Mitch and match as John triumphs
By Dick Law on 14th Jun 07
RACING his 450 ATV World Yamaha, John Mitchell and Paul Winrow, on his 450 Lonestar Honda, finished a hard day's racing at the Desertmartin GP track in Northern Ireland on level points as they took a win and a second place apiece, at round four of the British MMX Quad Championship. However, Mitchell climbed on to the top step of the podium by virtue of his higher place finish in race two.
Val Bell and the hard working members of QuadRacing Ireland had put a lot of hard work in at the hilly sandy trackand it started the day in first class condition, but we all know thatthis track gets rough, quickly.
The jumps had been re-profiled to suit the Quadsand, as usual for this course, the wide course gave the riders a choiceof lines, and therefore more overtaking opportunities.
Winrow, who was second to Mitchell in timedqualification by just over a half a second, got the holeshot of raceone and led Richard Toye and Ricky Tordoff into the first turn, withLindsey Duke and Mitchell chasing after them, while series leader,Jason MacBeth was down the field in ninth place.
Mitchell passed Duke for fourth on lap two, but one lap later it all went wrong for MacBeth as he came down one of the hills.
He hit a rut at an angle and the force of thehandlebars whipping round dislocated his right shoulder and it lookslike he will be out of action for some time.
At half-distance, Winrow was still in control andseemed to be able to up his pace whenever Mitchell managed to close thegap to him.
By this stage Tordoff was in third as Michael McAneney and Leon Beda charged passed Duke for fourth and fifth places.
Winrow controlled the race from the front to takehis first win of the 2007 session, and crossed the finish line justover ten-seconds ahead of Mitchell, with third place man, Toye almost90-seconds behind the leading pair.
Joe Maessen was the most impressive rider of therace, as he came from 28th on lap one to finish in fourth place justfive seconds behind Toye. Well, he is Dutch, and it was a sand track!
After the race Winrow said: ''It was good to getthe holeshot and it all just came together after that. I saw from mypit signals that John (Mitchell) was up into second and I just upped mypace to keep a good distance between us.''
Mitchell admitted: ''I didn't get the best ofstarts and was making my way to the front when we all had to slow downfor a yellow flag after a crash. I think I slowed too much as by thetime I got going again Paul (Winrow) was long gone and I settled forsecond place and saved some energy for the second moto.''
CCM BRITISH QUAD-CROSS CHAMPS
Rd 4 - Desertmartin, Northern Ireland (Quad Racing Ireland)
1 John Mitchell (ATV World Yamaha) 22 + 25 = 47
2 Paul Winrow (Interlock Lonestar Honda) 25 + 22 = 47
3 Joe Maessen (Mercuria GYTR Yamaha) 18 + 20 = 38
4 Richard Toye (Yamaha) 20 + 16 = 36
5 Paul Holmes (ATV World Yamaha) 14 + 15 = 29
6 Leon Beda (Mercuria GYTR Yamaha) 16 + 13 = 29
SERIES STANDINGS after 4 (of 9) rounds: 1 Mitchell 152 points, 2Maessen 151, 3 Winrow 140, 4 MacBeth 118, 5 Waggott 108, 6 Tordoff 90,7 Duke 89, 8 Toye 89, 9 Beda 83, 10 Bunce 71, 11 Holmes 67, 12 Reid 66,13 Dave Hammersley 58, 14 Simon Hammersley 57, 15 Wray 55, 16 North 51,17 0 50, 18 Goss 50, 19 McAneney 37, 20 Kelly 34,...
NEXT ROUND: Jul 1 - Waggadon Farm, Torrington (Torridge & DMCC).