Jason's first but Ryan wins
By TMX Archives on 9th Aug 07
THE penultimate round of the Putoline XC Champ-ionship was held at Culham, Oxfordshire, over the weekend. Last year's event was highly successful and the organisers, Fasteddyracing.com made sure no one was disappointed this year.
The Pro class finished controversially as JasonThomas crossed the line in first place, ahead of LPE Kawasaki's RyanVoase and Maximum Solutions Suzuki's Paul Edmondson, who had never beenmore than a few yards from each other throughout the race. Thomascrashed out at the first corner of the high-speed start and then rodebrilliantly to make up time and take the lead by the second lap. He ledfor virtually the whole two and a half hours of the race, but an errorof judgement on the final lap saw him disqualified for cutting thecourse.
With a 40-second lead, he had it in the bag. Allthe top contenders were posting laps in the region of 9 minutes 30seconds but Thomas's final lap time was 8 minutes 36 seconds. He didhold his hands up and admit to his mistake but the clerk of the coursedecided on disqualification.
The surrounding area had suffered severely in therecent flooding but the course, laid out by Paul Edmondson, was nigh onperfect. Just about 7km in length, the lap time for the Sunday morningrace was generally around 12 minutes while the Pro racers in theafternoon were clocking just under ten minutes. Fast, twisty, flatfield sections led into woodland areas, which made the layout wellbalanced for motocross and enduro riders alike.
The motocross riders really like Culham, they cantake full advantage of the open field sections to gain ground on theEnduro riders who do a little better in the woods, and there was farmore woodland this year than last, offering a great balance between thetwo disciplines.
The training day, held on Saturday morning, waspacked to capacity and the Saturday afternoon Youth race was very wellattended. The whole weekend was a real scorcher for everyone but theYouth riders put on a great display despite the heat.
Jay Littler finally grabbed the elusive victory hehad been after for so long in the 150cc class. Joe Jones, always in thereckoning, took second place with Liam Garbett third. The 125cc classsaw a great battle between Scott Clifford and Ash Cotterill with underfour
seconds between them at the finish. Karl Brittain took third but was a lap down on the leaders.
PUTOLINE XC SERIES Rd 6 - Culham, Oxfordshire (Fast Eddy Racing)
Pro Class: 1 Ryan Voase, 2 Paul Edmondson, 3 Chris Tett, 4 Darren Wheeler, 5 Tim Foreman.
Expert: 1 Jon Hinam, 2 Julian Harvey, 3 James Jackman, 4 Alister Clarke, 5 Barry Kinley.
Super Clubman: 1 Sean Tranter, 2 Mark Perrett, 3 Dave Livesey, 4 Dennis Harrison, 5 Rich Thompson.
Clubman 4T: 1 Stu Keedwell, 2 Stu Mowbray, 3 Sean O'Neill, 4 Gareth Delahay, 5 Dave Livesey.
Clubman 2T: 1 Mark Mealham, 2 Paul Wallis, 3 Darren Pyne, 4 Karl Day, 5 Colin Chapman.
Novice 4T: 1 Anthony Robson, 2 Wayne Gurnhill, 3 Martin Wiles, 4 Paul Reed, 5 Jay Littler.
Novice 2T: 1 Joe Jones, 2 Sean Gorvin, 3 John Bachelor, 4 Freddy Davies, 5 Glen Pettit.
Ladies & Gents: 1 Kate Harrington, 2 Natalie Molyneux, 3 Leila Moussa.
Veteran: 1 Richard Main, 2 Chris Koch, 3 Lindsay Hopkins, 4 Dave Salkeld, 5 Peter Clark.
Youth 125cc: 1 Scott Clifford, 2 Ash Cotterill, 3 Karl Brittain, 4 Greg Clark, 5 Jamie Fenning.
Youth 150cc: 1 Jay Littler, 2 Joe Jones, 3 Liam Garbett.
Youth 85cc: 1 Steve Holcom, 2 Marty Coombes, 3 Jonathan Jones, 4 Jake Gowan, 5 Ben Dowdeswell.
Youth 65cc: 1 Arron Coupland, 2 Jack Edmondson, 3 Jordan Pyne, 4 Ollie Benton, 5 Lewis Dowdeswell.
For full story and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, August 10, 2007.
