Maxxis ACU British Championship Round 8 – Fat Cats Motoparc 04/10/2015
The last round of the ACU Maxxis British Championship was
held at Fat Cat Motoparc this weekend. It was a gloriously sunny day, the track looked good and the crowds poured
in to see who would be crowned the Championship winners.
Verde Sports Racing were once again there with just one
Rider, Jake Millward 303, chasing for that top 10 Championship finish. Josh Spinks had to unfortunately sit the
meeting out once again as he still wasn’t fit enough to compete. Nevertheless, he came to the meeting to cheer his
team mate on and meet his fast growing fan base.
MX2:
Qualifying:
The track was fast and nowhere near as deep as Fat Cats
usually is. Jake’s times weren’t too bad
but the competition was high this weekend. All the GP and European Championships had finished so there were a
number of ‘Wild Card’ entries there to mix it up and set the bar higher than
usual. Jake slotted in a decent time in
his first lap, giving him 15th gate pick.
Race 1:
Despite his gate pick, Jake managed to choose a gate between Steven Lenoir and Steven Clarke - no pressure there then! Jake got a reasonable start coming out of the first bend in 13th but it was a tough race and Jake found it hard to get into the rhythm. He dropped back a few places before he started to find some good lines and pick up the pace. He managed to pull back from 10th to a comfortable 14th place but needed another few laps to make his move on Luke Burton, Conrad Mews and James Cottrell. He concluded the first race with a 14th place finish and 8 points towards the Championship.
Race 2:
The track was now getting very rough and rutted. Jake got a mid-pack start and held his own with the top runners. It was tough and soon settled into 13th place. But positions kept swapping as Jake pushed forward. He struggled to pass a couple of riders so it took time to get through to the top 10. Knight, Bradshaw, Smith, Husbands and Mews were all chasing close behind. Todd made a mistake and dropped back but Jake held 10th place with only Husbands managing to catch him on the finish line. However, Husbands got penalised for track cutting which secured Jake his well deserved top 10 finish. This meant Jake now sat 10th in the Championship with just one race to go!
Race 3:
Jake got a mid-pack start again but the track was really
rough now and the sun was hanging low, making it blinding to ride! Jake wasn’t feeling himself today - he was very stiff and struggled to keep with
the pack as Mews, MacKenzie, Todd and Bradshaw got away from him. Jake kept close behind the American Monster
Energy rider, Darian Sanayei and held tight to keep Knight at bay until the
last lap. Liam Knight was just 2 points
behind Jake in the Championship so the fight for the last top 10th position
was really up for grabs in this last race. Knight made his move and Jake just couldn’t catch him before the
finish. Regardless, Jake still managed to finish
15th in race 3, allowing him to hold on to 10th place in the
Championship, one point ahead of Liam Knight.
Overall:
MX2:
Jake finished 10th overall in the 2015 ACU Maxxis British Motocross Championship. An excellent result and one that should make him (and the team) very proud. He finished two Championships, both with fabulous results: 2nd Overall in the Pro MX2 Class of the Michelin MX Nationals and 10th overall here today at the Maxxis.
MX1:
Josh Spinks made his way to Fat Cats today to support the
team and see the season out in the Verde KTM awning. Unfortunately Josh has had to miss the last 2
rounds of the Championship which cost him dearly on points. He therefore ended the season sitting in 14th
place as opposed to his anticipated top 10 finish.
Quote from Jake
Millward:
It has been a really good year. We have had some good races and some not so
good races but we managed to achieve what we had set out to achieve at the
beginning of the year - top 10 in the ACU British Motocross Championship. Now it is time to get my act together and get
‘onit’ for 2016. Thank you to everybody
who has helped me along the way.
Quote from
Josh Spinks:
It has been a pleasure to ride for Verde Sports Racing
this season. It has been enjoyable,
great fun and a fabulous opportunity. It
is a real shame that I wasn’t able to complete the season due to injury as top
10 in the Championship would have been nice.
Quote from
Adrian Kirk:
It has been a tough, long season with many highs and lows
along the way. It has also been a
massive learning curve for the team and I feel that we have achieved a
lot. We set out to get the two lads into
the top 10 in the Maxxis Championship and without Josh’s injury we would have
done just that. However, we are now
hungry for more and want podiums next year. It is time for Jake to get straight back in to some serious training,
ready to represent team Verde, alongside our new team member for 2016, Brad
Anderson. We wish Josh Spinks every
success with his move to the yellow bike at Heads and Threads Suzuki. It has been a pleasure working with both the
boys. Thank you.
05 October 2015