29/05/2007
CCM British MMX Championship Round 3
Location: Asham Woods, Frome
This weekend witnessed the third round of the CCM British MMX Quad Championships, despite the event nearly being called off due to torrential rain over Sunday and Monday. Fortunately, the track was perfect when the rain stopped and the riders were in for a great day’s racing. John Mitchell was looking for much of the same success he had in round two when he took two firsts and pushed his way back into championship contention.
In the qualifying, it was Frenchman Romain Couprie taking top position with the Dutchman Joe Maessen, closely followed by ATV World Yamaha’s John Mitchell with only 0.6 seconds between them. With such a tight qualifier, it was looking like some gripping racing ahead. In race one, John, riding his ATV World Yamaha YFZ450 and using the ITP MXR6 Holeshots was in fourth from the start and riding well, passing former UK champion Paul Winrow and then passing front place man Romain Couprie only to stall and lose the lead on a corner. It finished with John settling for second place and Paul in third.
John made a number of changes for race two including lowering the ride height and suspension set-up on his standard YFZ450. It made all the difference as he successfully took the holeshot and led the race. However, Romain Couprie was on top form and managed to pass John, taking first place and first overall on the day. Again, it was John in second and Paul Winrow taking third position. This result puts John third overall in the Championship and keeps the pressure on everybody in contention for the title. John has come from 18th to third in just two rounds!
Meanwhile, ATV World Yamaha rider Paul Holmes was experiencing a difficult day. In race one, another quad tangled with Paul as he was running well in tenth, dropping him to 22nd. He fought hard passing some big name riders to get to 15th. After a strong start to race two, Paul pushed his way to eighth early on, but a slow puncture on the second lap meant that by lap five he had a completely flat front right tyre and began dropping places. He made 18th and took the last available point. Having dropped three places in the overall championship, Paul is already looking to the next round and is hungry for a good result.
Team ATV World Yamaha is away in Germany now for the International ADAC Motocross, where top riders from around Europe will be competing in the first round of the new European Championship. Then, on 9th July it’s over to Ireland for round four of the CCM British MMX Quad Championships at Desert Martin – see you there! Thanks again for all the support from sponsors who along with their outstanding products have helped develop the team race quads for the 2007 season.
