Lady Luck still missing from Church camp.

The MJ Church Kawasaki motocross team headed to Northern Ireland for round seven of the British Championships on Saturday, hoping for a great days racing and some results to match. They were to be disappointed.

After the morning's qualifying round on the spectacular Desert Martin track, Fiat Kobelco-backed Marko Kovalainen and Carl Nunn were ninth and tenth respectively, but moto one was to prove pretty dismal right from the start and, as the 40 riders went round the first turn, it was the #3 machine of Carl Nunn that turned last. The 23-year old had hit the start gate at the getaway and then had to ride round it losing valuable time. However, after an amazing first lap, Nunn was up to 14th place and pushing hard, by lap two he was twelfth.

Disaster struck on lap three, however, as Nunn approached the pits and came to a sudden halt. The mechanics quickly ran to the bike to find that the petrol feed had been knocked off, and the 250cc Kawasaki was quickly restarted, although it was too late to continue in the race.

Kovalainen, meanwhile, was victim of a first lap crash, and the Finnish rider also retired from moto one.

Despite the setbacks,the Kawasaki pair went to the line in moto two with a positive attitude and both secured mid-pack starts when the gate dropped. Working hard, they made progress throughout the 25-minute race, with Nunn finishing in ninth and Kovalainen tenth.

The final race of the day saw the top 20 125 class riders and top 20 open class riders race off for championship points and, again both Nunn and Kovalainen had mid-pack starts. Nunn, however, was determined to make up for the bad start to his day and rode a fantastic race, to finish in fifth place.

"The day went wrong in the first race, as I hit the gate and was last, and then the bike just stopped," Nunn recalled, "We found that, somehow, the petrol got turned off, which is pretty unbelievable thing to happen, but I did hit quite a few things on the first lap.

"I just made up as many points as I could throughout the rest of the day, and hope to do the same at the last round, if I can make it into the top five I will be happy."

Meanwhile, Kovalainen battled hard to end the final moto in twelfth, after coming from outside the top 20.

"In the first race, I crashed and was lapped on the second lap of the race, so there was no way for me to catch up and I had to pull out of the race," the Finn admitted, "In the next two motos, I felt good, and, in the last race, although I had a bad start, I managed to come back to twelfth place."

With only one round remaining, Nunn now sits in seventh place in the championship, but with third only 20 points ahead. Kovalainen sits in tenth, although ninth remains a strong possibility for the 27-year old.