Round 7 ACU British MMX Quad Championship August 2nd 2009 Leuchars, Fife, Scotland. – With perfect conditions at the beautifully maintained Leuchars track, John Mitchell took an incredible overall win this weekend on his development ATV World Yamaha YFZ450R in its first British Championship race. Remarkably John is still recovering from a shoulder injury earlier in the season, which only highlights his ability as he took the fastest lap during race two!
Qualifying in second place, John reported back to the pits that his development ATV World Yamaha YFZ450R felt great and handled well. With four rounds of the championship missed, the decision was taken to race for the first time with the 450R. With full Elka suspension, Scorpion exhaust, Laeger A-Arms and Goldspeed sand cross tyres the 450R was ready for some serious racing.
John was able to pull off the line well in race one and tucked in just behind the KTM of Paul Holmes. On lap three the KTM pulled up leaving clear space for John to carve out a lead. With the likes of Paul Winrow and Jason Macbeth behind him, John got down to pulling away and finished 7.5 seconds ahead, taking an ecstatic victory and the first for the 450R.
Still aching from the first race, John started race two brightly and again was able to gain a good start. Initially in fourth, John battled past Paul Winrow and then Jason Macbeth but by this time was too far behind the KTM of Paul Holmes. Settling for a comfortable second place, John knew he had taken first place overall and bagged the fastest lap!
After a day of superb racing John commented “Today has been fantastic! I have wanted to race on the fuel injection YFZ450R in the British Championship and today I took my chance. Although I have been feeling much stronger, I’m still not fully fit and my body really hurts now. But winning makes the pain worth it and I am thankful to everybody involved in both my recovery and the development of the 450R. I’m off for a bath now and will hopefully be feeling better for round eight at Blaxhall in two weeks.”
Meanwhile, there were other good results with ATV World Yamaha rider Leon Beda bagging yet more points with a well deserved overall sixth, despite carrying a nasty hand injury throughout the weekend. Sean Goss picked up 12th place in race two and Josh Barrett had a best finish in race one finishing 19th.
Next race is at Blaxhall, Suffolk for round eight of the ACU British MMX Quad Championships.
John Mitchell races on Elka Suspensions