Round 7 – British Championship –
Brampton, Cumbria - 17th August 2008

The seventh round of the Maxxis British Motocross Championship held at Brampton near Carlisle in Cumbria proved to be very successful for the KTM UK team as James Noble took the overall win in MX1 while Shaun Simpson topped the podium and increased his series lead in the MX2 division.

Although heavy rain in the run up to the event made the Brampton circuit soft and boggy, weather conditions were bright and sunny for the morning qualification session and also the afternoon points-paying motos making it a very enjoyable day at the races for the thousands of fans present.

For Shaun Simpson his MX2 victory was particularly sweet as the plucky Scotsman recovered from midweek surgery to plate the collarbone he cracked in the Grand Prix of Czech Republic just one week earlier. Unable to ride prior to the event as he recovered from the surgery, Simpson took a while to get going during the morning qualifying session and set his fastest lap at the very end of the timed period – in 11th position – as the circuit was at its roughest.

After jointly formulating a plan with his father Willie to holeshot race one and then see what happened, Shaun did just that and powered his KTM UK machine to the front of the pack when the gate dropped. Leading for the first four laps Shaun then made a mistake and stalled the motor dropping back to fifth before working his way back through to second by the end of the moto – most importantly passing and beating closest championship challenger Stephen Sword.

The second race saw a display of pure dominance from Shaun as he was never headed for the entire duration of the 30-minute plus two lap moto. Taking the overall win with a 2-1 scorecard Simpson also increased his MX2 series lead to 15 points with just two motos remaining.

For the KTM UK team’s second MX2 rider Alex Snow it was a mixed day as a solid first race 12th was followed by a disappointing DNF after Alex crashed several times during the second encounter.

For James Noble the Brampton round of the British Championship marked his first overall MX1 victory since April 2005. Long overdue and also eagerly awaited, James’ win was the result of two masterful rides that saw the Whitby resident power through the deep and difficult conditions to 2-1 finishes on the day. With current MX1 championship pace setter Billy MacKenzie having a below par day due to injury, James now sits just 22 points behind the MX1 series leader with just one round remaining.

The next outing for Shaun Simpson and James Noble is at the Grand Prix of Ireland to be held at Fairyhouse Racecourse near Dublin on August 31 while Alex Snow will be representing the KTM UK team at the final round of the Under 21 championship – which he currently holds a commanding lead in – at Cusses Gorse near Salisbury on the same day.

Quotes

Roger Magee – KTM UK Team Manager

“I reckon we’re the only team in the British Championship this year to do the double - winning both MX1 and MX2 on the same day. After a bad week last week where Shaun got injured and James had bad results we couldn’t have asked for a better bounce back. Obviously now this puts us in control of the MX2 series and James is only 22 points back behind Billy in MX1 also – we’re now looking forward to Hawkstone Park.

“I’d just like to thank all the team’s sponsors who’ve helped us this year – Red Bull, Discover Ireland, KTM UK and of course all the rest too – hopefully today goes some way to paying them back. In a couple of weeks time we expect to pick up our first British title of the year with Alex Snow in the Under 21 class and hopefully there’s more to follow.

Shaun Simpson – MX2 2-1

“I went out in qualifying just to see if I could ride basically – I was meant to go riding yesterday but I didn’t know where to go and in the end I just figured if it’s going to be alright it’s gonna be alright. Conditions were pretty bad in practice and so I just took it easy for the first few laps. I got a little bit of arm pump at the start of the session and my first lap was only good enough for 16th or something so I came in for fresh goggles. By the time I went out again the track had got really rutty and deep and I managed to put a better lap in for 11th right at the end of the session.

“Before the first race my dad told me to get the holeshot and you can control the race from there because it’s going to be just one line everywhere so that’s what I did – I grabbed a massive holeshot. I was leading until I stalled on the fourth lap which was a bit of a bummer. After that I just fought real hard and was able to snatch second from Stephen Sword when he made a bit of a rash move for the lead with a couple of laps left.

“I’ve had a bit of a virus this week so I didn’t eat between motos and I think that affected my energy levels towards the end of the second moto. I got another holeshot and set the pace early on. Swordy caught me a little bit with a few laps to go but then we came together as we battled through the lapped traffic and he went down.

“Before today I’d have been happy with two top fives considering my injury and the operation but to win the overall and increase the championship lead to 15 points is just amazing. Hawkstone Park is one of my favourite tracks and I don’t see why I can’t bring home the championship there.”

James Noble – MX1 2-1

“Unfortunately it rained heavily overnight which spoiled the track a little bit but it’s quite sandy here and so it took the water pretty well. It got nice and rough by the end which is how I like it.

“In race one I didn’t get the best start – I was around sixth or seventh I think – but I was able to pull through the pack okay, I was fourth after I passed Billy and I made another position when Brad fell off. I got stuck for a little while behind TC but I was eventually able to pass him and then I could see Rowson ahead. I had a real good middle of the race and I was closing him down but then he picked up the pace and the gap stayed about the same and I had to be content with second.

“I got a much better start in moto two and inherited the lead when Billy stalled it. From there it was just a matter of keeping a safe gap between me and the rest of the pack – doing consistent laps and not doing anything silly which would have been easy as the track was quite tricky by the end. I’m definitely happy to have won the overall today.”

Alex Snow – MX2 12-DNF

“Qualifying went pretty well for me and the times through the pack were quite tight so I was quite happy with 13th. I didn’t get a brilliant start in moto one but I was able to find quite a few gaps on the first lap and make a lot of passes. I was running top 10 for most of the race and then Swanie and somebody else got me near the end and I ended up 12th which I was quite pleased with. In the second race I had a couple of crashes and didn’t finish which wasn’t the best end to the day.”

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