Billy Mackenzie and Shaun Simpson storm British Motocross at Canada Heights

Billy Mackenzie showed that he’s a step above the rest of the field in the MX1 class at the minute.

The CAS Honda rider won both races convincingly, pulling away at a canter.

The biggest obstacle to Mackenzie title walkover at the minute is Brad Anderson – the feisty North-Easterner fought back from an average start for fourth place in moto one, and charged up behind Mark Jones in the second race, putting the pressure on and taking second when Jones fell.

Third overall, Welshman Jones at last put in the sort of performance his talent is capable of, keeping Billy Mackenzie honest until his late mishap.

Further back, championship contender Kenneth Gundersen took a quiet fourth overall, but man of the match has to go to Scott Elderfield, the 15-year-old Guildford rider was a revelation in moto one on a 250 KTM 2 stroke, gating well and running on the pace until fatigue set in and a fast-moving Brad Anderson charged by late on.

In MX2, Shaun Simpson was peerless – fastest in qualifying by over two seconds, the KTM UK youngster dominated proceedings in the Kentish snow.

Steven Sword left the circuit with the red plate for taking the championship lead, but the Molson Kawasaki veteran has a fight on his hands if he’s to take a fourth British title. The Scot took a lap to get into second in moto one, but Simpson had long since gone, so Steven Sword settled down for a comfy second place.

But when Simpson got another great start in moto two and Sword got tangled in someone else’s crash, Sword fought back for a valuable fourth, passing reigning champion Mike Brown late on.

Ahead of Steven Sword on the podium was Martin Barr, the U-Tag Yamaha rider having a pair of good starts and riding with confidence to two good podium finishes after a spirited battle with Neville Bradshaw in moto 2.

Bradshaw is somehow riding as a privateer this season but the South African showed emphatically that he’s worth a factory berth after following Barr home in the second.

British Motocross round one results from Canada Heights:

MX1 OVERALL:
1 Billy MacKenzie
2 Brad Anderson
3 Mark Jones
4 Kenneth Gundersen
5 Tom Church
6 Wayne Smith
7 James Noble
8 Jamie Smith
9 Mark Eastwood
10 Scott Elderfield
11 Danny Smyth
12 Jordan Rose
13 Michael Phillips
14 Bryan MacKenzie
16 Jamie Law
17 Mark Hucklebridge
18 Jim Murro
19 Alex Rockwell
20 Oliver Sandiford-Smith
21 Aston Bird
22 John May
Championship points:
1 MacKenzie 100
2 Anderson 78
3 Gundersen 78
4 Jones 70
5 Church 66
6 Noble 63
MX2 overall:
1 Shaun Simpson
2 Martin Barr
3 Stephen Sword
4 Jason Dougan
5 Pascal Leuret
6 Neville Bradshaw
7 Elliot Banks-Browne
8 Carlos Campano
9 Kristen Whatley
10 Carl Nunn
11 Mel Pocock
12 Marcus Norlan
13 Mike Brown
14 Ashley Greedy
15 Alex Snow
16 Scott Probert
17 Klemen Gercar
18 Shane Carless
19 Remi Nyegaard
20 Kjetil Gunderson
21 Alan Keet
22 Jonathan Pettitt
23 Alex Butler
24 Matthew Moffat
25 Joseph Dark
Championship points:
1 Sword 84
2 Barr 74
3 Simpson 70
4 Leuret 67
5 Bradshaw 56
6 Campano 5