New signing Martin Barr got Crescent Yamaha’s 2019 MX Nationals campaign off to a great start with overall victory in the Pro MX2 class at the opening round of the series at Sherwood on Sunday.
In appalling conditions as torrential rain swept the Nottinghamshire circuit, the Irishman put his all new 2019 YZ250F into a solid third in qualification. The championship’s ‘Fastest 40’ format sees MX1 and MX2 classes race together – although they’re scored separately – and when the gate dropped on the opening moto Martin was in the thick of the action as he battled with the 450 machines.
After fighting his way through to second MX2 rider, he went one better in race two with his combined score earning him the overall win on a tie-break by virtue of his second race victory.
Representing the team in MX1 on his YZ450F, Jake Shipton continued his comeback from a serious back injury that sidelined him for most of last season with a solid if unspectacular day. Qualifying ninth, he finished the opening race in eighth in class but had a much tougher time in moto two and after losing his goggles in the early laps he eventually finished 15th for 11th overall.
Crescent Yamaha is also represented by Bobby Bruce in the super-competitive youth MXY1 125cc class. Racing his YZ125, he was on course for a podium finish with a second and two thirds but a DNF in race three restricted him to sixth overall on the day.
“I’m happy enough. It’s a good start to the championship for me and I’m really happy on the Crescent Yamaha. The day started off pretty decent with third in qualifying which set me up nicely for a good gate position. I made a good start in race one and was pulling through the 450s ahead of me but a couple of mistakes let the leader get away a little bit so I settled for second. I couldn’t win the championship today but I could definitely lose it and with the track being a little sketchy in some places I used my head. I was looking for something similar in race two. We had a lot of rain and the track got really slick along with it already being pretty rough so it was a very technical race and one in which you could easily find yourself upside down. I made another decent start and just rode steady, found a good rhythm and brought it home for the win which gave me the overall. I want to keep it going and now I’m looking forward to next weekend and the opening round of the British championship at FatCat. It’s been a difficult week. A good friend’s wife passed away so I’d like to dedicate that win to her.”
