Bargain hunters go wild!
By TMX Archives on 25th Jun 09
THE second round of the Rhayader club's Evening Motocross Series sponsored by PAR Homes and Bache's Bargains at Cwmythig Hill, Rhayader, once again provided an action-packed evening of motocross action.Recent evening meetings at Cwmythig Hill have fallen victim to poor weather, so it was a refreshing change for the Rhayader club's efforts to be met by sunny weather. A total of 1,400 spectators enjoyed the Mid Wales sunshine, and they were treated to some great racing. In the Expert class, all eyes were on PAR Honda's Brad Anderson, who had dominated the opening round with a clean sweep. He is looking to claiming a record fourth title.
Jamie Lewis was the initial leader in the first Expert moto, but Anderson soon snatched the lead, closely followed through by Scott Columb.
With Anderson leading as the pack headed into the renowned ‘Wall of Death' corner for the first time, the North-Easterner slipped from his machine, gifting Columb the lead. From there the New Zealander controlled the race, taking a comfortable win from Lewis. However, all eyes were on Anderson, who put in a remarkable charge from dead last to claim third at the flag.
In race two, Anderson was in no-mood for nonsense. He blasted ahead by turn one and led from start to finish. However, Columb was able to match Anderson's pace, and shadowed the Honda rider throughout. Columb appeared quicker than Anderson on the final third of the lap, and with a couple of circuits remaining, it looked like Columb would challenge.
However, it was not to be, and Anderson took his first win of the night, with Columb second and fellow Suzuki teamster, Martin Barr, third.
While the opening race had worked in Columb's favour, the final Expert race saw the championship swing back towards Anderson as Columb endured a difficult moto. Fast starting Lewis once again grabbed the holeshot, but Anderson followed closely and snatched the lead before the end of the opening tour while Columb languished back in sixth.
Anderson led a train of four riders to the flag, closely followed by Lewis. Martin Barr and Alex Snow had an entertaining contest for third, with Barr eventually taking the position while Snow was pipped for fourth on the penultimate lap by Columb.
The combined Senior and Junior class races produced two entertaining battles between Senior Luke Davies and Junior Matt Burrows. Although the pair were scored separately, both battled hard for the glory of finishing first on track with some entertaining close-quarters racing.
Such was Davies' dominance in the Senior class that nearest rival Simon Williams was a distant second in all three outings. PAR Honda's Jason Rowlands put in a good showing in the Junior class with second overall.
The largest field of the night was the Novice/ Local Beginner class, with virtually a full gate, and with some of the more cynical amongst the crowd wondering how much of a ‘novice' some of the leading riders are!
Taking the overall Novice victory was Cory McShane with a clean sweep, although he had to work hard. His key rivals all suffered one poor race. Second overall Ryan Jones had a fall in the opening race, but challenged McShane in race two before taking fourth in the final encounter, while third overall, Elfyn Evans, lost momentum in the final race, only managing 11th after finishing third and fifth places.
Newtown's Roger Lovatt take the overall win in the Local Beginner class with a 1-3-1 card.
Due to a false start in the second Novice/ Local Beginner race, and a couple of delays due to accidents (from which there were no serious injuries), the big money ‘Dash for Cash' took place with daylight starting to fade.
Despite this, a full line up of Experts took to the gate for the final race of the evening and Columb took his first holeshot. However, Anderson was in a determined mood and snatched the lead in the opening lap. Denied the chance of victory In the previous round by a poor start, Anderson pulled away from Columb to take the big cash prize. With Columb second, there was a close battle for third place between Alex Snow and Jamie Lewis, Snow eventually getting the verdict.
The event was a reminder of why the series is so popular, with good weather, good organisation and plenty of short, action-packed races.
The final event of series takes place on Wednesday, July 8, at Cwmythig Hill, with the event also featuring the traditional firework display courtesy of sponsors Bache's Bargains.
However, with all championship classes up for grabs, there promises to be plenty of on-track fireworks!
WELSH OPEN MOTOCROSS
CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 2 – Cwmythig Hill, nr Rhayader
(Rhayader & DMCC)
Sponsored by PAR Homes and Bache's Bargains
EXPERT: 1 Brad Anderson (450F Honda) 15+20+20=55 points, 2 Scott Columb (450F Suzuki) 20+17+13=50, 3 Jamie Lewis (450F KTM) 17+13+17=47, 4 Martin Barr (250F Suzuki) 11+15+15=41, 5 Alex Snow (450F KTM) 13+10+11=34, 6 Graham Irwin (250F KTM) 10+11+10=31, 7 Luke Hill (450F Honda) 9+9+9=27, 8 Gareth Rees-Jones (250F KTM) 7+8+7=22, 9 Ryan Pottenger (250F TM) 6+7+6=19, 10 Martin Jones (250 Kawasaki) 8+0+8=16.
Expert Series Standings: 1 Anderson 115 points, 2 Columb 101, 3 Lewis 79, 4 Snow 75, 5 Barr 72, 6 Noble 43, 7 Rees-Jones 35, 8 Irwin 31, 9 Hill 27, 10 Carless 26.
SENIOR: 1 Luke Davies (450F Honda) 20+20+20=60, 2 Simon Williams (250 Yamaha) 17+17+17=51, 3 John Caine (450F Yamaha) 15+15+13=43, 4 Scott Isherwood (250 Suzuki) 13+13+15=41, 5 Kevin Hughes (250 KTM) 11+11+11=33, 6 Terry Lloyd (125 KTM) 10+10+10=30.
senior Series Standings: 1 Davies 117 points, 2 Williams 92, 3 Hawkins 54, 4 Caine 43, 5 Isherwood 41, 6 Davies 37.
JUNIOR: 1 Matt Burrows (250 Suzuki) 20+20+20=60, 2 Jason Rowlands (450F Honda) 15+15+17=47, 3 John Hawkins (150F KTM) 17+17+13=47, 4 Scott Meredith (250 Kawasaki) 11+11+15=37, 5 Steven Holcombe (144 KTM) 13+13+11=37, 6 Ryan Thomas (125 Yamaha) 10+10+10=30.
junior Series Standings: 1 Burrows 117 points, 2 Rowlands 84, 2 Hawkins 84, 4 Meredith 60, 5 Davies 59, 6 Snow 54.
NOVICE: 1 Cory McShane (250 Kawasaki) 20+20+20=60, 2 Ryan Jones (250 KTM) 8+17+13=38, 3 Elfyn Evans (250 Yamaha) 15+11+5=31, 4 James Isherwood (250 Yamaha) 17+2+10=29, 5 Joshua Webb (250 KTM) 3+10+15=28, 6 Marc Evans (250 Suzuki) 13+15+0=28.
LOCAL BEGINNERS: 1 Roger Lovatt (250 Yamaha) 20+15+20=55, 2 Powell James (250 Honda) 15+17+17=49, 3 Ben Powell (250 KTM) 13+13+15=41, 4 Spencer Eve (125 Suzuki) 17+20+=37.
GRAND FINAL: 1 Anderson, 2 Columb, 3 Snow, 4 Lewis, 5 Barr, 6 Irwin, 7 Hill, 8 Matt Burrows (250F Suzuki), 9 Jones, 10 Gareth Rees-Jones (250F KTM).
FINAL ROUND: July 8 – Cwmythig Hill, nr Rhayader (Rhayader & DMCC).
Martin Barr put on a thrilling show at the Welsh circuit, taking fourth overall.