NOBLE BAGS 1st WIN FOR PROPPA.COM STR HONDA

The team was back at Canada Heights, Kent on Sunday the 16th August for the fourth round of the Red Bull Pro Nationals. The organisers did a superb job with the venue and after carrying out an extensive marketing campaign in the preceding weeks they succeeded in attracting one of the biggest UK crowds in recent years of around 6,500 spectators who were treated to a tremendous day’s entertainment.

Red Bull Pro Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two groups with Noble posting third fastest in group one with Rose in second and Parker in 5th in group two. All in all an impressive session for the three and in particular Parker who after being 10 seconds off the pace of his teammates at the previous round improved massively to get within 1 second this time out.

Race 1
Rose, who has really improved his starts in recent weeks shot out of the gate and looked to have the holeshot in the bag only for Noble to squeeze through the turn ahead of him and grab the lead. Noble quickly settled into his rhythm and looked unphased as Sword made his way into second and tried to apply the pressure. Nunn and Nichols both passed Rose to go 3rd and 4th and the race settled down in this order. Sword tried his best to pass Noble but to no avail and the Yorkshireman brought it home for his first big win in the Proppa.com STR Honda colours. Rose finished in 5th overall but 4th in his class. A confident Parker was soon brought down to earth, literally as he gated poorly leaving in the troublesome mid pack where he was to be nailed by an out of control rider, catapulting him straight through the paleing fence and into the pits, scattering the mechanics like a flock of worried sheep. After remounting Parker soon made it back into the tail-enders only for him clip a post with his left hand and with his hand guard missing after his first lap crash he was left to limp back to the pits with a couple of broken fingers.

Proppa.com Van Slam
Noble and Rose were again quick out of the gate but were beaten into 3rd and 4th by Nunn and Columb and after struggling to get past Columb for half a lap Noble was left with too big a gap to make up on Nunn and had to settle for 2nd with Rose in 4th and Parker last after testing his damaged hand out in the two lap dash to see if it was going to be viable to go out in the second race. Unfortunately for the youngster it was far too painful and he was left to contemplate on his 4th DNF in four starts at the Heights. To his credit he was still upbeat after showing again that he has the speed to match the top runners.

Race 2
Rose again looked like he was going to grab the holeshot but as they rounded the first corner Nunn cut across him knocking him to the floor and bringing down a gaggle of riders in the process including Sword. Noble sneaked through the inside of the pileup to grab 2nd behind Nunn with Banks-Brown in 3rd and Nichols in 4th. Nunn pulled out a five second lead early on but by mid race Noble had reduced it down to three and looked to be closing in only to be impeded by a lapped rider, costing him three seconds in the process. After throwing away the overall at the previous round Noble wasn’t going to make the same mistake again and after Banks-Brown dropped out he decided to settle for second and cruise to the flag. With Jake Nichols closing in fast on the last lap he showed his experience and allowed the MX2 pilot past on the last corner as it wasn’t going to affect his own MX1 result leaving him with 1-2 finishes and the overall from Nunn and Sword. Rose struggled through the field to 16th at the flag for 7th in MX1 and his 4-7 finishes bagged him 4th overall.
This was by far the best results the team has enjoyed so far and bodes well for the rest of the season.