Race report: Arenacross Tour Belfast - Escoffier and Ramette on top at SSE Arena

By Max Hind on 31st Jan 18

The Power Maxed Arenacross Tour headed to Belfast for rounds four and five of the 2018 series and with two nights of racing, two different tracks and two full houses the action in the SSE Arena was truly awesome.

A focussed Dan Reardon (JK iFly Racing Yamaha) took the holeshot in the first pro heat of the evening. The Aussie was closely followed by Adrian Escoffier (MVR-D St Blazey Husqvarna) and Russian Evgeny Bobryshev (RFX Lombard Express Suzuki).

Reardon was in full control of the race and flowing well around the tight track. Hugo Basaula (Shocktech Kawasaki) was pushing hard and soon found his way around Bobryshev to finish behind Reardon and Escoffier.

Thomas Ramette (SR75 World Team Suzuki) started the evening as he meant to go on with a solid holey in heat two. The champ was closely followed by team mate Cyrille Coulon and Charles Lefrancois (Buildbase Honda).

Adam Chatfield (Team Green Holeshot Kawasaki) looked like a man on a mission and soon found his way past Lefrancois as Cedric Soubeyras (Fro Systems Suzuki) pushed hard after a poor start, sticking an awesome pass on Lefrancois to take fourth place behind Ramette, Coulon and Chatfield.

Matt Bayliss (Wooldridge Demolition Honda) came out swinging in pro heat three, sweeping around the first corner at the front of the pack followed by Soubeyras, Elliott Banks-Browne (Geartec Husqvarna) and Basaula. Soubeyras found his way around Bayliss and headed home for the win as Banks-Browne rounded out the podium.

Ramette shot out the gate for his second holeshot of the evening in the final heat followed by Coulon, Escoffier, Lefrancois and Bobryshev and they finished in that order. Portuguese star Basaula has made a big impact on this years tour.

His unique style is awesome to watch and he manhandled his bike around the tight Belfast track to pip French stars Soubeyras and Ramette to the win in the Hot Lap competition. Jack Brunell (Team Green Holeshot Kawasaki) and Bobryshev made their way through the H2H heats to the final with Brunell taking the win.

The Main Event looked like it could be another Ramette whitewash as he took a clean holeshot his third of the night and started to build a gap on Coulon and Reardon. However, three laps in Ramette over-cooked his exit from a berm and the rear end slipped out, sending him into the tuff blocks.

Although he didnt hit the deck the mistake was enough to allow Reardon to get alongside him on the straight and cut inside on the next corner. As Reardon attempted the block pass he lost his front wheel and slid to the ground trapping both Ramette and Coulon behind him, dropping all three down the pack.

This left Escoffier, Bayliss and Bobryshev fighting it out for the podium. Bayliss was looking good until a mistake saw him hit the deck, dropping him to the back of the pack. Coulon was on a flyer, making an amazing comeback to third place.

The Frenchman was pushing Bobryshev hard on the final lap but didnt quite have enough time to make the pass as Escoffier took the win. With local rider Jason Meara (Norman Watt KTM) hungry for the Pro Lites win the first final was hotly anticipated but it was a new name that took the holeshot.

Billy King (rjking.co.uk KTM) pulled the holey followed by series leader Joe Clayton (Wheeldon Off-Road Centre Kawasaki) and local hero Meara. Clayton put the pass on King on the second lap swiftly followed by Meara. A mistake by Scooter Webster (Chris Walker Kawasaki) saw waved yellows, meaning that the leaders couldnt jump the double.

This led to a mistake by Meara and he slipped to the ground, dropping him to sixth place. Clayton and King cleared off for first and second while Meara pulled back to fourth right on the back of Chris Bayliss (Wooldridge Demolition Honda).

Webster holeshot the second final followed by Clayton, King and Bayliss. Meara had a disaster when a coming together with Bayliss on the start straight pushed him into a tuff block which wrapped itself around his brake. Clayton, Bayliss and George Clarke (Sealmoto Yamaha) were all on fire and came home 1-2-3.

German powerhouse Carl Osterman (Fox Europe KTM) was back for the Belfast rounds in the Superminis and he took full control in race one. Buster Hart (Bikesport Newcastle KTM) was also in good form taking second place ahead of Raife Broadley (Team Green Holeshot Kawasaki).

