With the new season around the corner the Apico Husqvarna team headed to the hillside circuit of Culham on the banks of the River Thames near Oxford. The opening round of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship supported by Pro Clean was to be the team’s first event in the MX1 class following much success in the MX2 class.
The track was in good condition in the lead up to the event but overnight rain and light rain during practice and qualifying made the conditions much heavier. In the qualifying session it was vital to get a lap in early with Kristian Whatley finishing fifth fastest with Jamie Law in seventh and Matt Burrows in eighteenth.
After the lunchbreak it was time for the opening race and when the gate dropped Jamie Law fired into the first corner in the lead with Whatley just behind. Law held the lead for the opening laps and looked strong as the pack chased him down. As the race progressed Whatley and Law battle inside the top five with Whatley taking fifth at the flag while Law slipped to ninth after getting a stone lodged in his back brake. Matt Burrows had to overcome a bad start and riding without goggles as he claimed fifteenth place.
The second race saw all three looking for better results and both Whatley and Law got boxed in on the start and had to work hard during the opening laps. As the race progressed all three were inside the top fifteen and looking to push forward with Law and Whatley battling together in ninth and tenth respectively at the flag, while Burrows secured another fifteenth place finish after recovering from an early crash.
Whatley’s 5-10 scorecard gave him seventh overall on the day with Law in eighth overall and Burrows in fourteenth overall.
Sean Burrows: Today has been good solid day for the team, all three riders got some solid points and are around where we hoped they would be today. The riders might want to be higher up but with the conditions today it could’ve been much worse so to come away with a solid start to the season is good for us and we will build on it for the next round at Lyng.