Team Suzuki Press Office – October 15.
Evgeny Bobryshev – 2 – 2 – 1st Overall Championship
Evgeny Bobryshev raced his RM-Z450 to victory in the 2018 British Motocross Championship at a storm-lashed final round at Cadders Hill Circuit near Lyng in Norfolk, UK at the weekend.
The Russian ‘Lombard Express with Par Homes’ Suzuki rider had it all to play for at the round – originally the opening round, but postponed because of bad weather conditions. But this weekend, many parts of the UK were battered by ‘Storm Callum’ – the season-decider included, ramping-up the tensions as the championship battles came to a head.
After a disastrous day at Hawkstone Park in August, Bobryshev’s title hopes took a big hit; and then when the penultimate round of the series was cancelled a few weekends later, it looked as though the championship was over for the Russian, the 39-point deficit between ‘Bobby and series leader Jake Nicholls difficult to claw-back in the two remaining motos.
But with Nicholls unable to race the final event because of injury, Bobryshev knew that he needed two third place finishes to earn the 40 points to wrap-up his second British title.
In the first moto, he took a second, then knew he would need fourth in the second, as conditions got worse: Strong winds and persistent rain made conditions tough for the MX1 riders as the gates dropped for their final moto of the year.
Bobryshev got another good start and was third on the opening lap, then taking the lead. However, after losing this, he kept his cool and kept the gap back to third behind him comfortable to cross the line for his second British motocross Championship title.
Evgeny Bobryshev:
‘‘We got the title! It’s been a difficult year racing over here, we didn’t have much luck at times, but unfortunately, Jake got injured and we got our chance to try and get the title. I was stressed before the race, it’s been eight years since I had a title and today we were in the position again. I’m super pumped and so happy for the team; they deserved this. I just want to say a huge thanks to the team and all the sponsors that supported us through the season. It’s time to celebrate now!’’
Neil Prince – Team Manager):
‘‘I feel so relived. This year has been difficult for Bobby, he really hasn’t had much luck. What happened to Jake is very unfortunate, we didn’t really want to come here in this position, but we had to. The cameras and the videos show that Bobby has been up there this year, he’s been winning races and shown great speed, but he’s also crashed a lot. If we’ve done eight races, he’s crashed in six of them, and they’ve been big crashes: At Hawkstone he had three really big crashes where he could’ve pulled out, but he just kept on going. Like I said we haven’t had much luck in 2018 but today it came our way, and we’ll take it. We’ve been there every weekend and Bobby has picked the bike up every time after some big crashes. It’s been a big team effort from everyone, from Andy at Lombard and me to all the sponsors we have, from Suzuki UK, Meredith motorcycles, Paul Rowlands at PAR, SC Sports Homes and everyone else. Without all those people this couldn’t happen.
“Bobby had to execute a solid day today, and he did that. He earned the championship today. I’ve been close to crying all day because I haven’t been in this position for so long. It feels great to have the whole family and all our sponsors here, I can’t thank everybody enough for making this possible.’’
Report: Toofast Media Group
