Hawkstone Park British Championship

Round 4 of the Maxxis British Championship took place this past weekend at the famous Hawkstone Park circuit in Shropshire. The deep sand track has claimed many victims over its years, and there are plenty riders throughout the paddock that have a love hate relationship with this demanding circuit. Hawkstone Park is a track where if you find your flow and be smooth you can have a lot of fun riding/racing the track, but if you cant find your flow you are in for a long hard days work feeling every bump on the track.

Brad doesn’t dislike the track but he has never had a really good experiences there previously, so he was hoping to turn it around it this weekend. He got a last minute entry for the MX1 class and decided to give it a go on his Husqvarna FC350 machine. Practice/qualifying started at 10 15 for the MX1 class after two previous sessions had already been on the track, it had already formed some lines but it also was getting rough fast. The track was much softer than everybody anticipated as the weather had been very dry recently but the track crew did well to rip the track up deep and get sufficient water down.Brad ended the session in 25th leaving him right in the middle of the pack and feeling a lot better on the track than previous outings.

Race 1 didnt get off to a great start as Brad spun on the gate and lost time right away. He then went on to climb his way into 25th place pretty early in the first lap but then had a terrible few laps losing many positions. About 12 minutes into the race Brad got his flow back and began to battle back through but the damage was already done and he could only make his way back up to 23rd by race end.

Race 2 was another poor start as he spun again which was strange as Brad is usually a very good starter. Once again he was way back and out of the points but he stuck his head down and started to work his way through the pack and into 20th position. he managed to stay there for the rest of the race but was lucky and handed a gift on the last lap as the rider just in front of him crashed coming down the hill moving Brad up to finish 19th in race 2 and score his first points at the British Championship.

Race 3 was a poor start again just to keep the tradition up for the day. He battled through the pack well until he reached Declan Whittle where the two riders traded positions about 4 times in the first 15 minutes of the race but then Brad managed to break away and move forward some more to eventually finish race 3 in 19th again making it two points scoring rides for the day.

At the end of the day Brad was happy to finally get those points and to get them at such a historical circuit and hopefully this is the start to keep scoring points consistently and eventually move closer to the top 10. The next round of the Maxxis British Championship will be at Blaxhall a track Brad knows well and closer to home which should help him with a bit of home knowledge.