In race two Osterman picked up where he left off to take the holeshot. Broadley and Hart rubbed plastics for a few corners before Hart started to pull away and chase Osterman down. Osterman kept a cool head to take the win but to be fair to Hart he was only 1.5 seconds back as he crossed the line.

William Murphy (MX Master Kids KTM), Zane Stephens (Judd Racing KTM) and Ben Casey (Chase CCC Husqvarna) made up the 65 class podium in race one. Stephens was the only rider to repeat a podium performance for race two as the eight-year-old ripper took the win followed Shaun Mahoney (First Call Travel KTM) and Harvey Antrobus (CBS/MJW KTM).

Saturdays evening show kicked off with Bobryshev taking the holeshot in heat one from Reardon, Chatfield and Soubeyras. Bobryshev then got pushed wide and the three pursuing riders were able to slip by with Reardon finding his way to the front for the win from Soubeyras and Chatfield. Lefrancois secured the early lead in heat two followed by Ramette and Fabien Izoird (Buildbase Honda).

Ramette found his way past Lefrancois with two laps to go and headed home for the win and Izoird also found a way by on the last lap for second. Mike Kras (GL12 Racing KTM) hit the first corner in the lead on his 250 two-stroke in heat three but then got hung up in the turn allowing Lefrancois to take full advantage with Escoffier hot on his tail followed by Brunell.

The race soon settled down and the riders came home in that order.

In the final heat it was Ramette who took the smart inside line around the first corner and put himself at the front of the pack. Chatfield was right behind with Reardon alongside. The defending champ pulled an early gap as Reardon got past Chatfield to make sure of second.

You could tell Reardon liked this track and his amazing Hot Lap proved it. Even the might of the French superstars couldnt match his pace and the Aussie took the victory ahead of Ramette and Soubeyras.

Love them or hate them, the H2Hs always bring some controversy to the proceedings and Saturday night was no exception and the first big shock was Pro Lites high flyer Joe Clayton knocking out MXGP superstar Bobryshev.The biggest talking point of the night was Ash Greedy (Fro Systems Yamaha) and Coulon.

The guys were rubbing plastics from the first corner but it was the turn after the finish jump where Greedy went for an aggressive block pass, hitting Coulon hard and punting him off the track towards the freestyle landing ramp. Coulon hit the FMX jump and took off back towards the track, almost landing on Greedy before eventually finding himself in a big pile on the floor.

The action overshadowed great rides from Nique Thury (MVR-D St Blazey Husqvarna), Banks-Browne and Joe Clayton who all made it to the Main Event. Banks-Browne has had a quiet series so far with crashes and an illness hindering his results but he rocketed out the gate to take the Main Event lead ahead of Ramette and Izoird.

Ramette put a hard but fair pass on EBB three laps into the race as an on-form Reardon worked his way up the field until he made the pass for second on Banks-Browne. At the flag Ramette took the win, Reardon was second and EBB secured a solid third place as series leader Soubeyras worked hard to pull fourth place out the bag and retain a slender two-point lead in the standings.

In the Pro Lites class Clayton is a man on a mission and he took the inside line for the holeshot in race one. Bayliss and Meara tucked in behind, meaning that the three big guns were all in contention.

Clayton pulled a small gap over Bayliss who in turn did the same over Meara. With no mistakes from either of them they crossed the line in that order. Bayliss took the holeshot in race two followed by Clarke and Clayton. Clayton then found a way past Clarke on the first lap while Meara was sandwiched between Clarke and Webster in fourth.

Clayton passed Bayliss and headed home for the win while Meara found his way around Clarke to take a very popular podium finish in front of his home crowd. The evening Supermini race saw a repeat of the morning race with Osterman taking another victory in front of Hart and Tommy Gilbert (Fro Systems KTM).

Saturday mornings 65cc race saw Jake Davies (Dirtpro Xtreme KTM) take a fine win in front of Mahoney and Antrobus. The evening spectacle saw Stephens overcome his first race disappointment with a very confident riding display and victory for his efforts.

Antrobus gave it everything but didnt have quite enough on the night to get past Stephens. Davies followed up his first race win with a fine third place.

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