STRONG START TO 2012 FOR MPS RACING
Husqvarna ACU British Sprint Enduro Championship: Rounds 1 & 2, 11/12 February 2012
The first event of the 2012 season for MPS Racing was the Husqvarna ACU British Sprint Enduro Championship rounds 1 and 2 held near Aldershot, Hampshire.
With a focused two-man team for 2012, including Jack Rowland riding the TE250 and Jamie Lewis on the TE310, MPS was optimistic of strong results for the first two rounds of the ultra-competitive Sprint series. Those expectations were fulfilled by the close of racing on Sunday, despite the event being snow covered and the ground frozen solid in places.
For his first race in the Under 23 class, Jack Rowland started Saturday well, posting a time that put him third in class and running faster than a number of the established World Championship racers. Jack’s pace continued to improve throughout the day, but unfortunately the day’s racing was cut short due to the late start caused by the cold weather and after the fifth lap of the day Jack had slipped to fourth place in class.
If the under 23 class was competitive for Jack, Jamie Lewis faced a daunting task in the Elites on Saturday riding his TE310. GMC Events, Sprint series organisers, had done a fantastic job of bringing international race stars to their event and Jamie had to contend with a double World Enduro Champion, a triple World Enduro Champion and the current Super Enduro World Champion in his class. Jamie rose to the challenge well and rode consistently throughout the day to finish impressively as sixth in class.
Jamie Lewis got his season off to a strong start with top ten finishes
After the minus 7 degree start on Saturday, Sunday felt almost tropical with the temperature just nudging above freezing by the time racing started at 10am. GMC Events had worked hard overnight to change the course, based on feedback from the riders on day one, so the times from Saturday couldn’t be used as a guide for pace on Sunday. However, even with the slightly faster running course, Jack rode consistently to retain his fourth in class and to be the fastest E1 class rider of the day.
For Jamie, day two also turned into a duplicate of day one. Fast consistent rides saw him sitting fifth at one point but he eventually ended the day sixth in class again.
Mick Seward, team principal for MPS Racing said: The class results fail to put into perspective the real strength of these finishes. If you ignore the class results and look at the overall for round 2, Jack placed seventh and Jamie took ninth place against the best riders the UK. Were coming away from rounds 1 and 2 of the Sprints really pleased with the results. The conditions were difficult but both Jack and Jamie rode maturely, delivering strong results against vastly more experienced Enduro riders. More importantly both Jack and Jamie finished the weekend injury free, ready for the first round of the British Enduro Championship next weekend.
MPS Racing would like to thank all team members and sponsors for their on-going support.