Apico boss Dylan Brown swopped the boardroom for the pit box by taking up the spanners to act as mechanic for his Apico Husqvarna team rider Stu Edmonds at the immaculately prepared Blaxhall Circuit in Suffolk at the weekend. The host club had been busy during the winter months to redesign sections of the track to give the riders a new layout for this year’s event. Once again the Blaxhall Circuit was blessed with sunshine and after the hot weather at the previous round it was set to be another tough weekend for Stuart Edmonds and Matt Burrows in the heat.

The morning practice and qualifying sessions saw Matt set his fastest lap early in the session and end the session 23^rd fastest while Edmonds searched all session for a fast lap and ended the session 12^th fastest which would give him a good gate pick on the open and fast sweeping first corner at Blaxhall.

In the opening race of the day for the MX1 class, Edmonds was just outside the top 10 off the start in 13^th place and used the opening laps to move into the top 10 and start to progress further forward. Unfortunately for Burrows it was a tough start and he rounded the opening corners in 28^th but was inside the top 20 by lap 4 and continued to push forward to 17^th place at the finish. During the second half of the moto Edmonds continued to move forward and crossed the line in 8^th just missing out on 7^th place.

The second race saw drama prior to the race as Edmonds suffered a technical issue in the waiting zone meaning the race started without him. Burrows made a better start this time and was inside the top 20 around the opening corners. After the team worked quickly Edmonds was able to start the race a couple of corners behind the pack and pushed had on the opening laps to get into the top 20 by lap 4. Edmonds continued the charge and worked his way up to 13^th with a few laps left and felt confident of a top 10 when he suffered a front wheel puncture and had to settle for 13^th. Burrows rode a solid race to finish in 19^th and claim more championship points.

Edmonds results would give him 12^th overall on the day and place him 12^th in the championship and just 1 point of 9^th in the standings. Burrows two points scores gave him 21^st overall and 20^th in the championship before the series moves to Desertmartin in Northern Ireland.

Stuart Edmonds – 12^th overall – My riding was good today and I felt strong on the opening race and I was enjoying the new changes to the track as it made it technical and rough so I was happy with the 8^th place. Unfortunately on the sighting lap of Moto 2 we had a small issue with the bike and the team had to work hard to sort it out but by the time we got it sorted the race had already started so I was last with a lot of work to do. I made some aggressive passes on the first lap and probably being too nice to some riders but managed to climb to 13th with 3 riders in front I was confident of a top 10 finish. But 4 laps from the end I got a front wheel puncture so I had to nurse the bike home to a respectable 13th. I am happy with those results and my riding and look forward to the next round at Desertmartin where I plan to come out firing at my home event. Massive thanks to Dylan Brown for working on the bike this weekend as my mechanic couldn’t come and also Ian Jones and John Dunnes for looking after me this weekend I would have been lost without your help guys so thank you.

Matt Burrows – 21^st Overall – Blaxhall was a struggle, just struggling to gel and find any sort of rhythm all day. In Moto 1 got a terrible start and worked my way up to 17th then Moto 2 was another bad start again and just didn’t pull through and ended up 19th. I’m disappointed and will head back to the drawing board before the next event.

Sean Burrows – Team Manager – Blaxhall has been another mixed day. Stuart had two good rides, but the results don’t show just how well he was riding at the moment and he will be looking to break into the top 5 at Desertmartin next month. For Matt it was a tough day and although he scored points in both races he is expecting more of himself. 

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