John Phillips – Maxxis British Masters Champs Round 2
John Phillips
Maxxis British Masters Championship Round 2
Date: 27 March 2011
Location: Canada Heights
Class: MX2
Bike: RMZ 250
Track and weather conditions: Weather was really good, it didn’t get too cold. The track had a lot of ups and downs, up top was really hard pack and got quite skaty, down the bottom was really soft and cut up pretty bad as the day went on.
Practice/Qualifying: I used up all of the 15 min practice to learn the track and get into a flow. Once the green flag went out I managed to get a couple fast laps in, but they were only good enough to get 28th.
Race 1: I got a mid pack start but dropped back when a rider in front of me went down on the first turn. I pushed hard the first couple laps then got caught up with a few riders and by the time I had got passed them the guys in front of me had gone, by that time I was in 24th. I soon got passed by a Kawasaki rider and ran 25th position right up until the last lap where I pushed it to hard and came off in a rut jamming my clutch. It took me a while to get going but managed to finish in 28th.
Race 2: I got off to another mid pack start and managed to charge passed a few riders in the first couple of laps before I got held up by some KTM rider, I was right up his exhaust for a couple laps and with no where to pass so I had to make an aggressive move and block pass him, unfortunately we both went down and I stalled my bike. I got going in about 26th and had to make my charge again getting back up to 23rd before crossing the finish line.
Race 3: I got off to a bad start but charged hard catching up to 22nd before I stalled in a rut losing a couple of places. Luckily it was only halfway through the race and I managed to catch up to where I was and gained a couple more positions before crossing the finish line. I finished in 20th position
General comment: The track was ridiculously rough by the end of it all so I was happy to finish the day in one piece. I learned a lot this weekend and I know what I have to do to score some decent points. A big thank you to my team Dirtbike-gym and my mechanic Nigel for all their hard work.
Thanks for your support
Regards
John