The Whitby club and the MC Federation track crew worked tirelessly to soak the track the best they could with the sprinkler system that the club have installed and did a great job considering the area hasn’t had an serious downpours of rain since the beginning of April and the brilliant weekend weather!

The sun and warm wind may have had the track crew and competitors working hard but it made for a great weekend for the fans with some awesome racing from the Red Bull Elite Youth, Fuchs-Silkolene 2 Stroke British championship and Red Bull Pro Nationals riders. If that wasn’t enough, there was, as always the Suzuki MX experience for those spectators taking in the sport for the first time and the Saturday night party where London based rock band ‘Feral Sun’ rocked the place so much they were limited on their set because they were scaring the cows in the nearby fields....that’s rock n’ roll.....and so was the racing!

The Fuchs-Silkolene 2 stroke Open racers didn’t ride Silverstone due to time constraints on the busy weekend schedule based around the Moto GP but they were back to action on Saturday at Whitby and back with a bang. Local ace and Whitby MX club member James Noble started as favourite and justified it by taking the overall on his big 500cc Proppa.com Honda. Noble took the first race and followed that up with two seconds in the next two outings to Scott Elderfield who if it wasn’t for a disappointing first race fifth no doubt had the speed for the overall. Series leader Mark Eastwood used all of his experience to grab another podium and only drop six points to Noble to maintain a 26 point lead at the top of the table. George Foames took the win in the juniors with a 2-1-1 score ahead of series leader Jason Kendrick who stretched out his lead to 33 points in the series over Shayne Headon who took the final place on the podium.

The kids of the Red Bull Elite Youth Cup put on a hell of show on Saturday alongside the Open 2 stroke riders. Their three races were incident packed with what seemed sure fire race winners throwing it away or having bad luck and Sunday pretty much brought about much of the same in their remaining two motos. In the 65cc class Cobra’s Ryan Vickers took just one out of five possible race wins but rode smart, kept it on two wheels and took the overall ahead of Taylor Hammal on his KTM. Hammal was coming into Whitby off the back of two consecutive overalls but had to be content with second this time out. Keenan Hird nailed down third and still maintains the series lead by 78 points over Hammal as the series swing at the halfway stage.

In the Small Wheeled class Gradie Featherstone looked unstoppable on his KTM after topping qualifying and taking the first two races but then with a healthy lead in the third moto he threw it away big style as his bike cart wheeled off the track and over the fence resulting in a DNF. He went out and got another win and a second the next day but it was only enough to give him third overall and proved the point that consistency pays. As proved by Danny Lanfear on his Suzuki who took his first ever and well earned and RBEYC overall win. It didn’t end there for Danny who had a great weekend as he also took home the red plate for leading the series and also was awarded the Fox Boot camp award after impressing the guys from Fox Europe who came out in force for their local race. Danny is now one of eight riders who’ll be in for a shout of winning a full supported ride from Fox for 2011 come the end of the year. Second place went to the gritty Todd Kellett who is getting ever closer to taking his first ever win like Lanfear. The two of them battled all weekend and if it wasn’t for a losing his goggles in the first race and a bike problem in the fourth moto the 14 point gap may have be closer.

The Big Wheeled class was much the same. Series leader Ben Howell (KTM) was super consistent picking up two wins and three seconds to take the overall and extend his championship lead. Howell was right there to pick up the pieces when James Harrison (Twisted 7 Honda) collected a rear puncture in the second moto and went down costing him the win and a shot at the overall. Harrison was flying all weekend and then went out and picked up another two wins and a third but the damage was done. Third went to Ben Watson on his HM Plant/Red Bull KTM who paid the price for some mid pack starts off the concrete after setting the quickest qualifying time.

All the front runners in the Rookie class knew they had the chance to close in on Bradley Pocock who is out with a broken leg and it was Sunny Thompson on his Samsung Yamaha who took full advantage as he took a hard fought overall victory and with it the series lead. It was close though as he tied on points with George Baldwin (Wiseco/Eastwood Honda) and took it on a tie breaker. What a weekend for Baldwin it was though, seemingly coming from nowhere to take his first ever RBEYC race win and then follow it up with another one later that day. He then had two thirds and second and was a little disappointed knowing a mistake in the last race cost him. Third place went to Lewis Trickett who didn’t take full advantage of Pocock’s absence and struggled on Saturday but woke up on Sunday in determined mood to take both motos.

By the time the pros took to the track the crowd had swelled and they weren’t left disappointed (unlike the football that was shown on the big screen later in the day). Yet again the motocross stars delivered the goods with some brilliant racing. Series leader Brad Anderson (PAR Honda) came into the weekend saying he had to stem the flow that Ben Lamay (Samsung Yamaha) had going and he did that, as did Elliott Banks Browne (DB Racing Honda) with Martin Barr’s (PAR Honda) surge at the front of the MX2 class. Anderson took the overall going 2-2 to claw back some of the points that the American Lamay had been eating away at his lead. It was local hero James Noble (Proppa.com Honda) who got the real good time feel going as he wore down his teammate Nathan Parker and made a break in the first moto to take a very popular win. Lamay was way down the field after a first lap crash but ripped through the field and by the flag fell he was up to fifth. Gordon Crockard also came way down the field in that first moto to grab a very creditable third with arms, according to him, like Popeye after chronic arm pump.

Further down the field in seventh Elliott Banks Browne fought off the challenge of Scott Elderfield (PAR Honda) after series leader Martin Barr had a mechanical DNF on lap one. It was a solid performance from EBB and he took full advantage of Barr’s misfortune. Barr’s other teammate  Luke Hawkins methodically worked his way up to 11th to be the third MX2 rider home as the entire pack seemed to squabble for positions the whole race.

Lamay wasn’t messing about in the second moto as he flew out of the traps, quickly got into the lead and was never headed to the flag. Anderson took second however he wasn’t the PAR Honda rider who pushed Lamay for two thirds of the race. That was Martin Barr who was determined to make up for the disappointment of the first moto DNF and was looking to be the first MX2 rider to win the entire race. In the end he didn’t quite have enough to challenge Lamay or at least thought better and took second and a convincing MX2 race win. Anderson was a lonely third in the race but second in the MX1 with Gert Krestinov a solid third on his Maxxis/Henderson/LPE Kawasaki as he starts to get to grips with British motocross and his new team. Noble battled through to fifth in the race but it wasn’t enough for the overall win and he had to be content with second overall with Lamay rounding out the podium.  EBB once again battled it out with Elderfield a little further down the field as the next two MX2 riders in eight and ninth respectively which was enough to see them first and second on the podium ahead of Hawkins who did enough to fend off Kristian Whatley (Maxxis/Henderson/LPE Kawasaki by one point to round out the MX2 podium.

Dave Willett (Bladez Yamaha) was unstoppable in the Fuchs-Silkolene 125cc championship as he stormed to three convincing race wins to extend his lead at the top of the table. Fast starting James Dunn (Suzuki) did his best to fend him off but just couldn’t match him for the duration of the race. Defending champion Jim Davies (TM) seemed to get better as the weekend went on as he went 4-3-2 to take third overall. Charles Statt continues to dominate the juniors on Kawasaki with a three more wins stretching out his championship lead in the progress. Cory Nemeth did his best to hold onto him but had his hands full with Ashley Crossley as they went second and third behind Statt.

Whitby really was a belter of a weekend and now all eyes turn to Pontrilas on the 10/11th July for the next round of the Red Bull Pro Nationals, Fuchs-Silkolene 2 stroke British championship and Red Bull Elite Youth Cup. Make sure you are there to see it!