Buildbase CCM Tom Church and Phoenix Tools Jason Dougan experienced a tough weekend at the 4th round of the Maxxis British Championship. With Tom Church’s holeshot at the French GP and his dominant performance at the midweek Patchquick meeting, Tom headed to Hawkstone with high expectations.

Sunday morning’s qualifying session got underway on the perfectly groomed Shropshire GP circuit with Tom Church posting a respectable 2min 10sec lap time. There was less than a second covering the top 9 qualifiers with his team mate Jason Dougan on the Phoenix Tools CCM dipping in to 2min 9sec to post 5th fastest in qualifying.

Jason was in doubt of even starting the days racing as he was in pain from his midweek crash at the Patchquick when he tangled with James Noble. After being hospitalised with a suspected broken ankle Dougan underwent intensive treatment on his hip to deal with an impact injury resulting in a hematoma. That didn’t seem to hinder Dougie’s qualifying pace but he was in a lot of pain nevertheless.

Tom Church blasted the Buildbase CCM away to take the holeshot in the 1st leg but only led for less than a lap as Gareth Swanapole nipped past. Tom Church held 2nd for a while with Brad Anderson and Bill MacKenzie in hot pursuit. As the leading 4, who had broken away from the rest of the pack, headed up the famous Hawkstone hill Tom Church got a nasty kicker off one of the many stone steps at the top which allowed Anderson & MacKenzie to push past. As the race wore on Tom Church held a comfortable 4th but got arm pump in the later part of the race which allowed a hard charging Noble to take 4th spot from Tom Church.

Meanwhile Dougan was going through the pain barrier with the hip injury he was carrying but pushed hard after a mediocre start. Jason was moving forward through the pack and was in sight of his team mate by half distance with only Kristian Whatley separating them. Dougan pushed hard and when Whatley went missing moved up to a well deserved 6th place by the flag.

For the 2nd leg Dougan made a slightly better start with both Tom Church and himself slotted in the top 10. Dougan held 5th for the first 15 minutes but found it hard to push for the extra speed needed to battle with the leading quartet. As the race wore on the pain began to drain Jason of all his strength and he got picked off to finish an eventual 8th, a brave hard fought result considering the circumstances.

Meanwhile Tom Church moved up 3 places to 5th in the space of one lap at the half way stage only for his engine to splutter to a halt on the next lap. A disappointed Tom Church made the long walk back to the paddock having now conceded he stands no chance of making any significant impression on the Championship challenge unless riders get injured.

Tom Church commented: Although I made the holeshot in the first leg. I was a little disappointed I couldn’t hold that position for longer than a lap. I tensed up a little and got arm pump but for the last 10 minutes it just got worse so when James came past I thought of safe points. In the 2nd leg I felt good and relaxed and thought 3rd or 4th was in my sights but we had a engine failure which put me out, I was gutted but stuff like this happens in racing and I just want to focus now on the next 3 GP’s.

The Buildbase CCM & Phoenix Tools CCM teamsters head off to the continent for 3 back to back GP’s Germany, Latvia & Sweden before returning to the UK for the next round of the British Championship when it’s hoped their MX1 team mate Ray Rowson will return from injury. Ray’s recovery from his cruciate ligament operation was halted last month when he crashed in preparation for his comeback ride at his local track Hawkstone. Ray damaged his scaphoid in the right hand and although he’s not expected to be fully race fit for Lyng he will, injuries permitting, line up for his first Championship ride this season on the Buildbase CCM.