Belfast & furious
By TMX Archives on 25th Jan 13
There was an epic evening of ArenaCross in Belfast birthplace of the legendary Titanic ocean liner where ice-cool Adam Chatfield kept his win-streak streaking, Nev Bradshaw kept his title hopes afloat and a sell-out crowd got their first UK glimpse of the hottest young talent in world FMX.
The ArenaCross tour tore through Belfast on Saturday night, threatening to blow the roof off the city's Odyssey Arena.
A sell-out crowd were treated to three-and-a-half hours of flat-out indoor dirt bike racing and Freestyle Motocross from a hand-picked selection of the UK and Europe's top professional and youth riders.
Situated a stone's throw from the shipyards that built the Titanic, the Odyssey provided a fitting setting for a blockbuster of an evening that – unlike the doomed luxury liner – fully lived up to the hype surrounding the UK's hottest new series. And the red-hot action was wrapped up by a red-headed winner although, to the disappointment of the passionate and fiercely partisan fans, it wasn't home hero Gordon Crockard – who, as part of the opening show, was lowered from the roof beams to the arena floor.
Instead the spoils went to Buildbase Honda's Adam Chatfield, who backed up his round one win at The O2, in London, just seven nights earlier to extend his series points lead. "It's gone really well so far and I can't complain after going two for two,” said Adam.
"I didn't qualify too well but it's the race that counts and I managed to get it done, so I'm really happy with the way everything went. The track was very technical and slippery tonight, but I got a good start.”
The 25-year-old qualified back in seventh for the Main Event, while Frenchman Cyrille Coulon set the pace.
But when the gate dropped on the 18-lap final Adam quickly overcame holeshot artist Jack Brunnell and latched onto the rear wheel of defending champion Neville Bradshaw, who took the lead in the corner after the first set of whoops.
And when Bradshaw made a mistake and left the door open through a turn there was a flash of pink Wulfsport kit and Adam was through.
Nev clung on bravely but as the race wore on he slipped back into the clutches of Brunnell on the 450cc Maxxis LPE Kawasaki, who powered past the South African's 250cc Putoline Honda to take second.
Behind the leading duo it was chaos, with SR75 Molson KTM's Tom Church going down twice and Martin Barr crashing in the right-hander into the whoops.
Crockard then used his downed bike as a ramp and catapulted himself into the ground and out of the race.
So at the flag it was Chatfield from Brunnell and Bradshaw, while Coulon finally found a way to pass TC's tenacious team-mate, Carl Nunn, for fourth.
"It's been a pretty hard week after The O2,” admitted Brunnell.
"Obviously I should definitely have won that race but I crashed.
"I've trained hard all week and practice went well and qualifying went well. I won both my heat races and in the final, got a great start and won the Alias £500 holeshot award.
"A big thanks to Philip Coulter – I'm well happy with that.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX JANUARY 25
UK ARENACROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 2 – Odyssey Arena, Belfast, London (E22 Sports)
PRO MAIN: 1 Adam Chatfield (Buildbase Honda), 2 Jack Brunnel (LPE Kawasaki), 3 Neville Bradshaw (ZA - Putoline Honda), 4 Cyrille Coulon (F - Suzuki France), 5 Carl Nunn (SR75 Molson KTM), 6 Mickael Musquin (F - Buildbase Honda), 7 Charles LeFrancois (F - Suzuki France), 8 Eric Sorby (F - Lanes Kawasaki), 9 Tom Church (SR75 Molson KTM), 10 Martin Barr (VMX KTM), 11 Stuart Edmonds (RevoTalon Kawasaki).
PRO LCQ: 1 LeFrancois, 2 Edmonds, 3 Matt Bayliss (Whynotcompair Honda), 4 Damon Strydom (ZA - Revo Talon Kawasaki), 5 James Harrison (Lanes Kawasaki), 6 Michael Mahon (KTM), 7 Graeme Irwin (Heads & Threads Suzuki).
PRO Heat One: 1 Crockard, 2 Sorby, 3 Coulon, 4 Barr, 5 Nunn, 6 LeFrancois, 7 Lopes, 8 Harrison, 9 Mahon.
