Proppa.com KTM celebrates first Maxxis podium of the year‏

Halfway into the Maxxis British Motocross championship season, the Proppa.com
KTM team made the trip to Northamptonshire to enjoy what was to be a
great, summery barbecue bank holiday weekend at Milton Malsor.



Sunday morning dawned with cool temperatures, sunshine and a sharp
breeze. It was the MX2 class who were sent out onto the rather wet
track first, where technical gremlins manifested themselves and
persisted throughout the day, leaving an unfortunate Liam Garland with
three DNFs. Frustration did not quite describe Garland's emotions at
the end of the day.







On the other hand, MX1 riders Martin Barr and Nathan Parker enjoyed
more success in their class. After a second and seventh in the
qualifying practice respectively, the two riders ended in fifth and
fourth after completion of the super-pole.







For Barr, the first race looked to be in the bag with an
outstanding run in second, broken only with two laps to go by a very
determined Brad Anderson. The second race was somewhat tougher as
several other riders got a good start on Barr and he had his work cut
out for him. A small mistake cost him time, a position and a chance to
challenge the leaders. Nonetheless, determined piloting around the
increasingly dusty track kept him in fourth place.







The final race had Barr on the ground early on after losing his
front end on a slippery section of the track, but quick reflexes meant
that only one place was lost. Relentlessly pursuing the goal of
regaining positions, he was rewarded with a third place with only a few
laps to go, and he resolutely defended his position against a rapidly
gaining Kristian Whatley to the chequered flag. His strong results gave
Barr a third overall on the day and his first podium thus far, and ties
him for fifth with Tom Church in the championship.







Parker on the other hand had a hard time in his first race.
Suffering from arm pump early on, he was able to make only modest
improvements on a reasonable start that catapulted him into the top ten
in the first lap. Fighting Gordon Crockard and then Tom Church, Parker
ended right where he started, in ninth. The second race lit a fire in
Parker's belly. After another mid-pack start, he aggressively pushed
his way to sixth place, where he encountered enthusiastic resistance
from Stephen Sword to the end.







The third race started off the worst for Parker with an eighteenth
place start, but adapting his technique after the successful second
run, he moved aggressively on rivals, which brought him back into the
top ten by mid-race. Continuing his strong performance, he chipped away
at the advantage his target, Jamie Law, had, to end the race a mere
second away from ninth place, taking eighth overall on the day and
finding himself only seven points off the top ten in the championship.







“I'm really disappointed for Liam, he had a terrible day again and
there's not much I can comment on,” explained team principal Steve
Turner. “On the other hand, in the MX1 class, Nathan rode strong all
day after he qualified in fourth, his best so far all season. It bumped
up his confidence, but he also got the dreaded arm pump again, which he
seems to get every first race, and he ended ninth. He rode very
aggressively in the second race and finished sixth, and in the last
race again never got the start, pushed through from around eighteenth
to tenth but that was as good as he could do. He's eighth overall and
he's moved up to eleventh in the championship, so I'm pretty happy with
the way he rode.







“Martin rode strong all day, didn't quite challenge for the wins,
but he was always knocking on the door, and I thought he rode really
really well. He got a third overall, which is the first podium in the
Maxxis and also the best result for the team so far. The 350SX-F runs
absolutely superb, so I'm happy and looking forward to next week
already.”







Martin Barr: “I was looking forward to this weekend, especially
after my results at Valkenswaard last weekend. I was second in
qualifying and in the super-pole I ended up fifth but I was still happy
with that. In the first race I got a good start, stayed with the front
runners for a while and then lost my rhythm a little bit, and they got
away, so I rode my own race really. In race two I had another good
start and was fourth in that one after I made a silly mistake and the
front guys got away.







“In the last race I had another good start and rode aggressively in
the first couple of corners, and got into third just behind Alex Snow.
Unfortunately my front end washed out because the track was so shiny in
some places, and grippy in others, it just caught me out and I went
down. I picked myself up, got back behind Dougan and passed Alex Snow.
I ended up third in the final race and third overall which was not what
I wanted, but it's a lot better than it has been this year. It's the
first time on the podium, so I hope the ball starts rolling now and
continues on this kind of form for the rest of the season.”







Nathan Parker: “Qualifying went really well. I was seventh and in
the super-pole was fourth which is the best I've ever had at the
Maxxis, so I was very happy with that. Going into the races I was very
confident, but got a really bad start, I picked my way up to ninth and
then got the worst arm pump, so that's something I need to try and get
rid of. In the second race I was off-balance for the start, had a bad
start but rode really strong, made some aggressive passes and ended up
sixth behind Swordy. In the last race I had another bad start, made
more aggressive passes in the first few corners and after that
struggled to pass. The track got so one-lined today that I was
struggling to find good lines. I was tenth in the last race and eighth
overall so it is my best result yet but there is still a lot of room
for improvement.”







Liam Garland: “Today is definitely a round to forget about. I had
technical problems but I enjoyed the track. Hopefully Landrake next
weekend should be better.”