After an awesome year of championship racing in 2021, ‘the rider’s championship’ is just a few days away from kicking into life for 2022 at FatCat Moto Parc this weekend for another year of quality racing and friendly atmosphere. Once again the interest to be involved in the Michelin MX Nationals powered by Milwaukee British MX championship from riders and the industry has been exceptional and the championship is all set to take another solid step forward in progressing the sport in the U.K.
The MX Nationals will continue to offer up a free to view live stream of Sunday’s action from all six rounds, showing all classes from the Syntol Lubricants Open 85cc all the way up to the Lyfelinez ‘Fastest 40’ races. The new MXN-TV channel on YouTube will be broadcasting the events with a continual live stream feed showing all the action as well as team and industry profiles and technical analysis throughout the championship. There will also be post race edits of each class broken down to individual races in the following week allowing riders and sponsors to easily find the races they would like to watch on line. The crew will also be introducing ‘Live @ Seven’, a new Saturday night studio show filmed directly from the venue with MXN-TV’s Jeff Perrett and Callum Swan discussing Saturday’s action and interviewing riders and industry personnel. Between each round of the championship there’ll also be the MX Nationals ‘Rewind’ show where the team will look back at all the action from each round in more detail, analysis and review some of the action.
If last year’s championship is anything to go by the racing will once again be intense and exciting. The MX Nationals reputation has been partly built on the ‘Fastest 40’ races where the majority of the U.K’s top MX1 and MX2 riders race together, ensuring close racing from front to back. Adding a new twist to that concept for 2022, the Michelin MX Nationals powered by Milwaukee will be introducing the Lyfelinez Fastest 40 championship where points will be scored for all riders for their finishing position in the race regardless of their class and engine capacity of their bike. It will be interesting to see how far up in the final standings a MX2 rider will finish and add something a little bit different.
Of course the MX1 and MX2 riders will also be scored within the Fastest 40 race as per their class, so there will still be the 2022 Leatt MX1 Elite and Apico MX2 Elite MX Nationals champions at the end of the six rounds as well as the overall Lyfelinez Fastest 40 champ. Defending MX1 champion Harri Kullas (Cab Screens Crescent Yamaha) will again have to dig deep to retain his title with the likes of Tommy Searle, Jake Nicholls (Crendon Fastrack Hitachi Honda), Shaun Simpson (Gabriel SS24 KTM), Jake Millward (Verde Shiloh KTM), Josh Gilbert (SC Sportshomes Husqvarna) all breathing down his neck as title contenders. Add to the mix defending MX2 champion John Adamson (ASA United Gas Gas), Ashton Dickinson (TALK KTM), Martin Barr, Stuart Edmonds (Apico Husqvarna), Liam Knight, Brad Todd (Gabriel KTM), Peta Petrov, Jason Meara (Phoenix Tools/ Even Strokes Kawasaki), Dan Thornhill (Cab Screens Crescent Yamaha) and Steven Clarke (Honda) and the Leatt Elite MX1 class looks set to be a barn burner.
The Apico Elite MX2 class racers will be mixing it up with them too as they fight amongst themselves for their championship. With current champion John Adamson moving up to the MX1 they’ll be a guaranteed new champion. Last year’s runner up Carlton Husband (Phoenix Tools/ Even Strokes Kawasaki) will be doing all he can to go one better this year but that job won’t be made any easier with the likes of Jay Hague (Crendon Fastrack Hitachi Honda), Florian Miot (SC Sportshomes Husqvarna), Jamie Law (Apico Husqvarna), Jamie Wainwright (Revo Seven Kawasaki), Tom Grimshaw (Chambers Husqvarna) Sam Nunn (Cab Screens Crescent Yamaha), Jamie Carpenter (GRT Impact KTM), Kyle McNicol (Verde Shiloh KTM), Adam Collings (Moto Cycle Yamaha), Michael Ellis (ICS / Store 144 Husqvarna), Callum Mitchell (Fabrican Husqvarna) and Lewis Hall (LRT Husqvarna) all wanting a piece of podium pie!
As great as the racing is in the Fastest 40 Elite class, they are just one of the many cogs that drive the MX Nationals forward and the other classes offer up awesome racing entertainment with dedicated riders all hunting down championships that also mean so much to them. It’s a packed out programme of racing over the two days with the Syntol Open 85cc, Seven MXY 125/250, Moto Connection Clubman MX2, Worx Financial Clubman MX1, Motoverde Amateur MX1/MX2, and RFX Expert MX1/MX2 classes all adding spice to a hard fought British championship.
Not only will all the riders in these classes be battling for podiums they’ll also be the Planet Moto First Lap leader award, where the first rider across the finish line on the opening lap wins points towards a free Spanish motocross ride holiday. There’s also the Kecks Fastest Lap awards at each and every round. The rider who sets the fastest lap in each class over the weekend will be awarded with a plaque and a voucher to buy Kecks clothing. New for 2022 there’ll also be the ‘Dirti Hard Charger’ award where the winning rider will earn discount on their entries for varying race and practice events in 2023 when booking in through ‘Dirti’ app. The rider in each class who made up the most positions in a race over the weekend will be awarded the points and the accolade of being the ‘Dirti Hard Charger’. The awards for the riders don’t end though as Carless Fuels will be offering up a 25 litre can of fuel each to two racers per round who catches their eye throughout the weekend, they’ll also be at every round retailing their race fuel to competitors and spectators.
With a packed race schedule and entry list and varying trade stands the opening round of the 2022 Michelin MX Nationals powered by Milwaukee championship is all set for a brilliant weekend of racing. Even the weather is looking good (maybe we shouldn’t of mentioned that!), so it’s a well worth a trip out to see all the action up close and personal and help kick start the championship with that good feeling vibe.
Spectator and camping tickets, race schedule and the registered riders list along with more information is available on www.mxnationals.co.uk. Spectator tickets are £20 and cover both days of racing for those who wish to enjoy Saturday’s action as well as Sunday (under 12’s go free) and camping is charged at £10 for the weekend.