British Championship Rd 6 - Farleigh Castle  (Aug 16, 2010)

The world famous motocross venue of Farleigh Castle played host to round 6 of the British Motocross Championships this past weekend, this former Grand Prix circuit steeped in history was a little out of the ordinary from what 'modern' MX facilities have become, a very natural track with no real man made jumps, hugely fast straights, off camber grassy turns and tighter wooded section certainly did its best to upset the 'norm' and provided and entertaining days racing for all that attended this big event.

Team TM UK were there with riders represented in both classes, Irish ace Stuart Edmonds on his TM 450cc MX1 machine and current British 125cc champion Jim Davies who opted to ride his TM 125cc machine in the hugely competitive and 250cc 4 stroke dominated MX2 class.

A grassy track with little grip greeted the MX2 class as they went out first for their qualifying session, getting the little 125 around the hilly circuit in qualifying was not easy and for all his efforts Jim could only manage to post the 30th fastest time. Stuart's qualifying session did not go well either, a small mistake on his first timed lap cost him dear and slower traffic only hampered his progress in his second fast lap, his third timed lap was going perfectly through the tighter wooded sections and with only the quicker sections remaining all looked good, then a red flag appeared. With a delay of some twenty minutes occurring whilst an injured rider was removed from the track Stuart could not get back into his 'groove' to find a vital 'second' in the remaining 5 minutes and finished the incredibly 'tight on times' session in 20th place, 1.4 seconds back from 8th place!.

In MX2 Jim fought hard to make up the ground he was losing on the start in the first few turns and worked his way into the 'battles' in every race, some little mistakes and an obvious lack of drive on the hilly sections made it hard work, nevertheless Jim, as usual, gritted his teeth and battled on for all three races. Much to the delight of the crowd, who appreciated the sound of the screaming little 125 in amongst the mono-tone drone of the 250cc 4 stroke machines, Jim rode 3 incredible races and certainly made the 125 look exciting, fighting with the 'double capacity' 4 stroke machines and making them work hard for it Jim was on song. However, missing a gear cost him numerous places in the latter part of the first race and he brought the 125 machine home in 30th place, in race two and three Jim's determination and 'never give up to the flag' attitude saw him finish just outside the points in both races with two 23rd places, an incredible hatrick of rides on the 125cc machine that deserved more credit than the results achieved.

In MX1 Stuart's day was not good, an average start in race one left Stuart with work to do and sure enough, with some clever manoeuvres, in the first few turns countless places had been made and more were to come in the wooded section. Now running around the top fifteen and trying to pass more riders exiting the latter part of the woods he was blocked several times and had to bide his time, launching himself and his 450 TM alongside another rider and trying to make a pass in the air was where it all went wrong, with the other rider dangerously pulling straight across Stuart's path in some form of attempt to block him Stuart was forced in mid-air to take action, with nowhere to go Stuart was left no choice but to end up in an horrendous looking crash that saw the crowds gasp as both Stuart and the TM tumbled end over end.

Remounting his machine the damage caused in the accident was obvious and with bent levers, twisted forks and front wheel spindle, handguards torn to bits and whilst now being nearly a lap in arrears continuing on would prove to be a fruitless exercise. Returning to the pits frantic work began on the front end of the machine in preparation for the following two races and the TM was soon ready for action once more, however it was not only the machine that had taken some punishment in the crash, Stuart's knee had begun to swell and a suspected broken finger was also rearing its head. In the next two races it was 'damage limitation' as an uncomfortable looking Stuart battled on to finish inside the points in 17th and 18th places respectively.

The next round takes place at Silverstone in two weeks time.

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