PODIUM! Proppa.com KTM scores first podium of the season

April Fool's weekend took Proppa.com
KTM to the season opener of the Red Bull Pro Nationals at Fat Cat
Motoparc near Doncaster, where two days of excellent racing culminated
in a podium for the team.

Liam Garland, the team's youngest rider, represents the team
in the Red Bull Elite Youth Cup championship. Qualifying in fourth on
Saturday morning, he set the tone for his weekend, riding consistently
and working hard to keep up with leaders Nathan Watson and Bradley
Pocock on the increasingly tough sand circuit. The result at the end of
the first race day was an excellent fourth place in the first, a sixth
place in the second and a fifth place in the third race of the class.
On Sunday, he continued the hard work put in on the previous day,
scoring a fifth in his fourth race, but regrettably was forced to
retire half-way through the final race of the weekend. This consistency
while punching above his weight puts Liam in eighth place on the
weekend and in the championship.

Pro Nationals riders Martin Barr and Nathan Parker
got their boots on on Sunday morning for the qualifying session of the
Red Bull Pro Nationals championship. Martin got off to an excellent
start with a third-fastest time, while Nathan put in a time that put
him four spots down in seventh.

Racing got off to a cracker of a first race with
Martin impressively taking the lead and running with it. To the crowd's
delight, Martin then traded places with Brad Anderson, only to take the
lead back several laps later! It looked like Martin would take the
first race for the team when with two corners to go, Anderson was able
to capitalize on a slow back-marker and pass Martin for the win, ending
one of the most exciting races so far seen this year. The second race
saw Martin stall his bike after entering a corner with a little too
much gusto, leaving him to restart the race several places down from
his sixth place, and working his way back to fourth in time for the
chequered flag. Nonetheless, that result was enough to put him on the
podium in the MX1 class, giving the team third place on the day and
getting the championship off on a fantastic start.

Nathan's first race was a complete nightmare. Taken
down and run over on the start chicane, he set off with a massive time
disadvantage. Going down twice more, he had yet to find his race rhythm
 properly when the chequered flag waved, ending fifteenth in the class.
The second race compensated for the disastrous first; Nathan set off
mid-pack and quickly settled into a rhythm. Battling his way past
strong rivals throughout, he found himself in fifth behind Martin at
the end, finishing tenth on the day.

Team principal Steve Turner was smiling at the end
of the day, stating: "It was a mixed day of results today. We had a
very consistent set of races from Liam with a fourth, two fifths, and a
sixth. Unfortunately he had a DNF in the last race, but he shows that
he has the pace and consistency to stay in the top of the class. 

"In the Pro Nationals races, Nathan and Martin
showed good speed. Nathan had a nightmare of a first race after being
run over on the start; he ended up fifteenth, and he showed he had the
pace with his fastest lap times being quicker than Gert Krestinov and
Stephen Sword. Martin had a phenomenal first race with Brad Anderson,
but he got pipped to the win with two corners to the end. With that
race he showed what fantastic pace he's got!

"In the second race, Nathan came all the way
through to fifth and was very impressive; he kept his rhythm all the
way through, and with that result he's going away with a smile on his
face. Martin stalled his bike while he was in sixth, but he came back
to fourth for our first podium of the season! All in all we're pretty
happy with the results."

Martin Barr: "Today has been the best weekend of
the year for me; I managed to stay on this weekend. Qualifying started
off well, ended up third, the first race was the best one for me for
the day, got a half decent start and got into the lead. Anderson was
behind me and passed me and I passed him back. Just unfortunate that I
got caught up behind a back-marker on the last lap and Anderson got by
me to take the win, but I still ended up second. It's been the best
result this year and the best time I've been riding. In the second race
I didn't get such a good start but was coming through quite good, then
came into a corner, hit a braking bump real hard and stalled the bike.
I had to start from scratch again and get going and eventually ended up
fourth which gave me a third overall. This is the first podium of the
season and hopefully the ball's starting to roll now."

Nathan Parker: "Qualifying was OK; I got a good lap
in, which is a bit hard with a lot of traffic, so qualified seventh. In
the first race I got taken down on the start, and it was an uphill
battle to come back through. Then I crashed another two times and by
that time it was pretty much over. I came out for the second one, had a
bad start again, but was mid-pack this time. I broke into a rhythm and
stayed strong all the way through. It seemed that Martin and I were
going forward while everyone else was going backward. I ended up in
fifth from being in the late twenties. It's a good end to the day, even
if it could've been better."

Liam Garland: "Saturday was good; I tried to race
consistent races and ended up with a fourth, fifth and sixth and I was
happy with that. Today I felt better on the bike, had a fifth in the
first race and was happy with that too. In the second race I felt I had
a good lap time and was going well, but then the bike cut out and I
couldn't get it started. That's not so good, but I'll be back stronger
at the next round."