Factory Kawasaki off-road motorcycle racer Billy Mackenzie saw a rostrum finish slip away at a hot and sunny Grand Prix of Belgium – round twelve of 15 on the 2007 calendar and the authentic home of motocross having hosted races for some 60 years – atop the historic Citadelle in Namur.
The UK's leading representative in the premier MX1 class of the FIM Motocross World Championship took his maiden pole position – a full 1.8 seconds clear of the next-best runner – and third place in the first of the event's two races, but was flicked off his potent KX450F-SR machine on the opening lap of the second sprint and could only climb back to 17th for an overall placing of ninth on the day.
Namur formed part of the first Motocross world championship back in 1957. The track has been described as the Monaco or Isle of Man of off-road racing thanks to the length and technical demands of its 2,500m loop. Going through the light patches under trees, dodging roots, dropping and climbing slopes that are difficult to walk and even flashing past an old pub all at high speed add a high element of danger to the circuit, while its narrowness – down to two metres in places – makes overtaking far from a formality.
The current Maxxis British Championship leader began well in both motos, but dropped back to seventh in the first race as he tried to shake off traces of arm-pump. He eventually got into a rhythm and lowered his lap times to pass both factory Suzuki riders in the closing stages to grab third place and his fourth podium finish this season, 8.5 seconds adrift of the race winner.
“I was happy with the third position in the first moto,” the 23-year-old confirmed. “When I got passed by two riders I thought it might be a struggle, so I tried to relax. When you relax on this track you don't lose time and I actually found myself catching the others up and losing my arm-pump. When I realised that Kevin Strijbos and Steve Ramon were not actually that far ahead I knuckled down.
“The bike was handling really well; it's especially hard here to find a good setting but we did it. I really wanted to beat the two Belgians because all the fans were cheering them! There were quite a few Brits there as well and I appreciated their support; they helped me on. I felt good and thought that with pole position I should be in the top three.”
Mackenzie's designs on a second successive rostrum finish evaporated on the very first lap of Moto2 as he tried to overtake American Mike Brown only to lose traction and crash. By the time he re-started he was a long way behind the pack, and from thereon in it was simply a matter of damage limitation.
“Coming around the first corner in the second moto I thought 'right, this one is mine',” the Scot explained. “Brown was ahead of me as we went into the woods, and into the next corner he made a mistake. I was in the rut and gassed the bike to nudge ahead of him but the back end lit up on the rocky face of the hill and slid all the way up the slope before high-siding me off at the top.
“It took some time to re-start, and I think it was something like another 15 minutes afterwards that I finally caught up enough to see someone else on the track! I struggled a little bit towards the end and the bumps were even shaking my hands off the bars under braking sometimes.
