MX Nationals British Championship
After a record year, the MX Nationals British Championship has come to an end. Join the Buildbase Honda team as we wrap up the Final Round of the 2018 Season.
The final round of the 2018 MX Nationals British Championship recently concluded with Round 6 being held at the Cusses Gorse course in Salisbury, Wiltshire. The event welcomed a record number of riders this year that was a full 10% up on 2017, and to add to the feel-good factor, the sun shone and plenty of spectators turned up to cheer on their favourites.
It was a particularly good day for the Buildbase Honda team, which saw three of its riders clinching the 2018 MX1, MX2 and MXY2 Championships at the recently reworked course that also met with considerable acclaim for both riders and spectators alike.
THE TRACK
The surface is a mix of topsoil and woodchip, creating really deep ruts and lots of lines that evolve as the day's racing goes on. It's also a wide, long track that produces a slightly different type of race that's perhaps more spread out than we're used to seeing, but where groups of riders battle it out on a track that lends itself well to overtaking.
And best of all - especially for spectators, Cusses Gorse also features bigger and more prolific jumps than most tracks and inevitably leads to spectacular racing.Prior to this Round 6 event, the Expert MX2, MXY1 and BW85 classes had already been decided, but it wasn't until the final flag of the season fell that the Pro MX1 and MX2, Expert MX1, Clubman MX1 and MX2 and MXY2 classes found their champions.
Buildbase Honda team
Even with the same bikes to ride, it would be impossible to have real success at this level of off-road motocross competition without a solid, committed and talented team behind the riders. And that's exactly what Callum Green, Jake Nicholls and Josh Gilbert have behind them with Buildbase Honda and team manager Dave Thorpe.
Speaking of his team and riders, Thorpe says: "I'm really proud of our team riders Jake, Josh and Callum. We’re a British team and so we set out to win on a national level. For the riders, mechanics, everyone involved with the team, and for Honda, these are important wins. It’s a super series. We enjoy it and everyone has fun. It’s been great."
Callum Green
Winning the MXY2 class was more difficult than perhaps some might have expected for Callum Green, the 18-year-old from Nottingham, and that's because he was riding with the added handicap of a damaged shoulder. Callum had the injury for six or seven weeks leading up to the finals.
Team boss Dave Thorpe explains: "To have that type of injury in a season and trying to compete at a high level with an injury is hard, because you spend all week getting better and then you do a motocross race and it's like taking three steps forward and then four back. I feel for him."
Although Callum failed to register a victory in any of the four races on the day, his two second-place finishes in races 1 and 2 and a third place in race three gave him enough points to secure the MXY2 title ahead of Denny Rapson and Brad Cavill.
Josh Gilbert
Josh fared a little better in the day's racing than teammate, Callum, by securing first place in race 1 of the Pro MX2 class and second in race 2. Although he finished the day in second place overall behind fierce rival, Brad Anderson, Gilbert went away as the MX2 rider with the biggest smile after securing the overall title with his performance at Cusses Gorse.
Jake Nicholls
Completing the trio of Championship winner for the Buildbase Honda team was Jake Nicholls, whose Pro MX1 title is his first as an adult rider. Like Callum Green, Jake didn’t win a race at Round 6, but his fourth place in race one, third place in race 2 and his fourth place overall on the day was still enough to see him take the 2018 title.
Jake admitted to tensing up after making a poor start in the first race, but found things easier as the race went on, even though the track conditions had changed considerably from earlier in the day. After driving better towards the end of the race Jake didn’t even realise he'd done enough to secure the championship until he got back to his team at the end of the race. As well as being his first championship as an adult, it was the first time Jake has competed in this series.
The bikes
Jake's bike is a Honda CRF450R which he says is slimmer than anything he's been used to in the past but feels just right for him. The 2018 version of Honda's flagship dirt bike gets an electric starter as standard for the first time this year, which is powered by an ultra-lightweight lithium ion battery. As well as added convenience the removal of the kick start lever also saves a little of that all-important weight for improved performance.
In the MX2 class, Josh Gilbert competes on the Honda CRF250R also ridden by Callum in the 250F MXY2 class, which also gets a standard electric start as part of its armoury for 2018. Unlike the bigger 450R ridden by team mate, Jake Nicholls, it shares its complete mass-centralised chassis with, this year's 250R features a brand new DOHC engine developing 9% more peak power over a considerably broader rev range, and with a higher redline than its predecessor.
Callum Green says of his bike: "The bike's really good. I haven't really got anything that I dislike with it. In corners it handles really well and I just feel really confident on it. It's probably the only 250 I've ever felt really comfortable with."
Callum continued: "It helps massively if your parents support you a lot, 'cause obviously you wouldn’t be here without your parents and your family. I'm really happy to win the championship, it's been a year and a bit since I won a championship. So, yeah, I'm really happy. It's good for me, and during this year with my mindset and everything else – I'm really happy."
A successful and satisfying conclusion
Coming into this season the Honda bikes ridden by the Buildbase Honda team were hotly fancied to do the business, but being fancied and delivering the goods in something as fiercely competitive as off-road dirt bike racing are two different things. The combination of the right bikes, ridden by the right riders, and backed by the right team saw Buildbase Honda wrapping up an amazing Michelin MX Nationals triple crown at this highly entertaining climax to the series.
View the full range of off-road bikes here.
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