AMCA MX Championships - Rd Three Hawkstone
By Mike Wood on 3rd Jun 11
Hawkstone Park, the most demanding and unforgiving circuit in Great Britain, is a venue which requires a riders total concentration and respect at all times. Failure to comply and you do so at your own peril!
However, during an incident-packed round three of the AMCA MX1/MX2 Championships on Sunday, although the famous Shropshire track claimed yet more victims, it also witnessed a truly incredibly brave performance. Just four-weeks after badly dislocating his shoulder and suffering fractures of both his heel and elbow, tough Yorkshire-man.
Richard Cannings bounced back to reel off a memorable maximum score in the MX1 class despite still being in immense pain!
Also making a stunning return from a badly broken hand, Brad O'Leary took a super fourth overall behind Lee Dunham and Brad Turner.
In the Championship standings, a consistent Dunham now leads the way while early series leader Clinton Barrs suffered a nightmare, falling and tasting the soil on no less than five separate occasions, injuring his ankle in the process!
There was also a memorable performance in MX2 as Ben Saunders aboard his 150 KTM two-stroke took the overall win after earlier recording the fastest qualification time! Ben bagged a 3-2-1 scorecard to top the podium in front of series leader Shane Holmes and Paul Neale.
The Hawkstone MX2 result means that Saunders has also moved up into second in the title standings, just 41-points off the top slot!
In a dramatic start to the action, a determined O'Leary grabbed the opening MX1 holeshot as Barrs fell on turn two, restarting last.
Up front, Turner and Cannings quickly got past O'Leary but by lap four it all changed yet again. With Cannings now hitting the front, Turner fell and O'Leary, in hot pursuit, clipped the stricken rider's machine, also crashing.
Taking full advantage, Dunham was gifted second and charged hard after the leader with Glen Phillips slotting into third, with Lee Payne fourth and Turner and O'Leary now back in fifth and sixth place respectively.
Showing no ill effects from his recent injuries, Cannings marched on to victory with Dunham in tow while Turner recovered for third ahead of O'Leary, Phillips and Payne.
After his earlier tumble, series leader Barrs got up to 21st, fell again and dropped back, before producing a super effort to eventually claim 13th.
As Phillips decided to switch from his four-stroke KTM to a 250cc two-stroke powered one Turner grabbed the moto two holeshot to lead Cannings, Dunham, Phillips, Luke Meredith and O'Leary.
Quickly the three leaders broke away from the pack with Cannings passing Turner on lap five for another win. O'Leary eventually won a tough battle for fourth by edging out Phillips and Payne, who had initially gated in 11th. Young Matthew Williamson bagged an impressive seventh.
Moto two was another nightmare for Barrs. Knocked off twice, Clinton eventually finished a lap down on the leaders in 23rd spot!
There was more carnage in the final MX1 moto as Cannings and Turner collided in turn three with the latter falling heavily and dropping well downfield.
Meanwhile, Dunham grabbed the holeshot only for Cannings to then dramatically leap into the lead off a downhill jump on lap two.
From that point onwards a great scrap developed as Dunham exerted heavy pressure on the Honda rider until the closing stages of the contest. Regardless it was another victory for bionic man Cannings, with Dunham sensibly settling for a safe, unchallenged second spot and he bagged a massive 54 championship points in the process.
Taking third with a typically gritty ride was O'Leary, as Payne finished fourth. After his early fall, Turner was superb, blasting back to earn a strong fifth ahead of Aaron Crowder and Shaun Pearce – the latter back aboard Honda machinery.
Having his most productive ride of the day, Barrs, after gating fifth, finished tenth, while the unlucky Phillips was forced out by a snapped chain when holding fifth spot and with just two-laps remaining!
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX NEWS JUNE 3
AMCA MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 3 – Hawkstone Park, nr Shrewsbury, Shrops (North Shrops/ Wales Group)
1 Richard Cannings (Craigs Honda) 60 + 60 + 60 = 180
2 Lee Dunham (Maxxis Henderson Kaw) 54 + 50 + 54 = 158
3 Brad Turner (IDS Transport KTM) 50 + 54 + 45 = 149
4 Brad O'Leary (Gear4 KTM) 47 + 47 + 50 = 144
5 Lee Payne (Malin Floors Honda) 43 + 43 + 47 = 133
6 Shaun Pearce (Husqvarna) 37 + 39 + 41 = 117
7 Matthew Williamson (KTM) 39 + 41 + 37 = 117
8 Michael Reynolds (Suzuki) 33 + 33 + 39 = 105
9 Aaron Crowder (Rocket Centre Honda) 14 + 37 + 43 = 94
10 James Lane (LRT Honda) 26 + 35 + 31 = 92
11 Glen Phillips (KTM) 45+45+0=90, 12 Richard Meakin (Honda) 27+29+29=85, 13 Clinton Barrs (Delkevic Kawasaki) 29+19+35=83, 14 Michael Smith (Honda) 31+31+18=80, 15 Chris Sanders (???) 25+27+27=79, 16 Christian Dicks (KTM) 22+25+22=69, 17 Luke Meredith (KTM) 35+0+33=68, 18 Wesley Egan (Honda) 23+26+19=68, 19 Simon Lane (LRT Honda) 20+22+25=67, 20 Aran Agius (Kawasaki) 17+23+23=63, 21 Sam Hyde (Honda) 15+14+26=55, 22 Ashley Wakefield (Honda) 8+21+20=49, 23 Sam Callow (Kawasaki) 13+20+14=47, 24 Steven Bailey (KTM) 21+0+24=45, 25 Chris Neesam (Kawasaki) 24+0+21=45,...
