I didn’t go to Ironman this past weekend. I figured a Lawrence brother would win a race or two, and then also that a Lawrence brother would win a title, so there wasn’t much intrigue for me. Meanwhile, the guys who run the Foxhill Vet Motocross of Nations event in England asked if I could go cover their race. Well, actually they put a ton of heat on me to go, so I figured I would venture over the pond to see what this race was all about.
I’m a child of the ‘90s, yes, but for me this love affair of two-strokes that we saw at Washougal is just…whatever. I’m not sure why a racer would pay his entry fee to line up at a disadvantage. And I’ve heard and smelled plenty of two-stroke motors in my time so hearing them now doesn’t do it for me. But what does do it for me are the older two-strokes. I’ve built five project bikes from the ‘80s and ‘90s, and I love looking at these older bikes and seeing what other kind of tips and tricks guys do to them.
This race at the old Foxhill track (site of the ’98 MXDN) had so many old, mint, bikes it was ridiculous. I absolutely loved looking at some of bikes there, and the money and time spent was incredible. Old factory bikes even, bikes done up to look like they were off the showroom floor, and replicas of race bikes, it was pretty cool.
Dave King and Doc Wob (who used to be a mechanic in the USA for Robbie Reynard and others back in the day) run an absolute “mega” (I heard that slang word about a thousand times this weekend) event and the crowd and racers there was seriously impressive. Vintage racing is a huge deal in the UK, many people told me there were more people there than at a British MXGP!
We did a couple of live PulpMX Shows there as well, and despite the sound issues on Friday night, a good time was had by all. Three-time world champion Dave Thorpe was one of our guests on Saturday night and afterward I got to talk with him for a while. I did a podcast with him years ago, but this was the first time I got to talk to him like this, in person. Great guy, and that was cool, BTW.
So, the idea is, there’s a bunch of classes for 125’s, a bunch of classes for any size bike, and they’re divided by age. There’s also an MXoN class with three riders, eight total motos on any size bike, over 30 years old.
Team USA were the champs of this race last year—Zach Osborne, Ryan Villopoto, and Mike Brown brought it home for the red, white, and blue, but RV bowed out this year. He just hadn’t been riding much and I think the level of the top guy’s last year was a bit more serious than he wanted. RV’s got nothing to prove to anyone, and trust me when I say that these guys take this thing seriously.
However, RV was there as an ambassador of the event, and he must’ve signed 500 signatures and taken 1000 photos. He was the peoples’ champion and was having a great time as well. Greatest retired rider ever, maybe?
Osborne rode a 2002 YZ250, Tyler Bowers, who was RV’s fill-in, rode a KX500 (year undetermined but it could’ve been an ’88 to 2004 model), and Brown rode a 2001 KX250. All these bikes were mint, but Zacho battled arm pump in moto one and struggled a bit. He got much better from there on out and led another moto even, and I think he was the only member of Team USA who didn’t touch his bike. Bowers and Brownie were both chasing the setup of their machines all weekend. Hey man, whether it’s new bikes or old bikes, nice to see that chasing setup doesn’t end when you quit racing professionally.
Brown is an awesome guy but man, he’s still so intense about racing. He was not one to be around after Saturday when he struggled a bit with starts, and then didn’t think his bike was tiptop. Bowers was all, “Ehhh, what can you do?” with some issues he was having, but Mike Brown wanted to fight everyone before he calmed down. Some things never change with these guys, right?
In front of their home fans, it was a Team UK dominant win. The fans loved it, that was cool to see. Tommy Searle was very good on his KX250, he seemed to get better each time out. Mel Pocock probably broke his lower leg on Saturday, was walking around on crutches and STILL raced all his motos. Wow. And Brad Anderson was the third rider on a CR500 and man, he was on it. All three riders were very impressive and on it all weekend.
I’m NOT giving the USA an excuse here because last year they had the same kind of team set-up and won last year but last year the UK team had Kurt Nicoll who’s still fast but he’s over 50. This year the UK guys have two riders who are top five guys in the UK national series! So, like Team USA had Brown who’s 52 years old, Bowers who hasn’t raced professionally for two years and Osborne who’s the same as Bowers but does race GNCC. Look, it doesn’t matter, it’s just for bragging rights but the UK boys sent a serious team this year and won. They also should’ve won.
