Red Bull Pro Nationals and 2 Stroke Championships - Round 1 - Fat Cat Moto Park  (Apr 5, 2011)

The first round of the 2011 Red Bull Pro Nationals, which includes the 125cc and Open 2 Stroke Championships, took place this past weekend at the new Fat-Cat Moto Park venue at Armthorpe near Doncaster.

The recently built sand track certainly dug out over the two days of action and proved to be a demanding challenge for all riders, even more so for the TM UK team members who raced two different class machines over the weekend doing up to 6 races and 2 qualifiers.

With Saturday witnessing the Open 2-Stroke machines doing battle it was the TM UK riders of Stuart Edmonds, Jim Davies and Christian Lyth who were out on track on their TM Racing 250cc machines playing in the sand. Stuart took the holeshot in all three motos but with a lack of bike time on the 2-stroke, little in the way of sand riding and still recovering from the influenza virus he was unable to take them to the flag and finished the day with a 2-2-2 scorecard for 2nd overall. Jim Davies worked hard and came away with a 6-7-7 result for 6th overall and youth rider Christian Lyth came away with 7th overall in the Junior class after taking a 5-2-0 scorecard at his first 'big' event on the 250cc machine.

In the 125 class on Saturday it was the TM UK riders of Jim Davies, Ryan Pottenger, Christian Lyth and Chas Stat who were to take their TM Racing 125cc machines onto the incredibly rough circuit on Sunday to pitch battle against their competitors and each other. Jim, the 2009 Champion, was unlucky as a chain derailment in the final race of the day put paid to his overall standings and relegated him from 2nd to 4th with a finish record of 4-3-11. Ryan Pottenger took his 125ccc TM to three consistent finishes recording a 8-11-6 scorecard and secured 8th overall for the day whilst new team member and 2010 Junior Champion Chas Stat, making the transition to the expert class for 2011 came home 9th overall with a scorecard of 6-10-9. After taking the holeshot and leading the last race young Chas showed he has a good turn of speed, unfortunately the injury that has left him sidelined for the past 5 months has not helped his conditioning but for sure as his fitness and bike time increases he will be right up there challenging the front runners. Christian Lyth took to the podium in the Junior 125 class taking 3rd overall with a 2-2-10 scorecard on his TM 125 machine and is now looking to progress to the lead of the Junior standings in the next round.

The only entrant in the Red Bull Pro Nationals is the rejuvenated Stuart Edmonds piloting TM Racing's new 250Fi machine, Stuart is certainly doing both himself and the machine justice this season and has shocked many with his found pace and results. Stuart worked hard in the first race of the day to finish 3rd in the MX2 class but was unfortunate in race 2 after a bad start, then a machine stall, left him with much work to do. However, Stuart gave it his all and worked through the combined MX1 and MX2 field to finish 8th in the MX2 class in race 2 taking 4th overall for the day, only just missing out on a podium placing. Stuart will be fired up at the next round of the series at Landrake to ensure he gets the podium placing he narrowly missed out on this time out.

Round two of this exciting series will take place at the Landrake Circuit in Devon in May.

With thanks to all our sponsors and supporters.

back