Date: 03 June 2007.

IMX GP and international motocross campaigner, Gareth Swanepoel, has won the fourth round of the Maxxis British Motocross championship in Langrish, Hampshire.

Swanepoel, who is backed by the UK and Belgian based Molson Kawasaki team, met with some technical difficulties on lap three of the first moto and could only manage fourth place, with a jamming throttle keeping the South African off of the podium.

Swanepoel bounced back in race 2 to dominate the rest of the field including championship rival Tommy Searle and Americans Mike Brown and Sean Hamblin. He set the fastest race lap time around the Manor Farm circuit and cruised to an easy victory, 8 seconds ahead of Searle. ‘Swanie’s’ 4-1 result also delivered the overall victory and has brought the South African to within 8 points of the MX2 British championship lead.

“I’ve won 3 out of the 4 rounds so far and with another four to go I’m pretty confident that the second half of the championship is going to be exciting,” vowed the 22-year-old. “I had some trouble with my throttle sticking in the first moto and managed to adapt to the problem although it got quite scary on those huge downhill’s. We changed some suspension settings for this race which worked really well on the fast and hard pack sections and should give me a good base for the French GP in St Jean d’Angely next weekend.”

Swanepoel, currently ranked 6th in the MX2 World championship standings, will head back to Belgium before making the trip to St Jean D’ Angely (Round 7 of 15), located a few hours South of Paris.

Race results:

MX 2 RACE 1
1 Mike Brown
2 Sean Hamblin
3 Tommy Searle
4 Gareth Swanepoel
5 Elliot Banks - Browne
6 Jason Dougan
7 Ray Rowson
8 Shaun Simpson
9 Martin Barr
10 Carl Nunn
11 Tom Church
12 Jake Nichols
13 Martin Kohut
14 Lewis Gregory
15 Kristian Whatley

MX2 RACE 2
1 Gareth Swanepoel
2 Tommy Searle
3 Tom Church
4 Sean Hamblin
5 Carl Nunn
6 Shaun Simpson
7 Ray Rowson
8 Martin Kohut
9 Jake Nichols
10 Martin Barr
11 Mike Brown
12 Wayne Smith
13 Alex Snow
14 Elliot Banks - Browne
15 Kristian Whatley

MX2 Podium
1 Gareth Swanepoel 53
2 Tommy Searle 52
3 Sean Hamblin 50

MX2 Championship standings:
1 Tommy Searle 200
2 Gareth Swanepoel 192
3 Mike Brown 176
4 Shaun Simpson 167
5 Sean Hamblin 159
6 Tom Church 155
7 Martin Barr 124
8 Jason Dougan 106
9 Ray Rowson 97
10 Lewis Gregory 94
11 Carl Nunn 75
12 Jake Nichols 68
13 Wayne Smith 62
14 Elliot Banks - Browne 54
15 David Willett 40