After a wet and windy start on Saturday and practise being cancelled, Stuart Edmonds was still the only Apico Husqvarna Pro Rider able to compete at the final round of the MX Nationals at FatCat Motoparc in Doncaster. The team were able to welcome Matt Burrows and Jamie Law on Sunday, who came to show support for their teammates. In the expert class, Jack Lindsay had to miss the round and Zac Stealey was behind the gate for the races on both Saturday and Sunday. Stuart Edmonds had been putting a lot of preparation into the lead up to the event; training, preparing a new bike with Team Manager Dylan Brown and concentrating on getting all the details right for the final round. Unfortunately, Stuarts best lap in practise was his first, leaving him far down the gate choice with the alternate nature of MX1 and MX2 riders lining up together. |
Race 1, as the gate dropped Stuart was to the far right of the first corner and didn’t get the jump, leaving him with a lot to do to get from 18th to 10th MX1 at the flag. It was unfortunate and became apparent after the race there had been an intermittent technical issue that hampered Stuart’s progress. That said, the tough conditions would have had a part to play and the fault was easily rectified for the last race. In Race 2, Stuart had selected a gate closer to the left side of the start, though didn’t get the start again, making a lot of work of the rest of the race. After making some progress there was an incident that saw Stuart crash off the track and loses around 20 seconds on the previous lap, leaving him 26th. Stuart remained focused and got his head down for the rest of the race, passing a number of riders to get back to 17th, 10th MX1. |
In the Expert Class, Zac, who admittedly doesn’t favour the sand, had a tough time with the conditions racing twice Saturday and Sunday in the Expert class. With consistent performances Zac went 13-12-12-11 to get 12th MX Expert Overall. Stuart: “I had an intermittent clutch problem with it fading, probably due to the heat brought on by the conditions in race 1. It did come back though I expended a lot of energy putting on a charge to come through the pack to 10th MX1. Race 2 first couple of laps I was held up by traffic and then just as I started to make a few passes I made a small mistake that saw me caught out in the heavy stuff at the side of the track and I lost a lot of time. I was pleased with my progress as I then made up a number of positions to get back to 10th MX1. I’d like to thank all the team and sponsors, my sponsors back home and having been based in England for the most part of the season, a special thanks to Dylan & Anna for helping and supporting me over the last few months”. |
Dylan: “If you’d had asked me at the beginning of the year ‘would I have expected the season we’ve had’, I’d have said you were telling a bad joke. We’ve had a Global Pandemic with cancelled events, broken bones and the odd technical. That said, I do feel we have come through it, albeit being a bit unlucky with injuries, to give some solid performances in MX2 (Hawkstone Jamie Law 5th Overall) and MX1 (Cusses Gorse 6th Overall). I feel this shows that the team have had a good foundation at the pinnacle of British Motocross in 2020 and a marked improvement on the results in 2019. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Matt Walker and Husqvarna Motorcycles UK for their support and input this season, long may this continue. To the riders, mechanics sponsors and behind the scenes people – Thank you, without you, we couldn’t do what we do. We now look to 2021 with fresh eyes and hope for a full seasons racing.” |