Buildbase CCM & Phoenix Tools CCM continue to score at Czech GP

Buildbase CCM Racing's Tom Church bounced back to record one of his best GP performances of the year to move himself further up the championship leader board. Tom Church is now the leading British rider in both MX1and MX2 by securing a well deserved 12th overall on the day to move ahead of fellow Brit, Billy Mckenzie who now slips out of the top 15 in the world.

Saturday's qualifying and timed training sessions were a little frantic as the Buildbase & Phoenix Tools CCM crew worked hard to make the adjustments from last week's deep sand to the fast dry  conditions for the Locket GP circuit. Tom Church on the Buildbase factory CCM faired a little better than his CCM teamate Jason Dougan on the Phoenix Tools CCM during the qualifying race where it became evident that it would be ultra hard to pass and make up places in the event of a bad start. So after Saturdays blisteringly hot weather, riders were greeted with overcast weather and rainfall on Sunday morning. This didn't help the riders much as for the start of the first MX1 race temperatures had risen. Both CCM racing teamsters made fair starts with Tom Church on the Buildbase CCM in 17th on the first lap and Jason Dougan on his Phoenix Tools CCM one place better in 16th. Even championship leader Carolli struggled to make much progress but both Dougan and Church battled on to move up three places by the flag and finish a very respectable 13th and 14th respectively.

The 22 year old Jason Dougan very nearly didn't finish the first moto as his factory CCM lost all it's oil over the last 3 laps as a rock had smashed off an oil pipe covering his teamate Tom Church with oil on the chasing Buildbase CCM. Dougie's luck would not run out this time as he and the CCM motor held on for a 'lucky' 13th place. For the second moto temperatures had risen even further and this time Tom Church made the best start in 10th right on the tail of the chasing pack of Ramon, Coppins and De Dycker. Meanwhile Dougan was involved in a 2nd corner pile up with four other riders and started from dead last and faced an impossible task to reach the points. However Jason battled on up to 24th only to crash heavily at half way distance on this time unlucky lap 13.

Meanwhile Tom Church was having one of his best GP rides of the year battling with the top GP runners holding 11th up to lap 13. This time Tom continued to push hard and moved up to the top 10, which he held comfortably for the next 4 laps until a hard charging factory Aprilia of Leonce took away a place from the factory CCM in the dying laps. Tom Church seemed to be a little shell shocked from his 5 lap battle to hold 10th place when Leonce went passed and Tom lost his concentration and slipped one further place on the last lap to finish what was still a very impressive performance in 12th but no rest for Ray Rowson, the third member of the CCM team who continues his campaign to get back to full race fitness. The young Shropshire lad raced again at the KWS meeting at his local track Hawkstone and showed good pace despite a heavy crash in race one when in 8th. However he shrugged off this latest crash and bounced back in the second moto with a strong 4th place behind Anderson, Whatley and Banks Browne.

The Buildbase CCM & Phoenix Tools CCM GP squad now have a weekend off before heading up to Scotland for the 7th round of the British Championship and then onto Lierop for the final European GP where young Alix Dunlop will join the Buildbase CCM team for her final GP of the season.

Compiled and issued by CCM Racing
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