The final stop of the 2015 Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship powered by Skye Energy saw the championship finish at the deep sand circuit of FatCat Moto Parc near Doncaster. Following the unfortunate injury to MX2 Championship leader Max Anstie at the Motocross of Nations in France, meant that all eyes were on Frenchman Steven Lenoir as he attempted to claim the crown.
In the MX2 class the day started with one of the closest MX2 races of the season, Steven Lenoir (Dyer and Butler KTM) eventually took third after a titanic battle with Bryan MacKenzie (Pendrich Height Services Kawasaki) and Petar Petrov (Monster Energy Kawasaki). Petrov took the lead from the start but a fall on the opening lap put him back into sixth position as MacKenzie and Lenoir built up a five second lead. However, Petrov was visibly quicker and caught the leading duo with four minutes remaining and made a clean pass for the lead. Meanwhile Lenoir backed off slightly to take a comfortable third to gain twenty of the forty five points he required to lift his first British title.
Later in the day the second MX2 race saw Steven Lenoir move one step closer to the championship after finishing fourth and moved to within eight points of taking the MX2 crown. After initially leading the race, Lenoir made a small mistake at one third distance which allowed Ben Watson on the Hitachi Construction Machinery Revo KTM UK to take a narrow victory of less than two seconds from Steven Clarke on the Apico Husqvarna with hard charging Petar Petrov coming through to third in the closing stages.
In a cool and calculated ride, Steven Lenoir finished sixth in the final moto at FatCat to snatch the gold plate from the side-lined Max Anstie. Taking the lead at the start of the 20 minute plus two lap sprint, Lenoir allowed himself the luxury of letting the fast men pass him on the extremely rough circuit and came home to glory with his entourage awaiting him on the finish line. His 53 points haul eventually was enough to give him a final nine point advantage over Anstie. It was Watson who claimed the final race victory once again ahead of Clarke, Sterry, James Dunn and Alfie Smith. The battle for third in the championship saw Adam Sterry eventually taking the lower step by a single point from his season long rival Ben Watson.
On the day it was "imported" Petar Petrov who grabbed the overall with 1-3-7 finishes which included a charge from last in the final moto. Steven Clarke posted his best score of the season to take second on the day after a tie break with Sterry.
In the MX1 class Shaun Simpson on the Hitachi Construction Machinery Revo KTM UK rounded off a fantastic season with a straight eight overall victories during the season and with only three moto defeats throughout the year. With a display of smooth riding Kristian Whatley on Buildbase Honda Racing Team convincingly won the opening MX1 race by over eight seconds from Shaun Simpson who had to fight through traffic after finding himself down in tenth position on the opening lap. Eventually Simpson came through, but in doing so encountered tough opposition from Ashley Wilde (Toughsheet Honda Racing Team) and Elliot Banks Browne on the Geartec Suzuki who has returned from a season long injury. The second Buildbase Honda rider, Gert Krestinov put in fast laps at the end of the sprint to finish fifth ahead of Graeme Irwin on the Heads and All Threads Suzuki.
Shaun Simpson made amends for his first moto defeat by winning the second MX1 moto from Kristian Whatley who found himself bogged down in the pack on the opening lap. Graeme Irwin posted third with Tanel Leok on the LPE Racing Kawasaki fending off Gert Krestinov and Brad Anderson (MBO Power ASA Scaffolding Yamaha Racing) who were all separated by less than two seconds.
The final MX1 race of the year saw Shaun Simpson claim another race win and with it his eighth straight overall victory of the season. Once again Kristian Whatley took another second place finish ahead of Gert Krestinov and Tanel Leok in fourth and Matt Moffat in fifth. Whatley’s race win and two second place finishes were enough to take second overall on the day ahead of Gert Krestinov in third.
In the MXY2 class Oliver Osmaston on the MXW Racing Chichester Honda sealed the MXY2 title but it was Jordan Eccles who took the overall victory on the day whilst Robbie Dowson's second overall was enough for him to snatch the season runner up spot from Robert Yates on the Watson Plant/ IDS Bridgestone Yamaha.
This concludes a fantastic season for the championship and details of the 2016 campaign will be released shortly.