British Motocross: Billy Mackenzie and Stephen Sword peerless at Lyng

Billy Mackenzie and Stephen Sword were in imperious form at Lyng on Sunday as the Scottish pair dominated their respective MX1 and MX2 classes.

Mackenzie made it look easy with the CAS Honda pilot holeshotting both races and just motored serenely away into the distance.

Second overall behind Billy Mac was Brad Anderson, the Swift Suzuki pilot logging second and third place finishes on his comeback from a shoulder injury. The normally-firey North-Easterner had pace, but a lack of race sharpness saw him slow in the second half of moto two.

There to take advantage was James Noble, who staged a terrific fight back to fifth in moto one after getting tangled in someone else’s incident. Moto two saw him gate inside the top ten, and the Yorkshireman just put his head down and charged through to second for third overall on the day.

Mark Jones took third in the opener, but a high-speed crash just over halfway through the second race bent his KXF out of a usable shape. Tom Church was also struck by misfortune, taking fourth in moto one but suffering a mechanical DNF in race two.

MX2 looked like it would shape up to be a two-horse race after Sword and his Championship rival Shaun Simpson were just a third of a second apart after qualifying. But when the gate dropped, Swordy fired his Molson Kawasaki out alongside the fast-starting Carl Nunn whilst Simpson was down around sixth.

And when Nunn fell early on lap one, the way was clear for Sword. Simpson made short work of getting into second, but by then Sword was gone. Behind them, Jason Dougan settled in for a lonely ride to third, whilst Elliot Banks-Browne was running a comfortable fourth.

With the two lap board out, however, Banks-Browne’s Swift Suzuki went bang and locked up.

In moto two, Simpson got his KTM UK 250F out ahead of Sword‘s Kawasaki, but they were nose and tail – four laps in, Simpson made a mistake and Sword made his move, taking the lead and edging away as Simpson, son of former Scottish GP rider Willie, tried to mount a fight back. But no-one was going to beat Swordy today.

 Behind them, Carl Nunn made up for his first moto off by engaging in a battle of wills with Banks-Browne. With four laps left, Banks-Browne made a mistake and Nunny was through and away for third.

Lewis Gregory would take an excellent debut podium as he continues his recovery from injury, but the man of the match award has to go to Martin Barr – just two weeks after breaking his collarbone in Spain, the Irishman rode two motos of steely determination for sixth overall.

Maxxis British Motocross Championship

Round 4 – Lyng

MX1
1 Mackenzie 50
2 Anderson 42
3 Noble 38

Championship standings
1 Mackenzie 200
2 Noble 135
3 Anderson 131

MX2
1 Sword 50
2 Simpson 44
3 Gregory 34

Championship standings
1 Sword 179
2 Simpson 157
3 Barr 137