PRO Heat Two: 1 Brunnel, 2 Church, 3 Chatfield, 4 Bradshaw, 5 Musquin, 6 Irwin, 7 Strydom, 8 Bayliss.
PRO Heat Three: 1 Bradshaw, 2 Nunn, 3 Church, 4 Coulon, 5 Irwin, 6 Crockard, 7 Bayliss, 8 Lopes, 9 Harrison, 10 Mahon.
PRO Heat Four: 1 Brunnel, 2 Chatfield, 3 Musquin, 4 LeFrancois, 5 Barr, 6 Sorby, 7 Edmonds.
SERIES STANDINGS after 2 rounds: 1 Chatfield 40 points, 2 Bradshaw 36, 3 Brunnel 29, 4 Nunn 28, 5 Church 26, 6 Barr 24, 7 Edmonds 22, 8 Sorby 20, 9 Coulon 17, 10 Musquin 13,...
ROOKIE FINAL: 1 James Harrison (Lanes Kawasaki), 2 Jay Thomas (KJ Services Suzuki), 3 Luke Dean (GL12 Racing Yamaha), 4 Christopher Bayliss (Whynotcompair Honda), 5 George Clarke (Cabscreens Honda), 6 Ben Putnam (iIFly Lanes Kawasaki), 7 Gradie Featherstone (Oakleaf Kawasaki), 8 Glenn McCormick (Norman Watt KTM), 9 Malachi Mitchell Thomas (SHR TM).
SERIES STANDINGS after 2 rounds: 1 Harrison 40 points, 2 Dean 34, 3 Clarke 30, 4 Bayliss 27, 5 Putnam 27, 6 Featherstone 20,...
BW 85cc FINAL: 1 Mitchell Lewis (MX World Honda), 2 Joe Jefferies (MX500 KTM), 3 Billy King (TG Kawasaki), 4 Taylor Hammal (Pope Racing KTM), 5 Joele Hart (KTM), 6 Luke Reading (MX500), 7 Myles Saunders (AJ Saunders Ltd KTM), 8 Richard Kerr (Suzuki), 9 Andrew Slabin (Slabin Plant KTM), 10 Luke Fisher (Signfit Honda).
SERIES STANDINGS after 2 rounds: 1 Lewis 38 points, 2 Jefferies 38, 3 King 31, 4 Hammal 29, 5 Hart 26, 6 Saunders 23,...
SW 85cc FINAL: 1 Dylan Woodcock (Kawasaki), 2 Harry Kimber (Norman Watts KTM), 3 Ben Burridge (MJW Specialists Honda), 4 Tommy Clarke (Connect 4 Recruitment KTM), 5 Adam Collings (Vega Solutions KTM), 6 Donagh O'Connor (KTM), 7 Daniel Fisher (Signfit KTM), 8 Jamie Blackwood (KTM), 9 Jordan Toland (Toland Racing), 10 Ivan Kerr (KTM), 11 Nathan Walsh (KTM), 12 Lewis Trueman (KTM).
SERIES STANDINGS after 2 rounds: 1 Woodcock 40 points, 2 Kimber 36, 3 Burridge 31, 4 Clarke 29, 5 Collings 26, 6 Fisher 22,...
JUNIOR 65cc FINAL: 1 Rossi Beard (NMA KTM), 2 Conor Mullan (KTM), 3 Preston Williams (TG Kawasaki), 4 Ryan MawHinney (KTM), 5 Adam Slabin (Slabin Plant KTM), 6 Drew McCreanor (KTM), 7 Buster Hart (KTM), 8 Oliver Barr (3B Construction KTM), 9 Darren Semple (KTM), 10 Kalvin Holland (Oxybubbles KTM), 11 Kyle Martin (KTM), 12 Adam Wells (MX500 KTM), 13 Falon Bailie (Real Deal KTM), 14 Ben White (Whites Transport KTM).
SERIES STANDINGS after 2 rounds: 1 Beard 40 points, 2 Williams 29, 3 White 20, 5 Ike Carter 18, 4 Conor Mullan 18, 6 Kurtis Griffiths 16,...
NEXT ROUND: February 1 – LG Arena, The NEC, Birmingham (E22 Sports).
