Now it’s safe to say that supercross is about as far removed from extreme enduro that you can get but one that KTM Off Road Racing’s Jonny Walker was keen to try. Walker who finished third in this year’s Erzberg Rodeo found himself in the stadium and on the start line of this year’s opening round of the British Supercross championship following a bet made between himself and fellow motocross specialist Jamie Law. If Jonny rode the Shefield Supercross then Jamie would try his hand at next weekend’s Ironman Extreme Enduro in Yorkshire…
First round of the British Supercross championship is of course “in at the deep end”, but as Jonny has proved all season he’s not afraid to mix it with the best at any races, his first practice was a cautious start, slowly building confidence on the track and getting the bike dialed in , actually our Enduro based suspension was now too stiff but with some fine tuning the bike was perfect for the second 5 minute training session. Now Jonny looked far more at home and with his first 10 minutes of real SX training safely under his belt we could look forward to Qualifying heat one.
Jonny is more used to tripling logs than blitzing whoops
He would need a top 3 place to make the final and our group had some pretty good names in it, not only the reigning UK SX champ Tom Church but also British MX champ Brad Anderson, not to mention several other top UK MX pilots. JW34 made a reasonable mid-pack start and within a lap or two moved in to 5th and was running very similar pace to the leaders, but on a very slick and slippy circuit his 2 stroke just struggled to hook up out of some turns , and although he was all over 4th place, he just could not get the opportunity to pass.
So we did not qualify, but we gained more valuable experience and fined tuned the bike more for the Last Chance Qualifier race, also JW’s friend Jamie failed to qualify in his group, he was holding 3rd on the last lap and with one corner to go crashed because of a front wheel puncture. So the two Cumbrian’s would get to race each other, but only ones goes through from the LCQ and with such names as Stephen Sword, Gordon Crockard, Neville Bradshaw it looked as if the LCQ would be tougher than the Qualifying race.
Jonny made a terrible start, second to last, but amazingly within a couple of laps he made several passes and had caught up to Jamie who was in 3rd , each outing and JW looked more at home on the SX track and was now carrying some very good speed, not at all outclassed by his MX rivals, then Gordon Crockard running in 2nd made a mistake and went off track, Law passed by but Jonny missed out Crockard came back on track in front of Jonny which caused him to loose some distance to Jamie, Jonny kept the pressure on Crockard to the flag for an impressive 4th position, he did not qualify but took consolation in the fact that he had rode very well and been able to mix it with the specialist’s.
Jonny Walker KTM 250 SX “I really enjoyed that, very pleased with my riding and my bike, I wish I could do more rounds but my current schedule is already full, now I can look forward to racing Jamie at the Iron Man Extreme Enduro next Sunday I’ll be surprised if he enjoys Enduro as much as I enjoyed this!”
Julian Stevens Team Manager “ Of course I was nervous at first when Jonny showed interest to race a British Championship SX, but he is no fool on an MX bike and riding very well at the moment, we decided that it would help improve his speed for the Indoor Enduro Championship. I have to be honest he performed far better than anyone could have expected including me, he was racing with those guys on equal terms and not just simply surviving, Jonny was mixing it with the UK’s best MX riders and pushing them at their own game, I can’t wait for the indoor Enduro season to start, we are very close to being ready to make a serious assault on that championship.“
Qualifying Race
1. James Dunn KTM 2. Brad Anderson Honda 3. Tom Church KTM 4. Josh Waterman Kawasaki 5. Jonny Walker KORR KTM 250 SX
LCQ
1. Neville Bradshaw Honda 2. Jamie Law KTM 3. Gordon Crockard Kawasaki 4. Jonny Walker KORR KTM 250 SX
KORR Press: KORR Press release UK Supercross Championship Sheffield2011
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