Barragan on Top Step of Podium at Milton

13-05-2013

Milton Park, Northamptonshire, 11-12 May 2013. The team was back at Milton Park for the fourth round of the British Championship and was hoping for a repeat of last season’s successful day when Matiss Karro took all three wins and the overall. However with Karro out with injury, it would be down to Jonathan Barragan in MX1 and Adam Sterry in MX2, to try their luck on the tight twisty track.


 

Qualifying

In MX2 Sterry struggled with the track and couldn’t get a good lap in, resulting in him missing out on the super-pole with only the 14th best time. Barragan seemed to like the track and after posting second quickest in timed practice he had to settle for 3rd in super-pole as Leok edged him out by just one hundredth of a second.
 

MX2 Race 1

Sterry went down on the first turn and was dead last in 36th but he looked like a different rider than in qualifying and blasted through to 23rd by the end of the first lap. By mid-race he was up to 15th but it was getting harder to pass the quicker riders and he had to be content with 13th at the flag.
 

MX1 Race 1

Barragan made a decent start in 5th and was quickly through to 3rd behind leader Aubin and Leok in 2nd. Leok took the lead and Barragan began to push Aubin but midway through the race he started to suffer from arm pump and had to drop the pace. The three of them had already built up a good lead and held their positions to the finish.

MX2 Race 2

Sterry made a good start in 4th and was immediately on the pace. He soon started to push third placed rider, Mackenzie but as he tried to make a pass, they came together and he went down. After picking it up in 7th he was quickly back on the pace again and back through to 5th. Only the front two were lapping faster than the youngster but the gap to 3rd and 4th was just a bit too much to make up, however a 5th place finish was impressive, nonetheless.
 

MX1 Race 2

Barragan wasn’t away quite so well second time out, rounding the first turn in 8th but he was looking confident and aggressive as he made light work of the opposition to move all the way through to the lead in just a few laps. As the rain fell and the track became increasingly greasy he slid off in a corner handing the lead back to Leok. After re-starting in 3rd he moved back into second and reeled Leok in again only to put it back on the floor and go back down to 3rd again. This time he was further back by the time he re-joined the race but he was clearly the fastest rider on the track and after re-taking 2nd he charged after Leok but ran out of time, finishing just two seconds behind the Estonian.
 

MX2 Race 3

Sterry had a poor start and with the weather deteriorating, he found it more difficult to get any sort of rhythm and struggled throughout the whole race, crashing three times on his way to a disappointing 15th. His results gave him 8th overall and moved him up to 7th in the Championship.
 

MX1 Race 3

With the rain continuing to fall as they lined up for the final race of the day, a good start was going to be crucial but Barragan had a shocker and was buried in 13th but his confidence from the first two races was showing as he blasted through to 4th after a few laps. He set about chasing down the front three of Aubin, Leok and Whatley but wasn’t able to push as hard as in the previous race due to the much more difficult track conditions. As he closed in, he was handed third as Leok went out with a mechanical problem and made light work of taking over 2nd from Whatley. Aubin was a bit too far ahead and even though he got within two seconds of the Frenchman on the last lap, he had to settle for 2nd. His 3rd-2nd-2nd results gave him the overall win for the day and moved him up to 3rd in the Championship.
 
Adam Sterry said: "I struggled in qualifying but I was happy with coming back to 13th in the first race after coming from the back of the field, especially as it was so hard to pass on this track. I made a good start in the second race but went down trying to pass Mackenzie but I passed good riders to get back to 5th showing I can compete with the top boys. The third race I made a bad start and with the track really wet, I crashed twice while trying to fight my way through. I came home in 15th which was disappointing but I was glad to come away safe."
 
Jonathan Barragan said: "I liked the track and was happy with my riding today. Even when I crashed I caught the other riders again so I know I had the speed. I was happy to win overall and scored good points for the Championship and it was great for my confidence for Brazil."
 
Team Manager, Steve Turner commented: "It was a bit of a roller coaster for Adam but he showed in race two, that he has the pace of the top guys in the class and if he can improve his consistency to battle with those riders in every race, I’m confident he’ll be able to improve his riding further still."
 
“Jonathan was really good today. He was aggressive from start to finish and although he dropped it a couple of times, he showed he was the quickest rider running the front guys down again each time."
 
“It was good for both the team and Jonathan to take the win and hopefully this might kick-start his season. This seems to be a bit of a lucky track for us, so even though some riders are less than complimentary of it, I hope they keep coming back here.”