For Round 6 of the 2011 Maxxis British Motocross Championship, the DB Honda Racing Team headed to Swindon and the world famous Foxhill Motoparc, with Elliott Banks-Browne looking to gain ground on the 2 riders ahead of him in the series.
Qualification saw Elliott get to grips with the circuit straight away and he set the fastest time of the session, 0.4 seconds faster than his nearest rival.
Elliot’s attempt at the 1 lap top 12 shootout didn’t go as well as the opening session and he dropped 2 places to give him 3rd place.
Race 1 started well for Elliott and as things settled down he was hot on the heels of 2nd place and looking to make a pass and on lap 5 he found his way through and set about closing down the gap to the leader. Elliott’s best efforts to close the gap on 1st place were to be in vain as he couldn’t managed to catch the leader, ending the race just under 6 seconds behind in 2nd.
An awesome start in race 2 from Elliott saw him lead out of the opening corner and he soon set about trying to distance himself from the rest of the pack. Elliott was looking good out front but he was being hunted down and as the race passed the halfway stage he took a rock in the arm and whilst in discomfort from this he was caught and passed, dropping to 3rd place. With 3rd beginning took look like his likely finishing position, drama struck on the final laps as 2nd place crashed out heavily, promoting Elliott up a place for another 2nd place finish.
Another holeshot for Elliott in race 3 saw him lead again but on lap 2 he was overhauled and dropped to 2nd place. Elliott was involved in an intense battle to keep his 2nd place but with his arm still hurting from the rock in race 2 the inevitable happened and his lost out and dropped into 3rd place, it was a comfortable 3rd place however and he settled into decent speed and rhythm to bring it home.
Elliott’s performance on the day saw him return to the podium for a 4th successive round, and this time he was 2nd overall just missing out on the top spot by 2 points and he has now climbed into 2nd in the championship standings, but 1st is a long way ahead with a 64 point gap. Reflecting on the day Elliott said ‘It’s been another good day for me, the track was good from the off and I managed to get 1st and by quite a good gap in the opening qualifying session, so I was well happy with that but then I messed up the Superpole lap and finished 3rd. I got 3rd off the start in race 1 and then got past Jake Nicholls for second, Zach Osborne was out front and the gap stayed the same, I closed on him a little in the final laps but I think he slowed down a bit.. In the 2nd race Iled for about 15 minutes but I took a rock in the arm off a back marker and it made my arm swell and I got a bit of arm pump so I got overtaken by Arnaud Tonus and Zach Osborne but then Zach crashed so I got 2nd again in that one. In race 3 I was leading again but my arm was still hurting from earlier so I had to back off a bit and ended up finishing 3rd, its been a good day though and we’re 2nd in the championship now.’
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