The fourth and final round of the Future West ACU British Supercross Championship took place on Saturday night in front of over 7,000 fans at the O2 Arena in London, with both the Pro Lites and Pro Open titles to be decided.
In the Open class
Mike Brown held a healthy 13-point lead over the only man with a mathematical chance of beating him, multi-time Canadian National Champ Jean-Sebastian Roy. In the Pro Lites class things were a little closer, with Canada’s Colton Facciotti topping the table by three points over JSR but with the top six riders all in with a shot at the title.
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Carl Nunn | | |
The track was built by Dirt Wurx USA and, considering the size of the arena, they made a good technical track. In reality it was more like an Arenacross rather than Supercross track, with 180-degree switchbacks, two sets of whoops, a set of triples, a couple of rhythm sections and no rest time for the riders! Because of this, nearly all riders in the Pro Open class were riding 250Fs, with the only person on a 450 being Ireland’s Gordon Crockard, who, incidentally, will be contesting the GNCCs this year with BMW.
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Ashley Greedy | | |
Once qualifying was over and all the major players were safely through, the crowd were then entertained by a head-to-head Dash-for-Cash, a two-lap sprint with the winner moving on to the next round.
Mike Brown was the man with the fatter wallet after beating firstly Crockard, the UK’s Ashley Greedy and then Neville Bradshaw in the final.
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Colton Facciotti | | |
No sooner had the huge crowd got its breath back than it was time for the Pro Lites Final. As an added bonus for the crowd (but not the riders)
Mike Brown decided to ride the Lites as well as the Open in order to get some extra seat time. As has become the norm in Europe, Brownie grabbed the holeshot and the battle was on. JSR put himself where he needed to be in second and managed to hold that position through to the chequered flag. Unfortunately for him, teammate Colton Facciotti had put himself where he needed to be in third, enough to take the Pro Lites SX title by just one point!
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Kyle Beaton | | |
Facciotti said afterwards, “It didn’t really go as planned, I was a little nervous off the start and had to work my way back up through the pack, but I just focussed on having fun out there, if I had to lose the title to anyone then I would have preferred it to go to JSR as he’s my teammate. I could see him in front of me but there were so many lappers it was hard to tell which position I was in, I just hoped that I was right there behind him. The Dirt Wurx crew have done an awesome job putting things together with the space that they have, it made for some good racing out there.”
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J.S. Roy | | |
In the Pro Open main event all eyes would be on
Mike Brown and JSR. The tight circuit had caused plenty of spills throughout the night so it certainly wasn’t a given that Brownie would walk away with the title. Asked what it was going to take to beat Brown JSR had a game plan: “It’s a real small track with plenty of fast guys, it’s going to take a good start without any mistakes and of course a bit of luck will make a difference. It’s technical but fun out there.”
When the gate dropped it was the Tennessee native with the quickest reactions as Brownie slid it into the first corner in front of Kyle Beaton (whose been competing in the AMA West Coast SX Lites this season) and Carl Nunn. Within three laps Brown had pulled a comfortable lead. It was looking like a bit of a procession until lappers played their part about two-thirds of the way through. Brown got stuck behind a slower rider who doggedly stuck to the race line and it was two laps before Brown got through. This had allowed Beaton to close the gap and put a pass on Brown, which he maintained to the chequers. Meanwhile, Facciotti had passed Nunn for 3rd and the final podium spot, and after a poor start JSR could only manage 5th behind Nunn who held on for a credible fourth.
Mike Brown: “You always want to win, and (Beaton) rode good, but the back markers, I mean I had a good lead and them guys they just wouldn’t move out of your way! I spent two laps following someone I just couldn’t get around. They were just riding the race line… But hey, that’s racing. You know he got a good track and he rode a good race, he deserved to win.”
Kyle Beaton said, “It was good I got off to a half decent start just settled into second and put my head down and just tried to catch up to Mike. I managed to catch him and just started pressuring him and he started making some mistakes and I was able to get around him clean, then I just put my head down and rode smooth from then on out. I mean, the track was really tight, it was probably the tightest track I’ve ridden on over here, but it was good and pretty technical, you really had to be careful choosing your lines. It felt good to get up here, I guess he’s been winning everything over here and it felt good to beat him.”
Pro Lites Main Event
1st Mike Brown USA
2nd Jean Sebastian Roy CAN
3rd Colton Facciotti CAN
4th Neville Bradshaw RSA
Pro Lites Championship Final Standings
1st Colton Facciotti 81pts
2nd Jean Sebastian Roy 80pts
3rd Neville Bradshaw 62pts
4th Ashley Greedy 55pts
5th Kris Foster 54pts
Pro Open Main Event
1st Kyle Beaton CAN
2nd Mike Brown USA
3rd Colton Facciotti CAN
4th Carl Nunn UK
5th Jean Sebastian Roy CAN
Pro Open Final Standings
1st Mike Brown 94pts
2nd Jean Sebastian Roy 75pts
3rd Colton Facciotti 58pts
4th Ashley Greedy 53pts
5th Neville Bradshaw 48pts
