Tough at the top
By TMX Archives on 30th Jan 08
Reigning US GNCC champion, David Knight, has started 2008 in exactly the way he plans to finish it, having topped Britain's premier Extreme Sprint Hare Scramble, the WOR Events-organised Tough One', staged at Nantmawr Quarry, Shropshire.
Reigning US GNCC champion, David Knight, has started 2008 in exactly the way he plans to finish it, having topped Britain's premier Extreme Sprint Hare Scramble, the WOR Events-organised ‘Tough One', staged at Nantmawr Quarry, Shropshire.
With three ‘Tough One' victories already to his name, Knight faced his toughest ever competition as KTM's Taddy Blazusiak and Cyril Despres joined Britain's Wayne Braybrook, Paul Edmondson and Tom Sagar in lining up against the Manxman in the hope of bringing his winning run to an end.
Despite their best efforts, Knight made it four wins from four starts with his closest challenger, surprisingly, Beta-mounted trials rider, Michael Brown. Qualifying for the main event as a result of his victory in the Gas Gas UK Speed Trial event, which finished just over an hour before the big race, Brown caught, clashed with, caught again and then passed Knight to earn himself a cool £1,000 bonus by leading the ‘Tough One' at the one-hour mark.
With the anticipated battle between Knighter and his Polish KTM team-mate Blazusiak drawing the biggest crowd yet to Nantmawr Quarry, the encounter many were hoping to see simply didn't materialise. In its place, Knight was left to battle with Brown before taking all in his stride and claiming an impressive fourth win.
Gas Gas rider, Wayne Braybrook, took an early lead after he got the jump on his Pro class rivals off the start. Quickly past the Expert riders ahead of him, Wayne's early lead was short-lived as Knight moved to the front and started to open up what eventually became an unchallenged lead.
Blazusiak made several mistakes during the opening laps, and despite putting in some impressive lap times he was unable to work his way past the Expert riders as quickly as Knight, which ultimately ended his hopes of challenging for the win.
Despite being comfortably ahead of his nearest enduro-bike mounted rival with just two laps completed Knight was kept on his toes by Michael Brown right up until the end of the first hour.
TOUGH ONE
EXTREME SPRINT SCRAMBLE
Nantmawr Quarry, nr Oswestry (WOR Events)
PRO CLASS (2-hrs): 1 David Knight (300 Red Bull KTM) 14 laps - 2:00:23 total time, 2 Taddy Blazusiak (300 D3 Racing Factory KTM) 14 - 2:09:05, 3 Wayne Braybrook (300 JST Gas Gas) 13 - 2:08:53, 4 Paul Edmondson (125 Fast Eddy Suzuki) 13 - 2:10:13, 5 Tom Sagar (300 Optoma D3 Racing KTM UK) 12 - 2:01:31, 6 Paul Bolton (250F Sandiford Honda) 12 - 2:01:39, 7 Cyril Despres (300 KTM Austria) 12 - 2:10:58, 8 Gordon Crockard (300 Gas Gas) 12 - 2:11:06, 9 Greg Evans (250 Optoma Mounter D3 KTM) 11 - 2:07:37, 10 Juan Knight (300 Gas Gas) 11 - 2:13:13, 11 Rob Wrayford (250 Albion FMF KTM) 10 - 2:01:22, 12 Justin Wilson (250 Rocket RFX Yamaha) 10 - 2:07:47, 13 Ashley Wood (250F PAR Honda) 10 - 2:09:47, 14 Andy Cripps (250 Hacking Kawasaki) 10 - 2:09:58, 15 Lincoln Brewster (300 KBR Gas Gas) 9 - 2:05:35, 16 Jason Thomas (250F Suzuki) 9 - 2:16:57, 17 Michael Brown (270 Beta UK) (TRIALS BIKE) 8 - 1:06:53, 18 Sam Connor (250 Freestyle Husqvarna) 8 - 1:57:17, 19 Andrew Edwards (200 Caterfab KTM) 8 - 2:09:50, 20 Euan McConnell (TM UK) 7 - 1:43:00, 21 Chris Tett (Genus Honda) 7 - 2:04:28, 22 Carl Tiley (250 TM) 7 - 2:05:18, 23 Rowland Morris (250 Yamaha) 6 - 1:31:36, 24 Geoff Walker (DBR KTM) 4 - 2:13:35, 25 Craig Bounds (Yamaha) 3 - 1:35:04, 26 Rob Warner (250 Giant Bicycles Honda) 2 - 0:26:39, 27 Darren Wheeler (380 Midwest Husaberg) 1 - 0:16:24.
EXPERT (2-hrs): 1 Rob Pollard (300 KTM) 11 Laps - 2:07:26 total time, 2 Lee Sampson (250 RPM Husqvarna) 8 - 2:03:29, 3 Rob Reese (250 KTM) 8 - 2:11:14, 4 Wayne Mundell (200 KTM) 8 - 2:15:11, 5 Gordon Clarke (TM UK) 7 - 1:24:57, 6 Thomas Hick (250 Husqvarna) 7 - 2:18:06, 7 Martin Craven (300 Eurotek KTM) 6 - 2:15:05, 8 Ben Wootton (250 WPTC Honda) 6 - 2:15:50, 9 Stephen Foord (250 Freestyle Husqvarna) 6 - 2:17:47, 10 Bradley King (250 K4 Gas Gas) 5 - 2:04:05, 11 Jason Crossland (250 Sandiford Honda) 5 - 2:04:14, 12 Alun Jones (200 KTM) 5 - 2:09:20, 13 Harry Hillas (Jack Hillas KTM) 5 - 2:21:18, 14 Ben Begbie (KTM) 3 - 0:58:49, 15 John Pearson (250 DCR Suzuki) 2 - 0:33:15, 16 Craig Reynolds (250 Manchester Xtreme Yamaha) 2 - 1:04:35, 17 Kev Rogers (450 Linea KTM) 2 - 2:00:49, 18 Warren Hazlett (250F D3 Racing KTM) 1 - 0:19:22.
