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Filtec KTM ATV
Racer Paul Holmes
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London, England (2/5/2009) -
The fantastic O2 Arena on London’s Greenwich
Peninsula played host to the final round of the
British Supercross Championship this past weekend,
the Future West promoted series travelling to
the spectacular venue in the nations capital on
Saturday the 31st of January. Having dominated
the previous round in Liverpool and taking a debut
British win onboard the race ready KTM 505 SX,
the hard working Filtec Team KTM UK crew travelled
to the banks of the Thames River aiming for a
repeat performance to secure the British Supercross
Title, and after an adrenaline charged days racing
and a dramatic final, twenty year-old Paul Holmes
had delivered a magnificent first British Title
for Filtec Team KTM UK and the KTM 505 SX.
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London's O2 Arena
fully outfitted for some fast action
ATV Racing
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Future West’s John and Jamie Hellam and
the highly skilled Dirt Wurx team had once again
designed and built a magnificent circuit that
would test the riders and entertain in excess
of seven thousand spectators, the track layout
extremely technical and demanding the best from
the competitors. With James Hellewell side-lined
for this event with severely bruised ribs, Paul
Holmes took up the gauntlet as the team’s
sole representative and focused on the task at
hand. As the flag dropped for the start of his
qualifying heat, Paul got good drive off the line
and lead around the first corner only to be tagged
on the entry to the first tabletop, the resultant
loss of momentum dropping him back to 2nd. Quickly
regaining his composure and finding his rhythm
in the opening stages of the four-minute heat,
Paul closed the gap to leader James Behan as the
pair pulled away from the ensuing pack, Paul applying
tremendous pressure to Behan for the remainder
of the six lap moto but wisely taking no chances
and settling for a comfortable 2nd and a place
the final.
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Holmes rails his
KTM ATV into a turn
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A fantastic start to the final saw Paul take
the holeshot and lead the field out on the first
of ten laps. With the WP suspension working
perfectly around the demanding circuit, Paul
quickly settled in to a furious pace and began
to pull away from the chasing pack, opening
up a comfortable lead by half distance from
the battling trio of Carl Bunce, Justin Reid
and Richard Tordoff. Having ridden flawlessly
to maintain his lead as the last lap board came
out, the stage was set for Paul to record yet
another fantastic race win, but in sight of
the chequered flag Paul made the mistake of
beginning his celebrations early, a lapse in
concentration while celebrating to the crowd
causing him to flat land over a tabletop and
stall his machine, Paul working furiously and
quickly getting underway to take the chequered
flag in 4th, securing enough points to hold
on to the series lead, Paul taking a fantastic
British Supercross Championship Title for Filtec
Team KTM UK and the KTM 505 SX in only their
second race meeting.
Paul Holmes
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Holmes airing his
KTM 505 SX ATV
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"I’m delighted to have won the series
and taken the title for the Team and KTM, but
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed
at not winning the final race. I got a really
good start and was able to pull away and open
up a comfortable gap, and as I headed out on
the last lap I was beginning to think of what
I was about to achieve, got a little carried
away in the moment and let my concentration
slip. It is annoying not to have taken the clean
sweep as I hadn’t put a foot wrong over
the series until now, but thankfully the 4th
place was enough to win the title, and it’s
certainly an error that I will never make again.
I’m really pleased with the end result,
especially as I’ve never ridden Supercross
before and the guys I’ve been competing
against are more experienced, and it’s
good to know that my pace at this time of the
year on the new bike is really good. The Filtec
Team KTM UK 505 SX is an awesome bike and hasn’t
missed a beat throughout the series, and it
is a testament to how race ready the bike is
that it is competitive against the highly modified
bikes that were out there. I’m really
looking forward to the team’s trip to
America where we can get more bike time in before
the race season starts, it’s been a fantastic
start to the year and I’m confident that
things will continue to progress from here.”
Richard Cole
“ I’m absolutely over the moon for
Paul, the Team and KTM to have come away with
the British Supercross Title in our first competition
of the year. It’s a fantastic result and
although it would have been nice to have won
the final, I’m not that upset as Paul
has ridden perfectly throughout the series and
has done everything that was asked of him. That
was definitely one of the most dramatic finishes
to a race that I’ve seen in a long time,
it was certainly entertaining for the crowd
but as Team manager it’s the sort of thing
that we can sometimes do without, but it was
an error that lots of people have made before
and I’m sure that Paul will learn from
it. The KTM 505 SX has once again proven to
be really competitive against the full blown
race spec bikes, and I’m really looking
forward to out Team trip to America next week
where we can get more valuable bike time on
the KTM and get our settings finely tuned for
the season ahead.”
| Brittish
Supercross Championship ATV Racing - London
- 1/23/2009 |
Final |
Overall Series
Champion: |
- Carl Bunce
- Justin Reid
- Richard Tordoff
- Paul Holmes (Filtec
Team KTM UK)
- Oliver Sansom
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- Paul Holmes (Filtec
Team KTM UK)
- Richard Tordoff
- Justin Reid
- Oliver Sansom
- Carl Bunce
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www.ktmnorthamerica.com