I think maybe in the future, because there’s a lot of work and it’s very serious out on the track (just ask RV), maybe there needs to be, say, a 50-year-old on each team. Or one +30, one +40, and one +50. Just something to even it up a bit and make it more realistic. Again, I don’t care, but the USA guys certainly were intense about this whole thing, as were the UK guys, so just a suggestion.
The best individual rider was Russia’s Evgeny Bobryshev for Team ROW (rest of the world) on a CR500, which he told us on the PulpMX show, he’d never ridden until he got on it for practice. Like, had never ridden a CR500! Practice was just four laps also. Wow. Russian Bob, like Ivan Drago would’ve done, I suppose, ripped starts on the beast and went 1-2-3-1 in the four motos. The Foxhill track had huge up and downhills which you could see helped Bobby when racing Searle, but also there were some tight sections where a 500 is not the bike you would want.
I think the rider who surprised me the most was Neville Bradshaw in the 125 Super EVO class. Obviously, I’ve heard of Bradshaw before, he’s raced in the UK forever, but man was he sending it on the ‘89 CR125. He was great and fearless on the huge hills and jumps.
Our guy Kris Keefer was there. Keefer’s not a fan of riding two-strokes much in the modern times, but he was having fun embracing the challenge. He rode an ’89 CR125 (there were, like, 1000 ’89 CR125’s there, BTW) and a 2000 CR250. He was scheduled for two classes and eight motos but in the end, with some bike issues, he raced three motos total. I think he still had fun, although he had a carb slide break (what the hell?) and a throttle stick on him, which is a bit scary.
Doug Dubach has become a professional vintage bike racer in his later years. Dubach has been going to France to race a YZM500 (Google it kids) for a few years, he went to Italy to race vintage bikes, and has been coming to this race for, like, eleven years. Doug’s a veteran of, well, just racing any dirt bike in any country at any time. Doug was racing a ’94 YZ250 and had a few bike issues (sensing a theme here?) but overall had a good time. He had three-time 125 world champion Alessio Chiodi in his class and that guy ripped! He was quite a character also. I probably hung out with Doug the most over the weekend and love talking to him about the old stories. He, like Jim Holley (also O’Neal and also Yamaha), are national treasures of our sport.
Keith Johnson (the NESC one) was there as well. KJ’s been to this event, he’s been to the other UK vintage race at Farleigh Castle, and he’s one of those guys who loves the racing, has let go the ego of trying to be what he used to be, and just has a good time. KJ rode a KX500 and had a good time with his family there. Keith had a few sketchy moments over the weekend, but remember that he raced and survived a Cannondale bike so not much can freak him out, I’m sure. He also was going home and coming back to Farleigh in two weeks. I’m telling you guys, this is serious stuff, this vintage racing in the UK.
Country Overall Results
Overall Country Results VMXDN |
1- UK 48 points |
2-Northern Ireland 102 points |
3-USA 121 points |
4-Rest of World 134 points |
Individual Overall Results
Overall Results VMXDN class |
1 Evgeny Bobryshev 1-2-3-1 |
2 Tommy Searle 2-3-1-2 |
3 Mel Pocock 3-4-5-10 |
4 Zach Osborne 11-5-2-8 |
5 Billy Mackenzie 10-6-7-5 |
6 Neville Bradshaw 7-8-6-7 |
7 E BANKS BROWNE 5-1-19-4 |
8 Graeme Irwin 8-11-4-6 |
9 Mike Brown 9-10-12-9 |
10 DANIEL MCCANNEY 12-13-8-13 |
11 Brad Anderson 4-32-11-3 |
12 David Goosen 16-15-13-12 |
13 KEVIN WOULTS 15-14-18-11 |
14 STIJN VERTREPEN 17-18-9-15 |
15 JAMIE SKUSE 19-20-17-17 |
16 Gordon Crockard 14-12-28-19 |
17 Jake Nicholls 13-9-14-37 |
18 Josh Spinks 6-7-16-45 |
19 MATTIS KARRO 40-17-10-14 |
20 BRIAN MACKENZIE 36-16-15-16 |
Images by Jess Hurley