TOUGH ONE
CLUBMAN EXTREME SPRINT SCRAMBLE
Nantmawr Quarry, nr Oswestry (WOR Events)
CLUBMAN CLASS (1.5-hrs): 1 Kevin Harris (KTM) 6 laps - 1:29:18 total time, 2 Thomas Hick (250 Husqvarna) 6 - 1:31:30, 3 Joe Deakin (85 KTM) 6 - 1:32:09, 4 Gary Daniels (125 KTM) 6 - 1:36:35, 5 Gary McCoy (250 KTM) 6 - 1:39:37, 6 Mike Evans (250 KTM) 6 - 1:43:38, 7 Nathan Bolton (250 KTM) 5 - 1:32:34, 8 Mark Pickard (250 Yamaha) 5 - 1:34:17, 9 Michael Briggs Honda 125 5 - 1:35:19, 10 Marcus Jones (250 KTM) 5 - 1:38:06, 11 Richard Blunt Honda 250 5 - 1:39:09, 12 Findlay White (250 KTM) 5 - 1:41:13, 13 Dan Lawry (200 KTM) 5 - 1:45:43, 14 Craig Parkes (300 KTM) 4 - 1:29:42, 15 Nick Royle (300 KTM) 4 - 1:31:49, 16 Mark Woodvine (250 KTM) 4 - 1:32:18, 17 Greg Hodge (200 KTM) 4 - 1:32:22, 18 Joe Mitchinson (200 Redline KTM) 4 - 1:32:30, 19 Josh Taylor (125 Yamaha) 4 - 1:32:42, 20 Carwyn John (250 KTM) 4 - 1:35:59, 21 Matt Bryant (200 KTM) 4 - 1:36:12, 22 Dave Edwards (200 KTM) 4 - 1:36:26, 23 Jamie Robinson (250 Husqvarna) 4 - 1:39:19, 24 Eifion Davies (450 KTM) 4 - 1:43:11, 25 Alastair Crocket (250 KTM) 3 - 1:32:27, 26 Jonathon Hughes (250F KTM) 3 - 1:33:53, 27 Darren Smout (300 KTM) 3 - 1:34:46, 28 Robin Edwards (200 KTM) 3 - 1:35:47, 29 Gareth Wilkinson (200 KTM) 3 - 1:36:52, 30 Nick Reese (450 KTM) 3 - 1:42:16, 31 James Goulstone (250 Kawasaki) 3 - 1:42:45, 32 Graham Redmayne (300 Gas Gas) 3 - 1:43:17, 33 Neil Hawker (250 Yamaha) 3 - 1:48:53, 34 Darren Morgan (250 KTM) 2 - 1:29:31, 35 Paul Sagar (250 KTM) 1 - 0:12:10, 36 Dave Salkeld (250 KTM) 1 - 0:26:10, 37 Darren Heyes (300 KTM) 1 - 0:51:44, 38 Karl Webster (KTM) 1 - 0:53:20, 39 Chris Bishop (250 KTM) 1 - 1:24:44.
The Tough One Speed Trial
MICHAEL Brown was in unstoppable form on Saturday as he sped to a crushing victory in the ‘Speed Trial' which took place over the same course as ‘The Tough One'.
The wiry TTT Beta rider eventually completed the gruelling one and a half hour bash with almost two minutes in hand after easing-off over the closing couple of laps. Browny pocketed a cool £750 for his efforts with veteran Graham Jarvis sandwiched in between young guns Browny and Alexz Wigg, the latter out on his mighty 300cc four-stroke Sandiford Future TRW Montesa.
The small but select entry raced away from the start line in the Nantmawr quarry and it was Yorkshire's Ben Hemingway who held the early lead from Alexz Wigg with last year's winner Steve Colley looking strangely quiet early on, not going all-out as expected. Was this tactics and he would speed-up later on?
TOUGH ONE GAS GAS UK SPEED TRIAL
Nant Mawr Quarry, nr Oswestry (WOR Events)
OVERALL: 1 Michael Brown (270 Beta UK) 12 laps - 1:32:40 total time, 2 Graham Jarvis (Sherco) 12 - 1:34:09, 3 Alexz Wigg (Sandiford/ Future TRW Montesa) 12 - 1:35:49, 4 Sam Connor (270 Beta UK) 12 - 1:37:44, 5 Ross Danby (250 JST Gas Gas) 12 - 1:37:46, 6 Steve Colley (300 JST Gas Gas) 12 - 1:38:04, 7 Sam Haslam (300 JST Gas Gas) 12 - 1:38:06, 8 Lee Sampson (MRS Sherco) 12 - 1:40:42, 9 Jack Challoner (125 Beta UK) 11 - 1:36:14, 10 Gary Jenkins (290 MRS Sherco) 11 - 1:40:03, 11 Aled Price (250 Gas Gas) 10 - 1:37:27, 12 Russell Rooksby (250 Montesa) 10 - 1:42:24, 13 Jim Barrie (270 Bettws Beta) 9 - 1:39:18, 14 Stu Day (250 Gas Gas) 9 - 1:41:20, 15 Darren Williams (300 Gas Gas) 8 - 1:34:18, 16 Ben Hemingway (250 Beta UK) 7 - 1:05:28, 17 Andy Cripps (Gas Gas) 2 - 0:24:12, 18 Ian Coburn (250 Beta) 2 - 0:27:49, 19 Juan Knight (250 Ossa) 1 - 0:15:22.
For full report and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, February 1, 2007