Barragan breaks duck at Mallory Park.

Despite a last lap scare, Jonathan Barragan erased the agony of seeing his maiden MX1 victory slip away in the closing stages of the Bulgarian round by winning the first British Motocross Grand Prix to be held at Mallory Park - in front of 41,000 fans.

The first moto was arguably the best of the season so far, as championship leader David Philippaerts and Ken de Dycker charged through the field after a turn two fall that also took down Marc de Reuver and pole sitter Sebastien Pourcel.

de Dycker's team-mate and reigning world champion Steve Ramon had taken the lead from Barragan on lap 11, but the Belgian was hunted down by Philippaerts and de Dycker to form a thrilling three-way victory battle as the race reached its conclusion.

Ramon rode a defensive race to keep his pursuers at bay as long as possible, and was briefly handed some valuable breathing room when Philippaerts high-sided his Monster Yamaha from second position around the wall of death. But de Dycker instantly took his place and passed team-mate Ramon for victory with just a few corners to go.

Barragan and fellow KTM rider Max Nagl inherited third and fourth, with Philippaerts remounting to finish in fifth.

Race two saw de Reuver take the early lead, only to make a mistake on lap 5 that allowed Barragan ahead - where he remained right to the finish, despite a small fall on the very final lap. After a difficult start, Pourcel took second at the end of a solid moto, having battled it out with Philippaerts who finished third.

Race one winner de Dycker tangled with Clement Desalle and had to work his way through tehb field, eventually clinching sixth position to claim second overall behind Barragan. The final podium position was taken by Philippaerts, who now holds a 28 point lead over Ramon, who suffered muscle cramps on his way to seventh in race two.

"I had some problems with the shock in the first heat but we changed the settings for the second and it went much better for me. I am very happy to my have my first GP win for 2008 but I am a bit sorry that it has not come sooner than this," Barragan said.

The Spanish rider added that he liked the jumps on the British circuit but that it was very rough by the end of race two. "Riders here have to be really fit," he said.

The highest placed British rider was CAS Honda's Billy Mackenzie, who claimed sixth overall after 10-4 race finishes - the Scot having suffered a fall while holding second place early in race one.

The home crowd stood a much better chance of seeing a British MX2 victory, courtesy of 2007 event winner (at Donington Park) Tommy Searle, but it was to be Tyla Rattray and Antonio Cairoli that split the race victories.

Rattray dominated moto one, leaving Searle and rising star Sean Simpson to dispute second while Cairoli worked his way forward. The Italian produced an awesome ride to catch and pass both British riders, then closed rapidly on the seemingly safe Rattray to cross the finish line just half a second from the South African's rear wheel.

Cairoli made things much easier for himself in race two, leading from the start while Searle dropped gradually away to finish five second behind the Yamaha star. Rattray meanwhile had tangled with another rider on the opening lap, but pushed hard to reach fourth at the flag.

Cairoli thus took the overall by four points from Rattray, with home heroes Searle, Simpson and Stephen Sword third, fourth and fifth.

In the world championship standings, Cairoli has now taken the lead by just one point from Rattray with Searle a further nine points behind.

Peter Iven took a clean sweep at round two of the Veterans' World Cup winning both heats and storming to the top of the standings.

Making up for his difficult Spanish weekend, Dave Thorpe collected his first podium of 2008 by finishing twice runner up to Iven. Last year's Cup winner has now moved up to second in the points and is just 14 points away from Iven with one remaining round. Jan Blancquaert took the last step of the podium.