Date: 28 September 2009

The final round of the Maxxis British MX championship held at the ‘old school’ circuit of Landrake has seen Factory Kawasaki racer, Gareth Swanepoel, claim the runner up position in the MX1 class. The 24-year-old South African had a mixed championship with lady luck also playing a role in the deciding race.

After qualifying 5th in the early morning timed session, Swanepoel rolled onto the gate for the first moto. A good jump saw ‘Swanie’ positioned well but he got swallowed into the first turn and appeared just inside the top ten as he completed lap 1. Pushing hard to move through the pack ‘Swanepoel’ dropped it and remounted to give chase once again to the leaders. He managed to salvage 6th spot at the chequered flag.

Moto 2 would see Swanepoel jostling for positions from the get go nevertheless he made short work of a bunch of riders on the first lap and rocketed from 9th to 5th. He moved into 3rd spot a few laps later and set his sights on Bryan McKenzie and Stephan Sword before an unforced error saw him go down with another rider crashing into the back of his machine. Swanepoel quickly rejoined and worked his way back into 5th spot. Unfortunately his silencer was damaged in the crash and Swanepoel was given a 1 minute penalty which relegated him to 17th.

“Looking back on the championship I expected to win a lot more races which is what I wanted to do this weekend but things never turned out that way. I have shown good speed and am happy about my first year in the MX1 class. Finishing 8th in the world championship and second in the British champs is not too bad and next year I’ll be improving on both those scores…’ vowed a determined Swanepoel.

‘Swanie’ now heads to Italy where he will represent South Africa alongside Tyla Rattray and Neville Bradshaw in the Motocross of Nations to be held in Franciacorta next weekend.

Race results:

MX1 Race 1
1 Billy MacKenzie
2 Shaun Simpson
3 Stephen Sword
4 Tom Church
5 Jason Dougan
6 Gareth Swanepoel
7 Jordan Rose
8 Scott Columb
9 Ryan Hughes
10 Ben Lamay
11 Bryan MacKenzie
12 Wayne Smith
13 James Noble
14 Gordon Crockard
15 Cyrille Coulon

Mx1 Race 2
1 Stephen Sword
2 James Noble
3 Billy MacKenzie
4 Jason Dougan
5 Tom Church
6 Ben Lamay
7 Bryan MacKenzie
8 Jordan Rose
9 Wayne Smith
10 Shaun Simpson
11 Ray Rowson
12 Scott Columb
13 Ryan Hughes
14 Gordon Crockard
15 Nathan Parker

17 Gareth Swanepoel (with 1 minute time penalty)

MX1 Overall:
1 Stephen Sword 45
2 Billy MacKenzie 45
3 Jason Dougan 34
4 Tom Church 34
5 Shaun Simpson 33
6 James Noble 30
7 Jordan Rose 27
8 Ben Lamay 26
9 Bryan MacKenzie 24
10 Scott Columb 22
11 Wayne Smith 21
12 Ryan Hughes 20
13 Gareth Swanepoel 19
14 Ray Rowson 14
15 Gordon Crockard 14

MX1 Final championship standings:
1 Brad Anderson 289
2 Gareth Swanepoel 250
3 James Noble 231
4 Tom Church 212
5 Carl Nunn 203
6 Billy MacKenzie 192
7 Jason Dougan 184
8 Scott Columb 174
9 Bryan MacKenzie 137
10 Jordan Rose 123
11 Kristian Whatley 101
12 Alex Snow 97
13 Jamie Lewis 90
14 Danny Smyth 76
15 Zach Osbourne 66