Buildbase CCM Racing Tom Church & Phoenix Tools CCM Jason Dougan produced their best team results so far this year at the 6th round of the British Championship to secure equal fourth overall on the day and move further up the Championship point’s leader board.

On the back of last weekend’s strong performance at the Red Bull Pro Nationals where Tom Church on the Buildbase CCM finished second overall with a first moto win and second place, the CCM Racing team headed to the famous Foxhills GP circuit near Swindon with high expectations.

Sunday mornings qualifying went without any problems for the 22 year old Dougan who posted his fastest laps early on to secure what looked like a certain pole only to slip to second when Swanepoel clinched pole by 4x100th second at the end of the session. Meanwhile Church had only completed one flying lap which was good enough for an eventual sixth on the grid as he spent most of the qualifying session sat in the pit box as Ollie his mechanic frantically changed every jet on the carburettor to cure a misfire. Ray Rowson made further progress in his fight to get back to full race pace fitness and qualified a strong tenth.

After some frantic work by the team mechanics to prepare both Rowson’s and Church’s bikes in the lunchtime break, the CCM teamsters headed off for their first MX1 race. All three CCM’s gated top 10 only for Rowson to go missing at the end of lap 1. He re-started dead last and produced a confidence boosting ride through the pack to finish an eventual seventeenth. Not exactly what the young Shropshire lad wants but nevertheless a strong performance under the circumstances.

In the meantime Dougan had managed to push through the best of the remaining top ten to sit on the back of the leading quartet. He then pushed up to third and pushed Anderson hard for second place only to make a mistake in one of the many deep ruts and stalled, luckily such was the pace of the Phoenix Tools CCM rider that he got going again without losing a place but Anderson had pulled a 3 second gap. Once again Dougan pushed hard spurred on by a chasing Carl Nunn in fourth and got up right behind Anderson ready to try again for second but time ran out and Dougan finished a well deserved third.

Church meanwhile sat right behind Dougan in fourth for most of the second half of the race waiting for one of the leaders to make a mistake but it was Tom Church who slipped one place to the hard riding of Nunn to finish fifth. These top 5 riders were in a class of their own as the same riders featured in the second moto. Tom Church at what he terms his local track made a good start in second place and challenged Anderson for the race lead for the first 10 minutes. Then Swanepoel joined the fray and this leading trio put on a breathtaking display over the GP Foxhills track. Dougan was right in the mix also and any slip by the front three would allow Dougan through. This time it was Swanepoel who made a mistake on one of the sweeping downhill cambered turns in the valley which allowed Tom Church into second. However it was Carl Nunn who was the fastest man on the track, who first demoted Dougan to fifth and then Church to third to clinch the second moto victory ahead of Anderson.

A pleased CCM Sporting Director Dave Thorpe commented – That’s the best hard pack results we’ve had all year and the boys are producing their best form to take with them to the last 3 remaining European GP’s. I think we’ve really produced some quality results in our first season for a new team and a new bike.

Once again the two CCM Racing team mates were denied a trip to the podium but strong performances to finish equal fourth on points bodes well for their next 3 week tour of GP duty as the Buildbase & Phoenix Tools CCM team head to the deep sand of Lommel in Belgium before heading off to the former Czech Republic and back for Lierop on the 30th August.