Report: Cumbria Classic Racing Club
By TMX Archives on 28th Jun 17
Cumbria Classic Racing Club hosted the annual Cumberland Grand National, at the hillside track of Blencarn, near Penrith.
The event also incorporated the third round of the British Classic Motocross Championship and with fine weather the crowd was in for a treat.
First clash of the day was the championship race.
The British Classic Motocross Championship, which is spilt into two categories – Pre-74 and Pre-65 – had a good line-up and as the gate dropped for the opener Pre-65 rider Tim Dallaway got the holeshot.
Within a couple of laps Pre-74 rider, Kris Winder, was out front and by the drop of the flag he had almost a minute advantage over Pre-74 rider Keith Rice.
Dallaway also secured the opening win in the Pre-65 class, pushed all the way home by Aaron Graves.
In the second British Classic encounter Graves grabbed the holeshot and pulled out a good advantage.
Dallaway was chasing hard, though, and in the closing stages he managed to slip past to take the class win.
In the Pre-74s Winder had a fall at the start and had to fight hard to make his way back through the field but by the close he had secured his second class win, again ahead of Rice.
In the Pre-60 Unlimited class, two wins and a second for Simon Chell was enough to secure the overall on the day.
Combined with this class was the Pre-68 Up to 350cc riders and racing was very close all day between Chris Collins and Nick Archer.
In the opening encounter Collins just managed to keep Archer at bay but the places were reversed in race two with Archer finding the tight line around the hairpin bend to slip past Collins on the last lap.
It was then all down to the last race and Collins again got the holeshot ahead of Archer and held on to claim the class victory and the overall on the day.
In the Pre-68 Over 350cc class the main racing was between Aaron Graves and Wayne Partington. In the opener Graves took top spot but as the gate dropped for race two Gene Womack got the holeshot.
Graves was soon into the lead, though, and for the whole of the race you could have thrown a blanket over Graves, Womack and Partington as they fought for the win.
Going into the final lap Womack found a way past Graves, but he quickly reversed the positions and Partington followed him through.
As they rounded the last few corners Graves held on for a great victory. In the final encounter Partington grabbed the holeshot and never looked back but third place for Graves was enough to give him the overall.
There was some great racing in the Pre-75 Over 250cc and with two wins and a third to his name Chris Chell took the overall ahead of Northern Ireland's Trevor Calderwood.
In the Pre-75 Up-to-250cc class Ian Robertson was the victor, while in Pre-78 Unlimited Chris Woodward took the overall.
There were also three groups of Twin-shocks battling it out and in Twin-shock A Barry Turnbull took top step on the podium after some great battles with runner-up Mark Fulton.
Two wins saw Nigel Sowerby top Class B and in Class C David Lamb secured the overall.
Barry Turnbull, who set off dead last, pushed all the way through the field in the Twin-shock Handicap but fell short of the race victory by just a few bike lengths, as the win went to Jeffery Wharton.
In the Classic Handicap, Wayne Partington, who also set off last, fought through the field and on the last lap managed to fight his way to the head of the pack.
The annual Cumberland Grand National for classic machines was a superb race, packed with the top classic competitors.
Chris Chell got to the front of the pack and opened up a lead from Gene Womack, Jonathan Bethell, Aaron Graves and Kris Winder.
Winder battled his way through the field and going into the final lap was right on the tail of Chell but he used all his experience to hold on and take the flag.
Results
Pre-74 British Classic MX Champs – Race One: 1 Kris Winder 2 Keith Rice 3 Trevor Calderwood 4 John Flemming 5 David Wilson 6 Philip Nicholls.
RaceTwo: 1 Winder, 2 Rice, 3 Sam Nicholls, 4 Calderwood, 5 P Nicholls, 6 Greg Speed.
Pre-65 British Classic MX Champs – Race One: 1 Tim Dallaway, 2 Aaron Graves, 3 Chris Collins, 4 Wayne Partington, 5 Nick Archer, 6 Liston Bell.
Race Two: 1 Dallaway, 2 Graves, 3 Partington, 4 Collins, 5 Archer, 6 Gene Womack.
Twin-shock A Overall: 1 Barry Turnbull, 2 Mark Fulton, 3 Alan Bott, 4 Paul Chiappa, 5 Ryan Glendinning, 6 Craig Smith.
Twin-shock B Overall: 1 Nigel Sowerby, 2 Peter Williamson, 3 Jeffery Wharton, 4 Shane Sowerby, 5 David Bateman 6 Lee Bateman.
Twin-shock C Overall: 1 David Lamb, 2 Gary Wolstenholme, 3 John Wickes, 4 Bill Brown, 5 Peter Lightfoot, 6 Brian Hamilton.
Pre-60 Unlimited: 1 Simon Chell, 2 Stephen Jackson, 3 Mike Evans.
Pre-68 Up to 350cc: 1 Chris Collins, 2 Nick Archer, 3 Geoff Taylor, 4 Stewart Riddell, 5 Kevin Allen.
Pre-68 Over 350cc Overall: 1 Aaron Graves, 2 Wayne Partington, 3 Luke Womack, 4 Fergus Moodie, 5 Gene Womack, 6 John Pickering.
Pre-75 Over 250cc Overall: 1 Chris Chell, 2 Trevor Calderwood, 3 Jonathan Bethell, 4 Kris Winder, 5 Tony Barnes, 6 David Wilson.
Pre-75 Up to 250cc Overall: 1 Ian Robertson, 2 Chris Lewis, 3 Derek Macaulay.
Pre-78 Unlimited: 1 Chris Woodward, 2 Luke Womack, 3 Craig Hunter.
Clubman Overall: 1 Luke Jackson 2 Steve Parkins 3 Cliff Hardisty, 4 Alan Reed, 5 Stephen Shaw.
Cumberland Grand National Classic: 1 Chris Chell, 2 Kris Winder, 3 Gene Womack, 4 Jonathan Bethell, 5 Aaron Graves, 6 Wayne Partington.
Twin-shock Handicap: 1 Jeffery Wharton, 2 Barry Turnbull, 3 David Lamb, 4 Tim Dallaway, 5 Gary Craddock, 6 Paul Bethell.
