Forgettable outing for Karro at Foxhill

FORGETTABLE OUTING FOR KARRO AT FOXHILL 26 July 2009 Motocross races are in a way like family visits - the memory of some you want to treasure for ever and a day, whilst some others you want to consign to the memory trash heap as soon as the day as done. For Matiss Karro, the sixth round of the British motocross championships at Foxhill will, alas, forever fall squarely in the latter category. ALthough chiefly known for his sand-riding skills, the Latvian teenager has produced some remarkable performances on hard-pack tracks of late, and thus the hard track with its intimidating up- and downhills held no particular fear for him. He underscored his growing confidence on this type of terrain by qualifying fifth fastest, which set him up well for a good challenge come the races. Unfortunately for Matiss, this was more or less as far as the good news went. He slotted into the top five off the start in race 1, but a freak occurrence was to take him out of the running quite early. ON the third lap, he cased a triple jump awkwardly on his MVR-D Suzuki, and slammed on the gear lever whilst in full panic-rev mode. Though metallurgy has made great advances over the years, the gear set that could suffer such abuse has not yet been devised, and a number of teeth were stripped off the gears, naturally resulting in a rapid exit from the race. Somewhat shaken by the first race incident, Matiss had a bad start in race 2, dropping out off the top 10 off the line. True to his nature, he wasted no time at all in making up positions, but this time he was, perhaps, a tad too enthusiastic. This time a kick bump on the track did it for him down a fearsome downhill, and he came down with a force that registered quite high on the thud scale. Battered and bruised, Matiss again retired from the race early. Much the worse for wear, his physical discomfort did not pain him so much as the fact that he had now dropped down to fifth in the championship standings. Thus ended a day that the teenager would rather like to forget in a hurry. A quick check on Monday morning revealed that there were no race-threatening injuries, and Matiss will be ready for action at the next GP at Lommel, Belgium, next weekend, albeit decorated with a black and blue colour scheme.   THE GLOOMY SKIES HELD DIRE PORTENT A COPYBOOK PICTURE OF DISCONSOLATION Pics by Stefan Paetow This report is available online.

Posted via email from motocrosscanada's posterous