A Saint's day for Dabill!
By TMX Archives on 22nd Apr 09
JAMES Dabill made it three wins from three starts in the 2009 ACU Events-sponsored British Solo Trials Championship, the Gas Gas rider's latest victory coming in the Neath club's St David's Trial staged at Aberdulais. Dibs just fended-off his friend and arch-rival, Sherco's Michael Brown, after a five in the first section of the second lap foiled Browny's bid for victory. In the absence of Dougie Lampkin, these two finished well clear of third-placed Shaun Morris and the rest of the field.
It was dry for Saturday's practise lap and again on Sunday for the 15 sections, lapped twice, around the Llety Farm venue and, at 10am, the Expert B Group got underway. This has turned out to be a really good addition to the series and, with Ricky Wiggins winning at Scarborough and Darren Brice at Kinlochleven, the competition is wide open.
It was, however, Sam Ludgate who started out well this time with three subs and three cleans before he fived section four and then took two dabs on the next hazard. This let Josh Woods into an early lead and after his disappointment of a non-finish in round two, he was showing really well.
John Crinson, having made the long trip down from the North East, was also going well and he seems to have settled into a consistent run putting in a first lap of 16, placing him fourth just behind James Carr who was running third. But Ludgate, having made the joint best first lap score with Woods, was determined to take his first series win and on his second circuit he dropped just two marks, dabbing only at hazards nine and 11.
Expert A group were out next with all the main contenders except Ben Hemingway. Sam Connor and Ian Austermuhle were starting out with one win apiece in the series and there is a real depth of ability in this class. Sam started out well before he took a five on the fourth sub followed by a slack dab on five. Hazard four was taking plenty of marks with Gary Mac taking two and Thorpe a three. It was cleanable however with Lee Sampson, Matthew Jones and Jonathan Richardson all making good cleans.
Jones, especially, was showing the form displayed from the previous weekend and he led the group at the end of the opening circuit. Sam, though, went into miserly mode from the very start of lap two, losing just single marks at subs seven and ten to take a comfortable win from Austie. Richardson had a good ride to finish fifth on the 125 with Jonny Walker and Ben Morphett also taking top ten placings.
The Championship class was last away and there were a few surprises as Jack Challoner started his day with three fives on the trot. Section three proved to be a real problem, where the muddy climb and rocky gully took threes off the majority, except for Michael Brown, who took a superb clean.
Many spectators headed for section five, just behind the car park, where the sting in the tail was the final rock step which threw the back wheel off to the right. Dabill managed it but had taken a single prod previously. It did extract maximums from many but Brown and Ross Danby heaved their bikes up for two-mark losses. Michael lost two more on the next hazard, a climb with steps and turns but after that he was in the groove as he finished the rest of the lap clean which was pretty unbelievable stuff.
Over the years, the last two subs high on the skyline have caused plenty of problems but, this year, they rode OK with George Morton's spectacular clean at 14 really good to watch.
At the punch card change, there were gasps as the scores went up. Michael was on four, James seven and then it was Shaun Morris third on 27. No one was going to catch these two, but which one would win?
The answer was Dabill, as he cut out all serious errors and went safe with just five single dabs. Michael lost his hard-earned lead with that five at section one and despite a fantastic exit jump, to clean the fifth, it would be second place for him on the day as Dibs extended his Champion-ship lead with three straight wins.
Shaun Morris improv-ed on his second lap to give him third from Alexz Wigg who had two identical scoring laps for fourth. The best improvement on the second circuit went to Jack Challoner and, although it did not improve his overall finish, he halved his first lap score it was still an impressive comeback.
Sam Connor put in a superb second lap, losing only two marks, to take his second win of the series.