Burning sensations
By TMX Archives on 9th Aug 07
AFTER its successful staging in 2006 of the British round of the 125cc IMBA European motocross championship, Burntwood Barracudas was again the hosts for the same meeting on Sunday. In what was the penultimate round of the 2007 series, it again produced a well presented event, almost receiving the perfect reward for its hardwork as Brad O'Leary just missed out on earning the overall win.
Taking top slot in the opening moto, Brad then crashed twice in mototwo when attempting to pass eventual Branston overall winner, GermanAndre Adrian, and had to work hard to get back to 12th. In the finalclash, Brad took a strong second behind Czech star Michal Votroubek,the current IMBA series leader. Votroubek's victory meant that not onlydid he move another step closer to taking the IMBA crown, but alsodenied Phil Mercer a podium placing after both riders had finished on144 points.
For the remaining Brits on duty at Branston, it was certainly a dayof very mixed fortunes. Scott Mathia took seventh overall, Tom Fisheighth on his IMBA debut, Lee Dunham ninth, James Lane 14th and theincredibly unlucky Mark Hooley 21st.
Following his mechanical nightmare the previous week at Anchor Hill,later diagnosed as water in the stator of his KTM, Mark Hooley arrivedat Branston confident that his gremlins had been rectified only to thenbe unable to fire his KTM into life for early morning practice. Forcedto use his spare bike, pit crew worked frantically to source and repairthe new gremlin and thankfully his number one machine was ready for theopening IMBA moto with Hooley even grabbing the holeshot.
Mark's joy though was to be very shortlived as the moto wasred-flagged following a massive collision on turn two which involvedDutch rider Maurice van Kasteren, Votroubek, Dunham and O'Leary.
With Dunham's Kawasaki suffering big rear-end damage, he was forcedto switch to his spare bike for the re-run only to be then leftastonished as his start gate failed to drop. Rightly, expecting themoto to be again red-flagged, the race continued and it was againHooley the leader. Hooley then suffered another cruel blow when hisrear tyre completely removed itself from the wheel rim on lap three!
Adrian led the pack until passed by O'Leary who, cheered on by apatriotic crowd, went on to earn a great win whilst Mercer came closeto getting the better of Adrian in the closing stages, eventuallysettling for third. On his debut IMBA ride, Fish was an impressivesixth. For the other Brits in moto one, Lane was ninth, Mathia 14th andDunham on his spare bike in 19th.
German Adrian led moto two under intense pressure from O'Learywhilst Hooley, Mercer, Lane and Mathia all held strong top ten places.Searching for a quick way through, O'Leary overshot a berm on lapthree, then fell, slipping well down the leaderboard.
At the front, Adrian held on to his lead, fighting off challengesfrom first Pevefieri, then Hooley. Hooley was relieved to not onlyfinish the moto but claimed second at the flag with Mercer just failingto snatch third.
IMBA 125cc Motocross Championship Rd 6 - Branston (Burntwood Barracudas MCC)
Moto One: 1 Brad O'Leary (GB), 2 Andre Adrian (Germany), 3 PhilMercer (GB), 4 Maurice Van Kasteren (Holland), 5 Graziano Pevefieri(Italy), 6 Tom Fish (GB), 7 Tiziano Pevefieri (Italy), 8 MichalVotroubek (Czech Republic), 9 James Lane (GB), 10 Patrick Van Breugel(Holland), 11 Menno Verleng (Holland), 12 Alexander Hubner (Germany),13 Dirk Felix Sigmund (Germany), 14 Scott Mathia (GB), 15 Marc Storms(Germany), 16 Maurice Klijn (Holland), 17 Frederic Birh (France), 18Christian Schoeler (Denmark), 19 Lee Dunham (GB), 20 Josef Mnuk (CzechRepublic).
Moto Two: 1 Adrian, 2 Mark Hooley (GB), 3 G Pevefieri, 4 Mercer, 5Votroubek, 6 Mathia, 7 T Pevefieri, 8 Fish, 9 Dunham, 10 Klijn, 11 VanBreugel, 12 O'Leary, 13 Verleng, 14 Sigmund, 15 Lukas Elmer(Switzerland), 16 Birh 17 Mnuk, 18 Michael Bohler (Switzerland), 19Vojtech Janecek (Czech Republic), 20 Ronnie van Rooji (Holland), 32Lane.