RACE ONE: 1 Cannings, 2 Dunham, 3 Turner, 4 O'Leary, 5 Phillips, 6 Payne, 7 Tillotson, 8 Williamson, 9 Pearce, 10 Meredith, 11 Michael Reynolds, 12 Smith, 13 Barrs, 14 Meakin, 15 James Lane, 16 Sanders, 17 Neesam, 18 Egan, 19 Dicks, 20 Bailey.
RACE TWO: 1 Cannings, 2 Turner, 3 Dunham, 4 O'Leary, 5 Phillips, 6 Payne, 7 Williamson, 8 Pearce, 9 Crowder, 10 James Lane, 11 Michael Reynolds, 12 Smith, 13 Meakin, 14 Sanders, 15 Egan, 16 Dicks, 17 Shand, 18 Agius, 19 Simon Lane, 20 Wakefield.
RACE THREE: 1 Cannings, 2 Dunham, 3 O'Leary, 4 Payne, 5 Turner, 6 Crowder, 7 Pearce, 8 Michael Reynolds, 9 Williamson, 10 Barrs, 11 Meredith, 12 James Lane, 13 Meakin, 14 Sanders, 15 Hyde, 16 Dicks, 17 Shand, 18 Agius, 19 Simon Lane, 20 Wakefield.
SERIES STANDINGS after 3 (of 8) rounds: 1 Dunham 434 points, 2 Barrs 418, 3 Turner 400, 4 Phillips 388, 5 Payne 337, 6 James Lane 334, 7 Meredith 324, 8 Cannings 300, 9 Williamson 293, 10 Crowder 290, 11 Meakin 263, 12 Tillotson 259, 13 Simon Lane 255, 14 Michael Reynolds 254, 15 Smith 210, 16 Pearce 209, 17 Barry 200, 18 Dobson 192, 19 Egan 191, 20 Neesam 190,...
NEXT ROUND: June 26 – Brookthorpe, Gloucestershire (Ross Falcons MCC).
AMCA VETERANS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 2 – Hawkstone Park, nr Shrewsbury
OVERALL: 1 Andrew Watkins 180 points, 2 Graham Nicklin 158, 3 David Livesey 147, 4 Colin Conduit 135, 5 Stephen Baddeley 133, 6 Robert Prosser 125.
MOTO ONE: 1 Watkins, 2 Nicklin, 3 Livesey, 4 Barry Goodman, 5 Conduit, 6 Baddeley, 7 Robert Prosser, 8 David Boswell-Jones, 9 Robert Glynn, 10 David Williams, 11 John Gauntlett, 12 Lee Bingley, 13 Dave Meikle, 14 Rob Shelton, 15 Andrew Prosser, 16 Phillip Coid, 17 Martin Groves, 18 Daran Williams, 19 Carl Walker, 20 Vince Larcombe.
MOTO TWO: 1 Watkins, 2 Goodman, 3 Nicklin, 4 Livesey, 5 Conduit, 6 Baddeley, 7 Robert Prosser, 8 Glynn, 9 Boswell-Jones, 10 Daran Williams, 11 Bingley, 12 David Williams, 13 Gauntlett, 14 Meikle, 15 Coid, 16 Larcombe, 17 Walker, 18 Andrew Girling, 19 Steven Daniels, 20 Nick Bull.
MOTO THREE: 1 Watkins, 2 Nicklin, 3 Livesey, 4 Baddeley, 5 Conduit, 6 Robert Prosser, 7 Boswell-Jones, 8 Glynn, 9 Daran Williams, 10 Gauntlett, 11 Coid, 12 Bingley, 13 Rob Shelton, 14 Meikle, 15 Larcombe, 16 Walker, 17 Girling, 18 Steven Daniels, 19 Bull, 20 Jon Ward.
