Injury ends championship hope for Barr at Liverpool

The Relentless Suzuki MX squad, were dealt a bitter blow at the weekend, as the second round of the British Supercross Championship held at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, saw rider Martin Barr, pick up an injury, after a very promising performance early on.

With a blistering start in the first British SX heat race, Martin Barr went into the first corner in second place, quickly moving into the lead. Sadly though, the Relentless backed racer tangled with another rider in the closing stages of the race, resulting in a crash, but still managed to remount and qualify for the night's final in second spot. Unfortunately, after suffering pain in his elbow from the first race crash, Barr had to pull-out of the event. The pain was later diagnosed as a cracked bone.

In a similar stroke of bad luck, teammate Scott Probert also suffered injury while training on his RM-Z450 race bike. A heavy landing resulted in a cracked bone in his lower leg.

Talking about his rider's misfortune was team manager Rob Hooper, who commented, "A weekend that showed so much promise, quickly turned to disappointment for us. Martin's pace was really impressive and to be honest we really believed we could start the outdoor season with an indoor title under our belts. Sadly, with this injury, Martin will not race at the O2 arena this weekend, and so this is now over for us. Scott's injury was unfortunate, especially after working so hard over the winter to get back from injury, but we're confident he will be back fighting fit at the Hawkstone International. Jamie Law continues his winter training, ready for a full-bore comeback at the start of the season."

On a positive note, the team is pleased to welcome youth rider Matt Burrows to the 2009 line-up. Fifteen year-old Matt, from Rugely in Staffordshire, will be contesting the MXY2 class at the Maxxis British Championships, the Masters Championship, selected under 21 rounds and other major youth races on a Team Relentless Suzuki MX RM-Z250.