The first round of the ACU Nora MX Championships took place on Sunday at the all new Silverstone GP MX track based at the world famous Silverstone circuit. With the sun shining and clear skies, the track was soft and in good condition. It was the first time ATV World Yamaha team rider John Mitchell had taken his new ATV World Laeger’s Yamaha YZF450R racing although he felt confident of a good result as it has outperformed everything else in testing.
The day started with practice and this gave John and the rest of the riders an opportunity to try out the new circuit, then it was time for race one of the experts class. John was on the second row and was about 15 quads behind after the first lap. Using some skilful, aggressive passing techniques, John worked his way through to the lead and took first place just ahead of Paul Winrow , taking the fastest lap of the day.

John got a better start in race two as he came round the first lap in fifth place. He pushed hard and was rewarded for his efforts with another win by a comfortable 20 seconds from second place rider Paul Winrow.

John saved all the drama for the final race of the day when he went off the track on the first lap after getting a superb start. Things didn’t get any better as a rare mistake resulted in John going over the handlebars and his quad landing on top of him! At half distance he jumped back on and began the task of catching up from 11th. Thanks to some awesome riding and another fastest lap, he caught up with the race leaders and took the third and final race with an emphatic victory.

John was clearly pleased with this perfect result;
“I’m really chuffed with both the performance of this incredible bike and my results as this was the first competitive race of the 2011 season and there were some top riders out there today. Martin Fletcher at ATV World and his team have yet again done an incredible job with the new Laeger’s Yamaha YZF450R. I just had to put fuel in and that was it! The shocks worked great and I was really impressed with Goldspeed’s new Beadlocks. Getting the fastest lap just goes to show the kind of performance we are getting from the bike and expect to get even great gains when the new Duncan Racing Engine kit is fitted.”

Overall Results for the ACU Nora – MX Round 1 – Experts
1st John Mitchell
2nd Paul Winrow
3rd Giles Davis

John and the rest of the team would like to thank the race organisers, riders and supporters who all contributed in making Nora MX round one an excellent event. John’s next race will be the first round of the 2011 ACU Goldspeed British Quadcross Championship which also has the opening round at the Silverstone circuit.

Thanks again for all the support from sponsors who along with their outstanding products have helped develop a potential championship winning team for the 2011 season.