Published on 25 May 2015

Irwin talks about his British GP weekend

It was a challenging weekend for the Heads and All Threads Suzuki team at the seventh round of the Motocross Grand Prix at the weekend, with Graeme Irwin finishing 21st in MXGP and Harri Kullas also 21st in MX2 at Matterley Basin.

The Suzuki pairing both showed good speed throughout the weekend, but their overall results suffered after some small, but costly mistakes.

Irwin, who qualified in 21st after a great start, only to be taken down on the first lap of qualifying, struggled to find a comfortable set up for the fast paced circuit. Despite a small crash in the first race, he took 19th after it was restarted after 14 minutes. Another off cost him in the second, and he crossed the line 23rd for 21st overall.

“All in all it wasn’t a bad weekend, but not what I was looking for. I struggled a little bit with the suspension set up. The British championship tracks are slower and a bit tighter compared to the GP tracks. We had to learn and make a couple of changes, but we never really found a perfect set up.

I made some mistakes in both races and crashed, and certainly the first race could have been a lot better if I had stayed on, it’s always hard to get back in to the flow.

Hopefully, we’ll do a bit of testing this week and try something different to get me a little more comfortable and we’ll get a good result at the MX Nationals this weekend.” — Graeme Irwin, MXGP

Kullas’ day wasn’t ideal either. After he qualified in 19th, the Fin was forced to miss the first race after his machine refused to start. Undeterred, he showed great speed in the second moto, but a crash on the first lap saw him at the back of the field. He soldiered on and came through to 17th for 21st overall.

“It was a struggle this weekend. I didn’t feel too good in the qualifying and I couldn’t start the first race, so for sure that wasn’t nice.
I crashed in the second race and I was dead last, but I managed to come through to 17th and my lap times were okay.

It’s been good racing the last month it’s just been one of those weekends. We’ll move forward now and I’m really looking forward to the deep sand at Weston this weekend.” — Harri Kullas, MX2

“Both Harri and Graeme’s lap times were impressive for me. If they had gated in the top twelve they could have quite easily finished there.

I made a bad call and it was my fault Harri missed the first race. The track had obviously deteriorated a lot for the second race and it was a shock to him. He had a crash that dropped him to last, but to come back to 17th was a great result.

Graeme’s speed was good and he was pushing in both races. Unfortunately a crash in both cost him, but when you’re going at that sort of pace it’s likely you’ll make a mistake really.”  — Neil prince, Team Manager.

The teams next outing will be at Weston-super-Mare beach for round four of the MX Nationals on Saturday the 30th of May.

Images: Adam Duckworth