The fourth round of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship saw the Apico LPE Kawasaki team head to Canada Heights in Kent. With sunshine and warm weather, everything was looking set for a good days racing.

The day started with practice and qualifying and lone rider Gert Krestinov posted a solid lap time that gave him 4^th fastest in Q1 and a place in the Superpole session. On the Superpole lap Krestinov was making good progress until a small slip on the last corner cost him time and saw him slip to 10^th place.

After the disappointment of Superpole Gert was looking for a solid first race, but a bad jump out of the gate meant that he got caught up in a first corner crash and restarted almost dead last. With a lot of work to do Gert pushed hard and made a lot of passes early on in the race to get back inside the points. Once in the points Gert continued to push forward and reach 8^th by the end of the race.

The second race didn’t start much better for Gert as another bad start saw him getting caught in another first turn crash, this time gert was unable to keep the bike running and it took him longer to re-join the race. Once Gert restarted he set about recovering as many places as possible and quickly was inside the points again. As the race continued Gert passed yet more people and finished the race in 10^th place.

After bad races Gert was keen to get a solid race result under his belt to boast his overall. This time round Gert made a great start and rounded the second corner in second place. With Shaun Simpson just ahead Gert chased the series leader and continued to put him under pressure. As the race progressed Gert worked his way onto the back wheel of Simpson but couldn’t find away passed. With the laps counting down, reigning champion Kristian Whatley closed in on Gert and moved into second with a lap to go.

Gert’s third race result boasted his overall result and saw him finish sixth overall and sixth in the championship as the Maxxis Championship moves to Whitby at the end of June.

Gert Krestinov: ‘In the Q1 session I was riding really well and finished that session in fourth, then on the Superpole lap I made mistake and slipped down to 10^th. The first two races went really badly with crashes in the first corner both times. I had to work really hard to recover to 8^th and 10^th in these races. In the last race I got a good start and was in second place behind Simpson and riding really well. It was good to be battling at the sharp end again, but unfortunately in the last few laps Whatley managed to pass me as I was struggling after the two hard races earlier in the day.

Steve James: ‘It’s been a rollercoaster of day really, it started well in Q1 and then in Superpole Gert made a mistake and slipped to 10^th. Then the races were a case of first corner crashes. In the first race Gert made an ok start but got caught in a first corner crash and at the end of the first lap his was 28^th and recovered to 8^th place. In the second race Gert again got involved in a first corner crash with Whatley and struggled to restart the bike, this time Gert could only recover to 10^th place on a track that was hard to pass on. In the last race Gert had it all to play for and as they rounded the first corner he was in second and just behind Simpson. Gert rode great and challenged for the lead at a few stages, but lost out to Whatley at the end and finished in third. Gert finished 6^th overall after two bad races and is just 2 points off the top 5 in the championship. At the end of the day we have manage to turn a bad result around and can move to the next round looking for more positive results. On a different note our MXY2 rider Ben James is still hospital but recovering much better and will hopefully be transferred to a hospital nearer to home to continue his recovery.”

MX1 Overall

 
MX1 Championship