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Positive day at Sherwood for Rob Hooper Racing Yamaha

Positive day at Sherwood for Rob Hooper Racing Yamaha

The full Rob Hooper Racing Yamaha squad took to the track as a trio for the first time in over a month as they descended on a tough Sherwood circuit for round 4 of the MX Nationals.

Many eyes were on the return of Kristian Whatley who had been rested by the team for the past month, and 8th place in qualifying was a promising start, whilst his fellow MX1 racer Ryan Houghton continued to show speed with 5th. The teams MX2 rider Robbie Dowson still struggles to post good laps in qualifying which has been hindering his gate pick, and a 12th from the 16 MX2 riders was no different.

The opening Moto looked promising from the gate drop, with Whatley stunning everyone with a fantastic start, chasing down the leader Elliott Banks-Browne.  The chase was short lived though as Banks-Browne buried into a berm, leaving nothing left for Kristian to bank into, causing him to slide out and in turn be collected by Jake Nicholls with both riders going down hard. Kristian had to retire with a bent and battered machine.

Buried mid pack and working hard was Houghton, and his pace was clear to see as he swallowed up the gap in front and pulled through from a bad start to an excellent 5th in MX1.

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MX2 racer Dowson suffered a similar fate to that of Whatley, coming down early in the Moto and having to retire from the race.

All hopes were for better fortunes in Moto2, and again out of the RHR racers it was Whatley who stormed from the start and into 4th position. Not only did he maintain this position but he moved into third where he stayed until the 4th lap where his lack of race time and the heat took its toll on him and he dropped down the order to 11th in MX1.   While Kristian was dropping down the order, both of his team mates were hitting the upslope with Ryan moving through from another mid pack start right up to 4th in MX1 for a tremendous 4th overall.

Robbie too showed grit and determination, and from being 2nd from last on the first lap of the mixed group he was up into 16th by the end of lap 4. His assent didn’t stop there and me made short work of his opponents, regardless of machine or class and finished up with a well-earned 11th in the race and 5th in MX2.

With so much effort put in by his riders, against both adversity and the heat, it was a happy team boss Rob Hooper we caught up with after the meeting, where he said “Everyone rode really well. I was really pleased with the whole weekend. Ryan rode extremely well. Ry does what Ry does! He brings home the results. It was mediocre starts again from Ryan, but he worked very hard and got the result on a very hot day and a very rough track.”

On Kristian’s return to racing Rob said “Kristian was really unlucky in the first race, he made an absolute cracking start. He made another good start in the second race and was running around at the front for 3 or 4 laps, but then the lack of bike and race time caught up with him. He has only done 7 meetings this year, so he is a lot of race time behind people.  We didn’t expect him to stay at the front on a hot day and a rough track, but he stayed out there and finished the race so I was happy with Kristian’s performance.”

Kristian was more upbeat than he has been for weeks and with positivity in his voice he said of his weekend “I felt good in qualifying, and felt alright with 8th. Race one was a bit of a bummer, I made a really good start and was second behind Elliott, then half way into the first lap, he went deep in the berm, and I followed him and Jake Nicholls was behind me.  I came out of the turn a little bit squirley and straightened up and Jake just ploughed into me. It was by accident, but he wiped me right out, and with my bars and bike bent and I had to pull in.

“In the second one I got another good jump which was great considered I haven’t raced for 5 weeks. I kept the pace in fourth for a while, so my speed is there, I just need to do more riding. My arms started to pump up and I was getting tired, so I ended up dropping back. I can only go forward from here. With more races under my belt and more riding we should be somewhere near the podium by the end of the year.”

Of Robbie’s second stunning second race Hooper said “Robbie had a really good second race, and he rode really well. After his DNF in the first race he came back and rode fantastically”.

Dowson had another day of taking the rough with the smooth and said “It was another up and down day for me.  I struggled off the start all day, which made it hard work. I had a crash in race 1 with another rider so I was unable to finish that race. Race 2 was better. I came through the pack to finish 11th overall and 5th in MX2. I just need to sort my starts out and I know I can run a better position.”

The team now have a week’s rest before they embark on more MX Nationals action at Canada Heights on the 14th and 15th July, with Houghton now third place in the MX1 standings.

Pic: Eliot Spencer