ANYON ROBILLIARD and Brett Pearce represent the old and new of motocross, but on the opening day of the season they had something in common.

Speed.

Neither could be touched in perfect conditions at Pleinmont, although Pearce, arguably the fastest around these days, fell foul of the judges in the opening adult MX2 race of the day.

He crossed the line well clear, but found himself docked a lap for taking an illegal short cut. He appealed and it will be a while yet before he knows the result of his protest to the Auto-Cycle Union.

Not that it seemed to worry the 15-year-old who, with Marc Cox still recovering from spinal injuries and out for the year, is the early MX2 championship favourite.

Pearce is not getting ahead of himself, despite an encouraging start.

‘I’m hoping to win it,’ was as much as he could say on the title issue. But he is certainly enjoying the step up from the 85s to the bigger, faster and well represented MX2 class.

Thirteen riders came to the line on Saturday.

‘It’s more of a challenge to ride the bigger bike,’ said Pearce, who plans to compete in a number of English meetings this summer as he looks to climb the motocross ladder.

Robilliard has been at or near the top of the Guernsey motocross scene for years and although not the oldest in the field at 28 and with 22 seaons under his belt, can be regarded as the grandaddy of the club.

On his Rip’n/Roll KXF450 he dominated the adult open class which has lost brothers Steve and Sam Batiste, but has seen an increase in overall numbers with a re-jigging of the classes and an amalgamation of the open and some of the slower MX2 riders.

In theory, the open machines should be quickest, but even Robilliard admits MX2 stars such as Pearce and Sam Clark take some catching.

Robilliard certainly rates them highly and on Pearce he delivered an encouraging verdict.

‘He’s very handy and done well. it will be interesting to see if he can string a championship together. A rider for the future.’

Robilliard is searching for a third open championship but there will be no trophy double this year with the grand slam series having been ditched.

Not that you will find the eight-times winner of it moaning about its departure.

‘The committee have done it in an effort to give us longer races and build the [riders'] stamina up with three longer ones.

‘Last year they were 10 to 12 minutes, but this year it’s up to 15.

‘You certainly need your rests to get over the last one.’

Overall, total entries were slightly up on 2007.

Several Jersey riders made the trip over and none of them was more successful than Charlie Mills, who dominated the intermediate section.

Other juniors to shine were Luke Lesbirel with two wins and a second in the senior 85s and Jersey lad Connor Hamon, with a hat-trick of victories in the junior 65s.

It was also interesting to note that one of the four automatic entries was one Seb Priaulx, the seven-year-old son of world touring car champion Andy, who was present to see his lad embark on his motorsport career with a practice race on a Honda 50.

The world champ started his own motorsport career on the Pleinmont humps and bumps at a similar age.