British Motocross Championship - Round 2 - Canada Heights  (Mar 28, 2011)

The second round of the 2011 British Motocross Championships were held this past weekend at the Canada Heights circuit near Swanley, Kent and the TM UK Team was there to compete in both the MX2 and MX1 classes.

The long standing British Championship venue, situated opposite the famous motorsport facility of Brands Hatch, was in prime condition and even though Saturday afternoon was a little on the chilly and breezy side Sunday morning greeted us with a clearer sky and a welcome increase in temperature as the qualifying sessions got underway.

TM UK's Stuart Edmonds, who came out all guns blazing after the winter break at round one of the 2011 series and surprised many, did not disappoint this time out either. After qualifying in 8th place in the MX2 Q1 session Stuart went into the Q2 Superpole and increased his position further by posting a time on his TM 250Fi machine that would put him into 5th place, beaten only on times by some very respectable Grand Prix competing company.

The MX1 qualifying session did not bear so much fruit for the TM Team-mates of Jim Davies and Ryan Pottenger and sadly as the day rolled on the fortunes of the TM 450 mounted duo did not get much better, once more both Jim and Ryan seemed to be fighting lady-luck and were not coming off best.
Jim ,who seems to be having all of his seasons bad luck in big hits, had some avoidable niggles that hampered his timing session and young Ryan did not fair much better after aggravating a knee injury that he picked up in the off season. Jim battled on and posted a time that would put him into 26th place whilst Ryan could only muster 39th place as the session came to a close.

Stuart Edmonds and his TM Racing 250Fi machine were again a hot topic of conversation in the paddock, the rejuvenated, fitter, stronger and more determined Stuart and the performance of TM Racing's latest MX2 class weaponry have certainly turned some heads in the past few weeks both in MX and Enduro events and with new found confidence and unfortunately, the early signs of a cold virus, Stuart went into his three race program. With three reasonable starts Stuart worked hard during all three of the MX2 class races and finished his day with an 8 / 10 / 13 scorecard. The last race of the day was Stuarts worst result but probably the hardest to earn after an early crash dropped him from 9th place on lap one to 18th place on lap two and with ground to make up. However, he battled hard into 13th place but now feeling drained, more due to the cold virus than exertion, a late charge in the dying laps to make his way into the top ten faded away. Stuart used his head and settled for a solid result rather than another crash to finish 9th overall on the day, tied on points with 8th place but more importantly he now sits 10th in the overall championship standings after the first two rounds.

The MX1 duo of Davies and Pottenger did not fair so well as previously mentioned in their three races and both had their share of mishap and adventure during the day. Jim battled on as only he knows how to finish with a 24 / 27 / 21 scorecard after a number of events including, spills and crashes caused by fallen riders in his path, trying to race with limited vision after his goggles roll-off system got damaged yet again and suffering the pain of getting a rock in the face once more. The most painful moment of the day for Jim however was crashing outside of the top twenty finishers on the last lap of race three and being relegated from 17th place back to 21st place losing a handful of valuable Championship points in the process. Young Ryan had a terrible day in his three MX1 class races and did not seem comfortable at all after tweaking his knee and aggravating the injury that required surgery only a couple of months back, riding in defence and not in the attacking smooth pace we know he is capable of Ryan finished the day with a 38 / 32 / 33 scorecard.

Round 3 of the series will take place at the Cadders Hill circuit in Lyng, Norfolk in a few weeks time.

With thanks to all of our sponsors and supporters.

TM UK Press.

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