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MJ Church Kawasaki Press Release:
THE RUSSIAN DISASTER:
The M J Church Kawasaki team were left stranded at the Russian Motocross Grand Prix, when their bikes failed to arrive at the event.
The final round of the World Championship was a disaster for most UK based teams.
After getting together some months ago and after hours of organisation all the bikes that left from the UK failed to arrive at the event held just outside of Moscow.
The truck left England well over a week in advance for the event, with 18 bikes on board, but failed to make it through customs and was forced to turn back on Saturday.
When teams arrived on Friday it was chaos as Managers and riders ran around trying to find bikes, some were lucky, but other where forced to just sit out and watch.
A few managed to borrow bikes from other teams but Espen Blikstad and Tallon Vohland were left watching alongside a number of other disappointed riders from the UK.
At one point the team found a 125 Kawasaki from a Estonian rider for Blikstad but after only five laps of practice he gave up, as the bike was not right for him and he was scared of injury, this was the case for many riders borrowing bikes from local riders.
Russia was to be the last GP for Tallon Vohland who had hoped to finish the season on a high note, but this was not meant to be.
"This is real bad for the English teams and riders, my team has tried everything but there is no other Kawasaki team here with spare bikes, so we are stuck. They tried their best to resolve the situation but there was nothing more they could do ".
Blikstad was also very disappointed he had picked up points at the last GP and was hoping for his best result of the season at the Russian round.
"After the last round I thought I could get a good result here, it is very frustrating just watching, but the team did get me a bike at one point but it was too dangerous for me to ride. Next week I go to England for the British Championship so hopefully I can do well there".
Darryl Atkins was able to borrow a bike and picked up two points.
The team will now prepare for the penultimate round of the British Championship at Hawkstone Park on Sunday.
