Report: British Youth Nationals – Round 5
By TMX Archives on 16th Sep 16
Mother Nature played havoc with round five of the Thor British Youth Nationals last weekend. Monsoon like conditions on Friday night and Saturday morning meant that the hillside circuit at Pontrilas was simply unsalvageable for Saturdays race programme.
The tough call was made to cancel Saturday's schedule and postpone racing until Sunday morning to give the track a fighting chance to recover. Come sunrise the track was in slightly better shape, although by no means perfect.
However the sun was out and the race order was shuffled around so that the bigger bikes could clear the way for their younger counterparts.
After a tough and muddy qualifying and practice for the open, 125 and BW 85 classes the track soon turned around into a good, ridable state.
The revised schedule of racing meant that the 65 class had to wait almost a day and a half longer than they had expected to finally get on track.
Once again Charlie Heyman asserted his dominance in this class. A flawless weekend saw him take three wins from three races.
Heyman was pushed at times as his two hard charging championship rivals tried their best to put a stop to him.
Both Alfie Jones and Kiean Boughen took their best shots but Heyman came out the victor on every occasion.
Jones had a consistent weekend taking second overall. Boughen took two thirds and a fourth to claim the final podium spot.
In the Small-wheels Ike Carter was unbeatable. His flawless technique and smooth style meant that the MBO power rider really excelled in the tougher conditions.
Carter took three race wins with ease after his championship rival Bobby Bruce hit the deck trying to mount a challenge.
Bruce remounted still in second place just ahead of Louie Kessel, but that was the end of his attack for the overall crown. Ike took three wins, Bruce three seconds and Louie Kessel claimed
three third place finishes. Once again the Big-wheel 85 class was anyone's for the taking. Dominic Lancett and Sam Nunn battled hard in the first moto in the deep conditions with
Lancett eventually taking the win over Nunn.
In race two Eddie Jay Wade joined the party as he and Sam Nunn swapped the race lead multiple times as Lancett sat back in third.
Wade was able to claim the win in race two ahead of Nunn and Lancett. Things got really shaken up in the third and final moto.
After running up front early on Sam Nunn dropped right down the leader board to 15th, ending his hopes for podium success.
Similarly Eddie Jay Wade also had a disastrous third moto. Issues with his silencer saw the Husqvarna pilot disqualified post race, knocking him out of second place overall.
This left Dominic Lancett out front in the race and in the chase for the overall victory.
Rossi Beard snuck up on everyone in the final moto to take second place. Josh Peters fought hard all weekend for third place on the box. With his third moto mishap Sam Nunn could only salvage fourth overall despite.
In the 125's, Callum Green's title hopes may have quite literally gone up in smoke.
The title favourite suffered mechanical issues from the off on Sunday morning with his bike eventually expiring in a plume of smoke mid way through the first moto.
Ben Clark came out all guns blazing at Pontrilas. Excelling in the mud and then in the dry, no one had an answer for Clark as he took three race wins.
Tom Grimshaw raced hard on board his Yamaha to go 2-3- 2 for second overall. Todd Ritchie kept things a little more consistent then the rest of the pack to take third place.
There was some awesome racing in the Open class. These guys had to deal with the worst of the mud but that didn't stop Alexander Brown and George Grigg-Pettitt racing each other as if the conditions were perfect.
George Grigg-Pettitt has been ultra consistent all year long and has held the red plate since round one. Being the huge six foot something he is, GGP excelled in the muddy, heavy conditions and continued that momentum throughout the day.
The first two motos saw titanic battles between the pair as they swapped back and fourth throughout in some of the best open class racing of the season.
GGP was unable to beat Brown in the end, meaning that Alex took the opening two wins. In the final race of the weekend GGP was unable to get the best jump out of the gate, allowing Brown to stretch away with the early race lead.
By the time George made his way to second position Brown was already out of touch and took his third win and the overall with GGP second.
Jed Etchells came away with the final podium spot with a 4-3- 3 scorecard.
Alex Brown took the points lead this weekend – ‘It feels good to take the three wins. The track was really gnarly and wet this morning but by the end of the day it was really good, loads of lines and plenty of ruts.
Obviously George gave me a good race in the first two and he was pushing hard in that last one but I got a better start and kept it on two wheels and rode away.
It was good for the championship today. I came here five points behind George and now I'm four points ahead. So that's good and I've got plenty of positives to take away.'
