Jeremy Seewer took his factory RM-Z250 to fourth overall yesterday in front of a 37,000 crowd gathered around the Matterley Basin ‘bowl’ for the British Grand Prix and round 11 of 18 in the FIM Motocross World Championship. The Swiss lost only two points in his gap over Pauls Jonass in the series standings and retains a healthy distance of 29 in second place.

Dry, fast, flowing and jump-laden, Matterley Basin was again a special place for Grand Prix motocross and a circuit that Seewer in particular relished. The wide ‘switchback’ turns, many step-ups and downs, a tacky soil that invited riders to attack the terrain and some close racing, were valuable ingredients for a memorable fixture on the 2016 calendar.

Seewer showed his spurs on Saturday by heading the Free and Timed Practice sessions and with current world championship leader Jeffrey Herlings struggling with a foot injury ‘#91’ took his chance to lead the MX2 pack. A small mistake at the beginning of the qualification heat meant that Seewer had to charge back to third place and faced an insurmountable margin to Max Anstie and Dylan Ferrandis ahead.

Lesson learned for Sunday, Seewer had to fire back from a top-six start and needed almost half the race to pass the surprisingly fast rookie Conrad Mewse. Once he relegated the Englishman he made full use of the last three laps to close up to Pauls Jonass and made a fantastic pass to relegate the Latvian to fourth on the final circulation.

In the second moto Seewer again found himself duelling with Jonass and another third place. He made a brave and successful move on the wide ‘spoon’ curve midway through the last lap but carried just a bit too much speed into the rut on the outside of the turn and slipped off the RM-Z. Seewer was able to remount and take fifth but had to surrender a podium finish to Jonass.