Best result of the season for Buxton racer

The picturesque Cadwell Park circuit in Lincolnshire was the location of the British Motorcycle Racing Clubs sixth round over the weekend of August 15th/16th.

Buxton racer Chris Kent once again took his MZ250 to compete in the British MZ Racing Clubs National Championship. Currently in 4th place, Chris was hoping to gain ground after a successful outing at the 3 Sisters circuit near Wigan the previous weekend. 

Qualifying on the second row of the grid and a poor start in Race 1 meant he had his work cut out but a brave move round the outside at the flat out first corner moved the Buxton man up to fourth. At  the hard braking downhill left-hander Mansfield, Chris took advantage of some hesitancy by the riders ahead and dived down the inside to jump up to second place, a position he held until the end  of lap 2 when he was slip-streamed down the straight into the first corner.

As the lead 3 arrived into Mansfield  on lap 3 a back-marker slowed the lead pair and gave Chris an opportunity to close on them. On the next lap, heading into the Mountain another back-marker delayed the lead pair and Chris was able to maintain his speed and sweep past into 2nd place and then surprised everyone by diving round the outside of the leader into Hall Bends, an unusual move rarely seen at that corner.

At the next hairpin, he was able to pass the back-marker and the other pair got held up so Chris led for over a lap before being caught and passed again on the Park straight. The fight for the win was fierce with the top 2 places swapping several times over the last 2 laps with Chris just too far back to get involved. Nevertheless he crossed the finish line right behind the leaders for what is probably his best race performance this year.

At the end of the race Chris was only 1.5 seconds behind the winner and remarked afterwards “That was great! I got lucky with the back-markers in a few places but I’m happy to have shown decent pace again”

Race 2 began with another poor start from the front row but the Buxton man was able to get into third place by the end of the first lap. However, his pace from the first race was lacking and after several mistakes he was caught and passed, dropping off the podium. More mistakes followed as he tried to fight back and eventually came home in fourth place.”That was a bit disappointing. I couldn’t find my rhythm and the harder I tried the worse it got” he said later.

Race 3 began with a similar pattern with Chris rejoining battle for third place while the leaders built a gap. Unbeknownst to the Buxton man, the rider he was battling had suffered a mechanical and pulled off on lap 2 and going into the left before the Mountain, Chris lost the front end and crashed out of a solid third place. “Well, I’m obviously somewhat annoyed at crashing. If I had realised there was no-one chasing me I’d have wound it off a bit and tried to bring it home, but that’s racing” said Chris philosophically afterwards

Race 4 was an unusual affair, as two of the front runners failed to get to the start grid. Chris tried to stay with the leader for the first 2 laps but when it became obvious he wouldn’t be able to close the gap he chose to resume a safer pace. This meant a lonely race for the local rider but he was able to claim second place and his best result of the year! 

Chris remains in 4th place with 2 rounds to go. The next is at Snetterton on September 5th/6th.