| The Rob Hooper Yamaha Motocross team endured a frustrating weekend at Fatcat Motoparc as they began their 2021 Mx Nationals campaign. With four moto’s over the two days, the team were hopeful that their young racers Lewis Hall & Sam Nunn would be pushing towards the front end of the Pro MX2 pack and for the early portion of the motos, that is what Hall did. The Saturday races saw the Pro MX2 riders mixed in with the Expert MX2 class, which meant a packed lineup of MX2 hopefuls. In Moto 1, Hall would start buried in midpack, but with blistering pace, he worked up to fourth before a fall set him back to seventh, where he would finish. Moto two was very similar, although this time, Lewis would push through to third before being pushed back to fifth. On Sunday, when the Pro MX1 & MX2 races joined together for the Fastest 40 moto’s Hall would be involved in a first bend melee in race one, causing damage to the front brake hose, which needed a quickfire pitstop before he rejoined the race over a minute behind the last position. A red flag stopped any chance of him catching another rider. In the final moto of the weekend, Lewis would come out firing. After starting outside the top ten in the mixed pro group, he starting powering past the opposition, including GP regular Ashton Dickinson, and MX1 title contender Jake Millward, to be second in MX2 and fourth in the race against the 450’s. A slip off on lap three, though, and arm pump saw Lewis bow out of the moto for a disappointing DNF. Nunn struggled for pace the whole weekend long, going 15-14-14-13 for 14th overall, one position behind Hall in 13th. Team Boss Rob Hooper said of the weekend, “It was a frustrating weekend all round, to say the least. With Lewis, you have short bursts of tremendous speed, but that is coupled with mistakes, crashes and a lack of race fitness. His lack of bike time in the offseason is beginning to show, and it is something we need to work on. With Sam, he is off the pace at the moment and has been since his crash at Culham. Previous to that, he had the speed to easily be in the top ten and higher and like Lewis, we have plenty to work on this week ahead of Canada Heights on Sunday.” The aforementioned meeting at Canada Heights is the third round of the Revo ACU British Motocross Championship, with Lewis sitting in 19th and Sam in 23rd. The team will be hoping for an improved performance from both riders to move up the standings. Images by Warren Kee |
