Swanepoel Dominates British Champs in Lyng

The 3rd round of the Maxxis British championship has seen Molson Kawasaki’s Gareth Swanepoel sweep both races under sunny Easter skies at the famous Cadders Hill circuit in Lyng.

Fresh from his first ever MX 2 GP podium last weekend in Valkenswaard, Swanepoel seemed determined and focused to regain points in the British championship hunt.   A good start in the first moto had Swanepoel make his way past team-mate Tom Church for second position as he set off after leader Tommy Searle.  Swanepoel lost no time in passing the youngster to open up an eight second lead however he lost four seconds in one lap after getting caught up with some back markers, but stayed calm to take the first moto win.

photo: Stefan Paetow

The second and deciding race was somewhat of a carbon copy of the first with Swanepoel having to chase down Seale once again.  The two rivals gave the Easter crowd their monies worth however Swanepoel finally broke Searle in the latter stages of the race and cruised to a double win, his second overall British  championship victory of the season.

“It’s always awesome to win two moto’s in one day.  Tommy was on a mission in the second race but I could still close him down.  We had a good battle together and I finally got the better of him towards the end of the moto. I was riding a bit smoother and that seemed to help conserve my energy over the entire race.  The track was really great today -  it had both sand and hard sections and got really rough as the day went on but I seemed to adapt quite well.   The Molson Kawasaki team have really got my KX250F working well and I’m looking forward to Spain and hopefully another good result,” explained Swanepoel.

Swanepoel has jumped to second in the British championship standings, only 9 adrift of the lead. 

Next on the racing calendar will be the second round of the FIM Motocross world championship in Bellpuig, Spain on the 15 April where Swanepoel currently occupies 3rd in the world standings.

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Race results:

MX2 Race 1

1          Gareth Swanepoel

2        Tommy Searle

3        Tom Church

4        Mike Brown

5        Martin Barr

6        Jason Dougan

7        Ray Rowson

8        Shaun Simpson

9        Elliot Banks - Browne

10      Sean Hamblin

 

MX Race 2

1          Gareth Swanepoel

2        Tommy Searle

3        Mike Brown

4        Carl Nunn

5        Tom Church

6        Lewis Gregory

7        Shaun Simpson

8        MArtin Barr

9        Jamie Law

10      Wayne Smith

 

MX2 Championship standings:

1        Tommy Searle 148

2          Gareth Swanepoel 139

3        Mike Brown 136

4        Shaun Simpson 133

5        Tom Church 120

6        Sean Hamblin 109

7        Martin Barr 100

8        Lewis Gregory 87

9        Jason Dougan 87

10      Ray Rawson 63