Foxhills, Swindon – 24th July 2011 | 2011 Maxxis British Championships

CHURCH AND NICHOLLS ON THE PODIUM AT FOXHILL 25th July 2011

HM Plant Red Bull KTM enjoyed a strong outing yesterday at the Foxhill circuit, near Swindon for round six of the British Motocross Championship, as newly signed Tom Church and teammate Jake Nicholls put on three good performances to both finish third on the podium in the MX1 and MX2 classes respectively.

Church, who only joined the team a few weeks ago, has soon got to grips with his KTM 350 SX-F and set the fastest lap in the timed session before concluding superpole in fourth place.

The 29-year-old racer got a good start to the first moto into fourth place, and was soon battling Alex Snow on lap two of the 20-minute plus two-lap moto. A good block pass on Snow on lap three gave Church third place and he then made a break to catch the leaders. In the final two minutes a charging Kristian Whatley had caught the KTM pilot and made a pass, although Church finished a strong fourth place for his first outing for the team.

In race two Church had a problem with a faulty gate, but got his head down and worked his way through from last to an impressive sixth place. By the final race of the day the track had become very dry, dusty and loose. Church got a steady start into eighth and put in some strong laps around his local circuit to move up to fourth by the end of lap two. Church hunted down Snow again and took the third sport with four minutes plus two-laps to go to confirm a podium finish for his HM Plant Red Bull KTM debut.

In the MX2 class Nicholls qualified fifth after superpole with his teammate Jordan Booker in 11th. In the first race of the day Nicholls got a good start and was in second place by the end of lap one, with Booker in eighth. Nicholls was pushing hard, but was unable to do anything about race leader Zach Osborne and was also taken by Elliot Banks-Browne mid-race. The 20-year-old racer recovered some rhythm towards the end of the race where he settled for third. Booker finished in 11th place.

In the second moto of the day Nicholls holeshotted his KTM 250 SX-F, although Banks-Browne took the lead before the end of lap one. Arnaud Tonus was soon on the tail of the KTM pilot while Banks-Browne broke away at the front, and Nicholls lost a place on lap four and five. Undettered, Nicholls continued the fight and benefited a place with Osborne crashing, to cross the line in third position. Booker recovered from a poor start to come through to a strong ninth place.
In the final race of the day Nicholls was determined to put things right, although a bad start gave him all of the work to do. Nicholls hunted down Neville Bradshaw and took up third on lap two of the race, by which time the leaders had gotten away. The KTM-ace got his head down to chase Banks-Browne, whom he passed with impressive style by leaping on the exit of the arena to take up second place with three minutes to go, to conclude a challenging day at the office with a podium. Booker also made progress after improving from 13th on the first lap up-to 11th at the chequered flag to finish the day in the top ten with a solid ninth place overall.

Tom Church #4: MX1 3rd overall “It was a tough day but the outcome has been good. I had good speed this morning, although I got a bit tired in all the races, especially in that last one. The first race was good, and in the second one I just did my best to get back to sixth. I didn’t hit the gate, it dropped and bounced back up, then caught my back wheel and I went over the bars, so I just did what I could. Then in the last one, again I came through and we got a good overall finish for my first ride with the team. This week we’ll be getting ready for Lommel. It’s going to be tough as I’ve only been riding a week and haven’t done the Grand Prixs this year, but we’ll just do our best and the distance is going to be hard but we’ll have to see.”

  Jake Nicholls #45: MX2 3rd overall “Today was a strange day for me, and I think it was due to the lead up to the race. I have been training really hard in the sand ahead of the Lommel GP this coming weekend and then on Thursday when I would of normally ridden hard pack, I raced Stefan Everts’ charity race, so I was a little bit out of sync with the rock hard track to start with. However, halfway through the day and by the last race I was where I needed to be, but it turned out to be the only race I didn’t holeshot and therefore I got held up in the early stages, letting Tonus get away from me. I’m disappointed in my results today, as it’s not good enough, but I learnt a lot again today and I was riding good once I found my feet, although I wanted to win. Lets hope the training has paid off for next weekend.”

Jordan Booker #114: MX2 9th overall “Qualifying was pretty good and I made it into superpole, although I had a few little issues with the bike on the superpole lap and ended up 11th, which wasn’t too bad. In the first race I almost holeshotted and got a good start. In the second turn a couple of people went down and I got caught up with them, then dropped back and came through to 11th. In the second one I got a really bad start and was around 20th, but I made some good passes and got back through to ninth. I got a good gate in the last one but then got a bit smashed at the first turn and pushed right out wide. The track was really dusty so it was hard to pass in the first few laps when everyone was in a big bundle, but I managed to get through to 11th, so it was a consistent day.”

Roger Magee: HM Plant Red Bull KTM Team Manager “It was good to be back at full strength at the British Championship with Tom Church joining the team in the MX1 class. It turned out to be a good day with podiums in both classes in MX1 and MX2. It wasn’t ideal for us to be going to the hard ground of Foxhill, as our riders have been preparing for Lommel. Jake has been practicing in the sand and he seemed a bit rusty, but it’s the same for everybody and he still had some good results to get a podium finish. Tom has had a difficult few weeks, but he’s had a little time on the bike in the last week to get it set up. To get third overall despite a defective gate in the second race is really good for him, he just needs more bike time under his belt to prepare for the Grand Prix races. Jordan has had three consecutive top 12’s and showed some good consistency today. He is getting acclimatised to racing at this level, although next weekend at Lommel will certainly be a big test for us.”

HM Plant Red Bull KTM UK would like to thank its sponsors: HM Plant, Hitachi Construction Equipment, Red Bull, KTM, Trucks ‘R’ Us, Motorex, Bott, Prox, Cholwill Plant and Equipment Hire, Venhill, FMF, Volleberg Motorsport, Renthal, Edward J Magee, Press commercial bodyworks, Wiseco, TwinAir, EBC Brakes, Silent Sport Premium, Pro Carbon Racing, NGK, Donjoy, Samco Sport, GSPMX, Petersen Racing, Pulse Racing Products, Empire logo mats, High5 and Stolen Bike C

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