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MJ Church Kawasaki - AUSTRIAN GP REPORT
The M J Church Kawasaki team returned to the UK in high spirits after last weekends Austrian GP. With American Tallon Vohland out of action the H M Plant backed team headed to round six of the Championship with New Zealander, Darryl Atkins and Swedish rider Espen Blikstad who would replace Vohland in the 125 class.
Despite some misfortune the team had a reasonably successful weekend, with an outstanding performance from Blikstad on Saturday, which left him 1st reserve for Sundays race.
Having only ridden the bike once before arriving at the Karntern circuit, Blikstad put in an impressive performance to end 10th in his heat and 5th in the last chance, just missing out on getting into the main race.
Team Owner Mike Church said “We were all really impressed, the 125 class is very tough and competitive and we thought Espen may struggle a bit just because he hadn’t ridden in the 125 class for a while and hadn’t had much time on the bike, but he wasn’t phased by this and put in a good effort, it was just unfortunate that he missed out.”
In the 250 class Darryl Atkins qualified for his first GP of the season, in 24th position. The race was going well for the Kiwi and after a bad start he made his way through the pack, moving into a point scoring position, but he suffered a mechanical problem later in the race and was forced to retire.
Atkins said “I really needed to qualify at this round, just to boost my confidence more than anything else, we worked really hard and it paid off. It was disappointing that I suffered in the race because I was in a point scoring position, but I am confident now that I can do it again”
The team return to the UK for round three of the British Championship this weekend at Wakes Colne, Vohland will again miss out but he is well on the road to recovery.