Moto Three: 1 Votroubek, 2 O'Leary, 3 Adrian, 4 Mercer, 5 GPevefieri, 6 T Pevefieri, 7 Mathia, 8 Dunham, 9 Klijn, 10 Lane, 11Sigmund, 12 Bohler, 13 Fish, 14 Van Kasteren, 15 Storms, 16 Elmer, 17Schoeler, 18 Mnuk, 19 Verleng, 20 Janecek.
Overall: 1 Adrian 164 points, 2 O'Leary 145, 3 Votroubek 144, 4Mercer 144, 5 G Pevefieri 140, 6 T Pevefieri 125, 7 Mathia 111, 8 Fish111, 9 Dunham 98, 10 Klijn 97. Other British placings 14 Lane 81, 21Hooley 65.
Championship Standings: 1 Votroubek 942 points, 2 Mercer 833, 3 VanKasteren 789, 4 T Pevefieri 731, 5 G Pevefieri 707, 6 O'Leary 667, 7Hooley 657, 8 Dunham 585, 9 Rene Edsgaard (Denmark) 522, 10 Adrian 511,11 Verleng 509, 12 Van Breugel 502, 13 Jaromir Romancik (CzechRepublic) 487, 14 Sigmund 477, 15 Lane 450.
Other British placings: 30 Mathia 221, 37 Fish 111.
Rd 4 - AMCA Open Class Championship
Moto 1: 1 Charlie Hollis (Invek Foods Honda), 2 David Campbell(Honda), 3 Clinton Barrs (Wildmoor/ Wulfsport Honda), 4 Ben Saunders(Race Connections Honda), 5 Rick Du-Feu (Delkevic Kawasaki), 6 AaronPoolman (G&S Patios/ Midwest Honda), 7 Aaron Crowder (SandifordHonda), 8 Jamie Powell (Atlantic Yamaha), 9 Simon Lane (Honda Equipe),10 Danny Blakeley (Silvester Yamaha), 11 Stephen Tillotson (DelkevicKawasaki), 12 Gavin Hookham (Honda), 13 Jonathan Slesser (Honda), 14Paul Coward (Honda), 15 Steve Bailey (Honda), 16 Justin Bolton (MissionHonda), 17 Chris Brightmore (KTM), 18 Andrew Summerton (Yamaha), 19Stefan Garton (KTM), 20 Craig Chamberlain (Kawasaki).
Moto 2: 1 Barrs, 2 Saunders, 3 Hollis, 4 Campbell, 5 Powell, 6Crowder, 7 Lane, 8 Bailey, 9 Poolman, 10 David Wright (SandifordHonda), 11 Du-Feu, 12 Coward, 13 Tillotson, 14 Hookham, 15 RichardMeakin (Honda), 16 Craig Martin (Honda), 17 Bolton, 18 Stuart Rawlings(Honda), 19 Marc Popperwell (Honda), 20 Chamberlain.
Moto 3: 1 Saunders, 2 Campbell, 3 Poolman, 4 Lane, 5 Barrs, 6Hollis, 7 Crowder, 8 Du-Feu, 9 Wright, 10 Blakeley, 11 Meakin, 12Coward, 13 Bailey, 14 Tillotson, 15 Bolton, 16 Garton, 17 Chamberlain,18 Martin, 19 Rawlings, 20 Michael Smith (Suzuki).
Overall: 1 Saunders 65 points, 2 Campbell 62, 3 Barrs 61, 4 Hollis 60, 5 Poolman 47, 6 Lane 44.
Championship positions: 1 Saunders 250 points, 2 Campbell 238, 3Hollis 190, 4 Crowder 165, 5 Barrs 157, 6 Lane 154, 7 Poolman 150, 8Du-Feu 137, 9 Powell 133, 10 Blakeley 97.
Expert Support: 1 Dale Halls (Honda), 2 Peter Weaver (Honda), 3 AndyMarchant (KTM), 4 Dan Hill (KTM), 5 Stanislav Janecek, 6 WayneGriffiths (Honda) 15.
Seniors Support: 1 Marco van Breugel, 2 Tony Severn (Honda), 3Russell Winnall (Yamaha), 4 Dean Sandland, 5 Michael Penn (Suzuki), 6Arran Nelson (Kawasaki) 10.
Junior Support: 1 Mike Keenan, 2 Matt Maund, 3 Jack France, 4 Gavin Faircloth, 5 Ashley Clewes, 6 Richard Hancox.
For full story and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, August 10, 2007.
