British Motocross: Billy Mackenzie in a class of his own at Torrington

CAS Honda’s reigning British MX1 champion Billy Mackenzie was just an irresistible force in tough conditions at Torrington on Sunday.

Maintaining his 100 per cent win record in the Maxxis British Motocross Championship so far he also logged a fastest lap in moto two that was an astonishing 11 seconds quicker than the next man.

It was Tom Church who headed up the pack to take the second step of the podium behind Billy Mackenzie with a brace of thirds.

Church seems to have finally got the hang of launching the big bike out of the gate – whilst Mark Hucklebridge came out ahead of Mark Jones in the ‘battle of the Marks’ to take third overall.

James Noble took a very impressive fifth overall, a superb result for a man recovering from pneumonia. It was a bad day for Brad Anderson’s title aspirations as the fiesty North-Easterner took a nasty spill on the last lap of moto one whilst comfortably second and did not appear for moto two.

In MX2, Steven Sword ran off and hid after Shaun Simpson fell in turn two. Kristian Whatley got a great start, and had a grandstand view as first Pascal Leuret and then Martin Barr came by in the whoops on lap one, only for the pair to collide nastily right in front of him.

Martin Barr bounced up and was away within seconds, but for Leuret it was game over for the day.

Whatley himself would fight gamely for four laps before he dropped down the field – reigning champion Mike Brown is having a torrid time of it at the moment, gating well but falling back through the pack.

In contrast, back through the pack and into second came Martin Barr, the Irishman easing Elliot Banks-Browne the burden of second place and bringing it all the way home.

Banks-Browne would hold on for an excellent third, ahead of Shaun Simpson, whose fight back through the sludge was inspirational. 

The roles were largely reversed in moto two – Mike Brown and Steven Sword got out together, but a lap two mishap saw them both plummet down the field.

Simpson was ready and waiting to scoop a lead he would not lose, whilst Sword in turn had to start his charge back through the pack.

At the flag, Sword would take third, enough to give him the overall ahead of Simpson – James Dougan would take third ahead of Barr, whilst Banks-Browne can consider himself unlucky to only finish fifth overall after two great rides.

Maxxis British Motocross Championship

MX1 round 3 – Torrington

1 Billy Mackenzie  – Honda
2 Tom Church  – Kawasaki
3 Mark Hucklebridge – Kawasaki
4 Mark Jones  – Kawasaki
5 James Noble – KTM
6 Wayne Smith  – Yamaha

Maxxis British Motocross Championship

MX2 round 3 – Torrington

1 Stephen Sword – Kawasaki
2 Shaun Simpson – KTM
3 Jason Dougan – Suzuki