Words and photos by Olee Morris.
The fourth round of the 2021 Revo British motocross championship took place at Swindon’s Foxhill circuit on Saturday, June 19.
A number of date changes to avoid clashes with other series and threatening skies did little to deter a sizeable crowd who flocked to the spectacular Wiltshire location with the circuit able to withstand the previous day’s heavy rain after immaculate preparations by the Langrish club.
As the first MX1 race got underway it was Yamaha’s Harri Kullas who grabbed the lead, with Revo Seven Kawasaki’s Dylan Walsh giving chase in second, with the duo proceeding to carve out a sizeable gap on the rest of the field. Walsh eventually crashed out halfway through the moto, handing second place to Crendon Fasttrack Honda’s Tommy Searle. Kullas went on to take the moto win with Searle finishing second and PAR Homes Husqvarna mounted Josh Gilbert finishing a hugely impressive third in his first race back from injury.
Australian Wilson Todd grabbed the holeshot in the first MX2 race of the day but was quickly passed by series leader Conrad Mewse. Keen to prove he was back to 100% after missing the previous weekend’s Russian GP through illness, Mewse was positively flowing around the circuit and put in a commanding ride on his Hitachi KTM to finish over 30 seconds ahead of second placed Todd, with ASA United Gas Gas’s Steven Clarke in third.
Kullas once again holeshot the second MX1 moto and having opened up a sizeable lead the Estonian looked on course for a double win on his Cab screens crescent Yamaha until being caught and passed midway through the race by SS24 KTM’s Shaun Simpson. Kullas initially kept pace with Simpson before settling into second behind the veteran Scot who went on to take the win. Kullas’s second place finish saw him take the overall victory, with a third place for Tommy Searle securing the Honda rider the runner up spot on the podium and maintaining his championship lead with Kullas now just 10 points behind.
Cricklade’s James Dunn continued his return to British Championship form with an eleventh in moto one followed by a season best seventh place finish in the second moto on his Revo Seven Kawasaki, finishing the day eighth overall.
The second MX2 race provided some of the day’s best racing, with Conrad Mewse again taking the lead and threatening to turn the moto into a carbon copy of the first. Unfortunately for Mewse, a rock in one of the circuit’s deep ruts derailed his bike’s chain and dropped him down the order to dead last as he desperately tried to fix his stricken KTM. Having inherited the lead, Wilson Todd looked poised to take his Bike It Kawasaki to both the race win and overall victory until suffering the same fate as Mewse when his chain derailed in exactly the same spot. This put him out of the moto and handed the lead to Gabriel KTM’s John Adamson with just three laps to go. As the race wound down it looked like Adamson was en-route to his maiden British Championship race win, but an electrifying last lap saw second placed Steven Clarke close down and find his way past Adamson on the final corner. Earning himself the loudest cheer of the day from a captivated crowd, Clarke punched the air whilst crossing the finish line a mere three hundredths of a second ahead of Adamson, to take the win and the overall victory, with Belgian Liam Everts over 12 seconds adrift in third. Mewse’s charge back up to seventh after eventually repairing his bike saw him salvage third place overall behind second placed John Adamson and extend his championship lead over Clarke by 37 points.
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