British Motocross Championship - Round 5, Desertmartin  (Jun 27, 2011)

Round 5 of the 2011 ACU British Motocross Championshp was held yesterday at the former Grand Prix circuit of Desertmartin, N. Ireland. The highly regarded and incredible elevation changing sandy track gave the crowds an awesome days entertainment and the TM UK Team where there to compete in both the MX1 and MX2 classes, Jim Davies and Ryan Pottenger took to the track on their TM 250cc 2 stroke machinery whilst Irish top gun, Stuart Edmonds, drew his army of home grown fans to the event and competed in the MX2 class on his TM 250Fi machine. After some heavy downpours leading up to the main event on Sunday the track was a little damp but the sandy circuit held up well and gave an action packed fulls days racing.

In the MX1 class qualifying session Jim took his machine to 23rd position whilst young Ryan, riding a machine that was new to him, could only muster 32nd position. With three races of 20 minutes plus 2 laps each to complete it was a busy day for the team and it was to prove to be day of mixed fortunes for Jim and Ryan in the MX1 class, Ryan put together three solid rides and finished the day with a 24 / 24 / 22 scorecard, only just missing out on the top 20 points scoring positions. For Jim it was a day of 'what could of been' as after working hard in the first turns of each race to battle himself into some respectable positions on his 2 stroke machine it all went disatrously wrong in two of the three races, in race one whilst running in a solid 13th position, Jim who had removed his goggles due to the ammount of dirt and sand build up, lost vision briefly but this was enough for him to crash heavily causing untold damage to his machine and forcing a retirement from a good points scoring position. After frantic work by his mechanics in the short between race period Jim was now out for race two where once again it would not go to plan, Jim was forced into a tangle with another rider putting himself on the floor once more, damaging his machines exhaust and gear lever again putting a stop to proceedings, however a very battered and bruised Jim finally found the elusive chequered flag in race three and came home in 18th position, with more damage... to his forks this time!, scoring some vital points.

In the MX2 class it was home hero, Stuart Edmonds on his TM 250Fi machine, that all eyes were on, after posting the 11th fastest time in qualifying 1 session Stuart went 3 places better to take 8th place in the Superpole Q2 one lap dash.
Again, with a three race format it was a busy turnaround time in betwwen the three race heats and Stuart repaid everyone efforts with three solid rides, in race one Stuart got off to a good start and was soon battling inside the top ten, however lady luck picked her vicitm and whilst running in 8th place an errant pebble jammed Stuarts chain stalling his machine, Stuart remedied the problem quickly and was soon back on the pace but with only a handful of laps remaining 14th place was to be his first result. Race two again saw the Dubliner get off to a good start and he was well inside the top ten mixing it up, however a few little mistakes by Stuart dropped him a couple of places in the races duration but Stuart remained strong and powered home to a 9th place finish, just being pipped by Zach Osbourne on the final lap charge to the flag. Race three saw Stuart for the final time of the day in the top ten after the start but a few small falls in the early laps relegated him down the order quickly, Stuart battled on as usual and his later race strength saw him pull himself up to 10th place at the flag, Stuart finished 11th overall on the day after the first race problem robbed him of a top ten finish and he now sits in 11th place in the series standing as we loke forward to round 6.

A big thank you to all of our sponsors and supporters, riders and staff. Thank you

back