BRAD CROWNED BRITISH MX1 CHAMPION
Sunday, 14 August 2011 00:00
IMAGES & WORDS ADE THREASHER
With a mathematical chance of clinching the British MX1 title Brad headed to Duns in Scotland for the penultimate round with a big following of friends and family eagerly anticipating championship glory.
Despite a week of heavy rain in the area, the track was in good condition and with the sun coming out on Sunday the conditions were ideally suited to Brad.
Qualifying saw Brad set the 2nd fastest time in the opening session but he dropped to 3rd in the Top 12 superpole shootout, that still gave him a good gate pick for the day's 3 races.
Race 1 saw Brad in 4th place on the opening lap and he was soon making his presence felt and forced his way into 3rd. A few laps later and Brad made a pass on Kristian Whatley for 2nd and was on the gas to reel in the leader. After catching Billy Mackenzie and trying a couple of times to make a pass he eventually found a way through and soon pulled out a decent sized lead, and went on to take the victory by 13 seconds.
Race 2 saw Brad in 2nd from the off and he soon settled in behind the leader and found his rhythm before looking to make the pass for the lead. on lap 5 Brad saw the opportunity to take the lead and took it, but this time he couldn't pull himself a gap at the front, and although Brad was never really challenged for the lead Whatley was always close enough behind to not allow Brad any restbite, with Brad going on to take the win by 3 seconds.
Going into race 3 knowing that as long as he could beat Whatley he was champion, Brad was a little nervous before the off but as soon as he hit the opening corner in the lead all that was forgotten and he proved himself to be a worthy champion in waiting by giving a textbook performance to take a start to finish race win, much to the delight of the masses that were in attendance to support him.
The day couldn't have gone much better for Brad as he claimed the overall with the 3 wins and wrapped up his 2nd British MX1 Championship with a round to spare, afterwards he had this to say, "I wanted to wrap the championship up today with all my friends and family here, but I knew it was going to be hard so I'm well happy to get the 3 wins and everyone has done an awesome job. I’d just like to thank Paul, Neil, Geoff, Fox Racing, ISO Scaffolding, RGS builders, Rochford’s Garage, Route 77 Energy and everyone that has helped us, as I couldn’t have done it without them. I’m now looking forward to the British Grand Prix and the representing Great Britain at the Motocross of Nations, which I can now concentrate on. I hope we can put on a good show for the British fans".
