img_8612-24.png

Whitby washout for Pendrich Height Services Kawasaki

Whitby on the North Yorkshire moors is arguably one of the closest tracks for Scotland-based Pendrich Height Services Kawasaki, and this past weekend, the team made the journey down the A1 with an extra man in tow for the fifth round of the Maxxis British Motocross Championship.

Heavy rain fell throughout the night and the MX2 class was first to go out as usual, finding themselves on a track slippery and muddy. For the team’s class veteran, things were looking good early, as Bryan Mackenzie clocked up the third-fastest time. The super-pole left him fourth, which was still a very good result. Newcomer for the weekend, Steven Craig, struggled to gel with the track and ended the session in thirty-fifth. In the MX1 class, Ross Rutherford qualified twenty-sixth, having also struggled with the track during his session.

For Bryan, the remainder of the day was to be very frustrating. The first race didn’t go as planned. Despite a good start in third, arm pump cost him vital positions before he was able to settle into a comfortable rhythm, ending the race in a disappointing eighth. The second race, as much as it was consistent, was just as frustrating. Seventh off the gate, Bryan was hoping to make more progress, only for him to take sixth place in time for the chequered flag. The final race was the nail in the coffin. A crash in the first lap left Bryan at the back of the pack. Despite making excellent progress in the first half of the race, he was unceremoniously punted off his bike by the wayward wheels of a rival who had gone down in front of him on a jump, damaging the bike and scoring this race a DNF. With only two races in the points, Bryan ended the day in twelfth.

IMG_9023

Steven on the other hand made good progress throughout the day. Once he was on the start line, any nerves went out the window. A bad first start from the outside left Steven in the back of the pack, but rapid progress to the mid-twenties followed for an eventual end in twenty-eighth. He vowed to do better in race two, where, despite another tough start, he scored two positions higher than the race before. ‘I’m aiming for the points,’ he said before the third race, and that he did too. Off the blocks better than in the previous races, he was soon in eighteenth, but several small mistakes cost him the position twice to end in twenty-first.

Ross also didn’t have it easy in his class. The first race saw him shut out of the front of the pack in the first corners, but he quickly made progress to nineteenth, a crash late in the game however ended that result with a twenty-third place. The second race saw Ross make modest progress again, ending the race twentieth. The final race showed more promise than the previous two; despite a bad start, Ross was back in eighteenth but three laps later, battling for more positions. The red flag put paid to his progress though and he had to be content with a seventeenth place and a twenty-fourth place on the day.

Pendrich

 Bryan: I’ve had a disaster of a day. With the rain in the morning it changed things hugely for how we were expecting it. I got a lot of arm pump in the first race, I had a good start but pumped up and got eighth. I rode much better second time out, but I just didn’t get the start I wanted. I was riding a strong pace, it’s just unfortunate that the start left me with a lot of work, it was an alright race in sixth. In the last race, I collided with someone on the first lap, came off and came around last. I was coming through the pack, and I think I would’ve broken back into the top ten, but then someone crashed just in front of me on one of the jumps, the bike flipped up and dragged me off my bike as I was taking off, so that was a big crash and the bike was totally ruined. I knocked the wind out of myself and couldn’t move for a minute. It’s just so disappointing, but on the positive side I’m glad I came away without an injury.

Steven: Qualifying today went bad to be honest. I crashed and broke my clutch lever off, so got a rubbish time. The first race was not too bad, but the second race was a lot better. In the last race I was twenty-first, so I’m chuffed with that for my first Maxxis.

Ross: The day for me wasn’t so great, in qualifying it was wet and I just couldn’t get a groove on and I struggled with the whole day. I got a bad start in the first race and came through a fair bit, pumped up a little and then had a wee tumble over as well, so I didn’t finish so great. The second race was sort of the same story, not a great start and just couldn’t make any moves through the pack. I passed a couple of guys and scored a point or two. In the last race we changed a fair bit on the bike just to get more comfortable, got a terrible start but rode real good, was moving up and had a couple of guys squared up to pass, but the race got cut short when a guy got hurt, so I hope he’s ok, and that was my day.

BC (Head technician): On Sunday, the MX2 started really good with Bryan third in qualifying, he dropped a place in super-pole to fourth, which was still a great start to the day. Unfortunately the rest was frustrating; in the first race he was funnelled back, in the second he started in seventh and ended sixth, and that’s all she wrote for that one, and in the last one, someone went down in front of him and that ended his day early. We’ll regroup for the next round at Fat Cat. We also had Steven Craig, who’s been a friend of the team for a while. We brought him in because he showed some promise back home in Scotland, he is leading the MX2 championship there, so we thought we’d give him a shot at the Maxxis. He had some bad nerves in practice, which gave him a bad gate pick. In the races he was running inside the points, but in every race a crash would knock him out of the points. Although a little bit over-excited and nervous, I think it turned out to be a great experience. He finished twenty-first in the last race, which is one short of the points, and it’s something to build on if he comes back to do the Maxxis again. With Ross it’s quite frustrating at the moment, he has the speed and he shows it in Scotland all the time, but when he comes south of the border he seems to struggle with qualifying and the starts. He doesn’t lack the speed or the ability, just the belief in himself, so he has to work on that.