth overall.
With one round left in the championship Matiss Karro leads Mel Pocock by 39 points with Adam Sterry moving up to third place in the championship ahead of Neville Bradshaw in fourth and Bryan MacKenzie in fifth.
In the MXY2 class it was Josh Gilbert who left the Cusses Gorse event with the championship lead with one round remaining despite being kept off the podium by Liam Knight, Jay Hague and Jason Meara.
The final round of the Championship for all three classes takes place at Foxhill, near Swindon on September 21st.