Date: 30 April '06

A bizarre third round of the Maxxis Britsh MX championship saw South African, Gareth Swanepoel narrowly miss out on his first overall victory this season after both moto’s were restarted due to fallen riders.

After the first re-start of race one while battling with MacKenzie and Nunn, ‘Swanie’ had slightly more work to do as he came through the pack from around seventh position on lap one. The Molson Kawasaki rider blitzed through and after disposing of MacKenzie he set his sights on fellow team-mate Tommy Searle up front. Swanepoel was closing down the teenager when a small crash let Carl Nunn slip by with only a few laps to go.

Yet another re-start caused some confusion when Carl Nunn went down in a big way in race two. The Englishman was allowed to take part in the second re-run but it was Swanepoel and MacKenzie who stole the show. ‘Billy Mac’ was out front but Swanepoel reeled in the Scotsman to pass him around the halfway mark. The Molson Kawasaki rider succeeded in putting a two second cushion between himself and MacKenzie and looked set for the victory as well as the overall laurels. As the two front runners hit a gaggle of backmarkers, Swanepoel could not avoid one of the slower riders and ran into the back of one. This enabled MacKenzie to capitalize on the road block and the Scotsman got by to steal the victory.

“I think the spectators got their monies worth today” commented Swanepoel. “The restarts messed things up a little bit but I had some great battles with Nunn and MacKenzie. I should have wrapped things up in the final moto but we ran into some back markers – as I jumped the big table top I looked ahead and could see them in front. They looked like flies all over the place! I’m actually disappointed as I was the fastest rider all day and should have one but that’s racing I guess.”

Race 1
1 Tommy Searle
2 Carl Nunn
3 Gareth Swanepoel
4 Billy MacKenzie
5 Wayne Smith
6 Jason Dougan
7 Martin Kohut
8 Brad Anderson
9 Jake Nichols
10 Richie Leech

Race 2
1 Billy MacKenzie
2 Gareth Swanepoel
3 Tommy Searle
4 Brad Anderson
5 George Strik
6 Wayne Smith
7 Martin Kohut
8 Shaun Simpson
9 Alan Keet
10 Carl Nunn

Overall
1 Tommy Searle
2 Billy MacKenzie
3 Gareth Swanepoel

Championship standings:
1 Billy MacKenzie 156
2 Tommy Searle 153
3 Carl Nunn 143
4 Gareth Swanepoel 126
5 Wayne Smith 120
6 Brad Anderson 114
7 Jason Dougan 70
8 Shaun Simpson 64
9 Martin Kohut 62
10 Scott Probert 62
11 Marc De Reuver 60
12 Jamie Law 45
13 Ray Rowson 38
14 Jim Murro 37
15 E. Banks-Browne 34