SERIES STANDINGS (Vets) after 2 rounds: 1 Nicklin 332 points, 2 Baddeley 294, 3 Livesey 276, 4 Robert Prosser 272, 5 Conduit 264, 6 Glynn 249, 7 Boswell-Jones 226, 8 Daran Williams 210, 9 Watkins 180, 10 Coid 177.
AMCA NON-QUALIFIERS: 1 Matthew Dixon 167 points, 2 Stephen Meikle 155, 3 Alec Everitt 136, 4 Ryan McPartland 125, 5 Chris Rudd 115, 6 Marcus Carter.
EXPERT/ SENIOR: 1 Adam Sterry 180 points, 2 Timothy Gardham 180, 3 Lewis King 162, 4 Michael Dunn 158, 5 Tom Smith 147, 6 Tom Wood 145.
AMCA MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 3 – Hawkstone Park, nr Shrewsbury, Shrops (North Shrops/ Wales Group)
1 Ben Saunders (150 AJP KTM) 50 + 54 + 60 = 164
2 Shane Holmes (IDS Transport Yamaha) 45 + 60 + 54 = 159
3 Paul Neale (RaceSpec Kawasaki) 47 + 50 + 47 = 144
4 Sean Frayne (SPS Honda) 54 + 37 + 45 = 136
5 Matthew Porter (KTM) 39 + 43 + 43 = 125
6 Jack Taylor (Delkevic Kawasaki) 37 + 22 + 50 = 109
7 Jack Jones (KTM) 31 + 35 + 41 = 107
8 Edward Briscoe (EBL Kawasaki) 41 + 41 + 25 = 107
9 Lewis Abbott (Kawasaki) 26 + 45 + 35 = 106
10 Aled Bellis (CF Racing Kawasaki) 19 + 47 + 39 = 105
11 Scott Williams (Suzuki) 43+39+23=105, 12 Scott Mathia (Hazport Honda) 24+29+37=90, 13 Scott Smith (Honda) 23+33+31=87, 14 Sam Smith (Raceworld Honda) 27+31+27=85, 15 Carl Benjamin (Thornbury Kawasaki) 60+0+20=80, 16 Joseph Del-Busso (711MX KTM) 35+25+15=75, 17 Luke Smith (Honda) 16+26+26=68, 18 Ryan Crowder (Rocket Centre Honda) 21+23+24=68, 19 Ryan Morris (BCMX Suzuki) 29+8+29=66, 20 James Chadwick (Suzuki) 20+24+21=65, 21 Brandon Benjamin (Thornbury Kawasaki) 22+27+16=65, 22 Martin Jones (Honda) 33+11+17=61, 23 Jack Forrest (Yamaha) 25+20+13=58, 24 Christopher Hill (Honda) 15+19+22=56, 25 Kieran Mulloy (IDS Transport Yamaha) 10+9+33=52,...
RACE ONE: 1 Carl Benjamin, 2 Frayne, 3 Saunders, 4 Neale, 5 Holmes, 6 Williams, 7 Briscoe, 8 Porter, 9 Taylor, 10 Del-Busso, 11 Martin Jones, 12 Jack Jones, 13 Morris, 14 Sam Smith, 15 Abbott, 16 Forrest, 17 Mathia, 18 Scott Smith, 19 Brandon Benjamin, 20 Crowder.
RACE TWO: 1 Holmes, 2 Saunders, 3 Neale, 4 Bellis, 5 Abbott, 6 Porter, 7 Briscoe, 8 Williams, 9 Frayne, 10 Jack Jones, 11 Scott Smith, 12 Sam Smith, 13 Mathia, 14 Brandon Benjamin, 15 Luke Smith, 16 Del-Busso, 17 Chadwick, 18 Crowder, 19 Taylor, 20 Meachin.
RACE THREE: 1 Saunders, 2 Holmes, 3 Taylor, 4 Neale, 5 Frayne, 6 Porter, 7 Jack Jones, 8 Bellis, 9 Mathia, 10 Abbott, 11 Mulloy, 12 Scott Smith, 13 Morris, 14 Sam Smith, 15 Luke Smith, 16 Del-Busso, 17 Chadwick, 18 Crowder, 19 Taylor, 20 Meachin.
SERIES STANDINGS after 3 (of 8) rounds: 1 Holmes 474 points, 2 Saunders 433, 3 Neale 409, 4 Taylor 400, 5 Frayne 371, 6 Porter 369, 7 Abbott 359, 8 Morris 337, 9 Carl Benjamin 302, 10 Bellis 286, 11 Williams 271, 12 Mathia 267, 13 Briscoe 250, 14 Martin Jones 229, 15 Scott Smith 224, 16 Crowder 204, 17 Luke Smith 200, 18 Del-Busso 195, 19 Jack Jones 190, 20 Mulloy 183,...
NEXT ROUND: July 24 – Little Bowden (Northampton MCSC).
