Can the Can'
By Mike Wood on 14th Apr 11
In an exciting opening round of the 2011 AMCA Superclass Championship held at Enstone, Oxfordshire, on Sunday Lee Dunham, Richard Cannings and Clinton Barrs all bagged a moto win each to leave the title race wide open and guarantee a thrilling final meeting on April 17.
After three hotly contested races, Dunham and Cannings finished level on 164 points apiece with the overall victory going to the latter, courtesy of his higher final moto placing, while the last podium place went to Barrs. Also producing strong performances at Enstone were Jack Taylor, James Lane, Shane Holmes, Sean Frayne and Paul Neale.
With defending Superclass Champion Ben Saunders a surprise non-starter it was Dunham who made a lightning holeshot in moto one and led the pack away followed by Taylor, Neale, Cannings, Rich Meakin, Barrs and J Lane.
As Dunham smoothly controlled proceedings from gate to flag to taking the first Championship win of the new season ahead of Taylor, there was plenty of excitement going on behind the front two.
First Neale went out with a fuel pipe problem while Barrs after initially gating well downfield recovered to dramatically reel in Cannings in the battle for third.
In a super final lap, the rapid Barrs produced a daring mid-air pass on the Yorkshireman only for Cannings to cleverly return the compliment and that's the way it stayed!
Dunham again grabbed the holeshot in moto two but in a frantic opening couple of laps Cannings blasted his way through to take control.
In a super contest Cannings, Dunham and a very determined Barrs were locked in the battle for leadership.
The three-way tussle for supremacy was not the only excitement on offer as Neale, J Lane, Taylor and Frayne hotly disputed fourth.
On completion of a breathtaking contest just a narrow two seconds separated winner Cannings, Dunham and Barrs with Taylor moving through to earn fourth ahead of Lane, Holmes and Frayne.
Moto two proved to be a particularly painful encounter for Carl Benjamin when he ran over his own leg!
So in a tense final clash Barrs was fastest away followed by the very gallant Neale on his 250F Kawasaki with Cannings in third, Lane fourth, Holmes fifth and Dunham sixth.
While Barrs stylishly stretched his advantage at the front Neale dug deep for several laps until he was passed by first Cannings then Dunham.
However, Paul still took fourth spot behind deserved winner Barrs, Cannings and Dunham.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX APRIL 8
AMCA SUPERCLASS SERIES
Rd 1 – Enstone (Faringdon & DMCC)
Moto One: 1 Lee Dunham (Kawasaki), 2 Jack Taylor (Kawasaki), 3 Richard Cannings (Honda), 4 Clinton Barrs (Kawasaki), 5 James Lane (Honda), 6 Sean Frayne (Honda), 7 Richard Meakin (Honda), 8 Shane Holmes (Yamaha), 9 Simon Lane (Honda), 10 Carl Benjamin (Kawasaki).
Moto Two: 1 Cannings, 2 Dunham, 3 Barrs, 4 Taylor, 5 J Lane, 6 Paul Neale (Kawasaki), 7 Holmes 8 Frayne, 9 S Lane, 10 Michael Reynolds.
Moto Three: 1 Barrs, 2 Cannings, 3 Dunham, 4 Neale, 5 Holmes, 6 J Lane, 7 Frayne, 8 Taylor, 9 Meakin 10 Reynolds.
Overall Superclass Positions: 1 Cannings, 2 Dunham, 3 Barrs, 4 Taylor, 5 J Lane, 6 Holmes, 7 Frayne, 8 Meakin, 9 S Lane, 10 Benjamin.
AMCA MX1 Champs Southern Area Qualifier: Dexter Marks (Suzuki), 2 Joseph Barry (Kawasaki), 3 Jamie Hallett (Kawasaki), 4 Matt Mclean (KTM), 5 Stephen Elford, 6 Jamie Dobson (KTM).
Experts Unlimited: 1 Kristofer Ayres, 2 Mike Woolf, 3 Paul Kroner, 4 Bradley Bird, 5 Jake Thompson, 6 Vincent Webb 136.
SENIOR MX: 1 Damian O'Brien-jones, 2 Jamie Faulkner, 3 Thomas James, 4 John Card,5 Jon Randall, 6 Mark Dudley.
SENIOR MX2: 1 Luke Webb, 2 Scott Thompson, 3 Dave Tilling, 4 Alex Rogers, 5 Harry Willcox, 6 Simon Aldridge.
Junior Unlimited Group One: 1 Daniel Neale, 2 Ben Vaughan, 3 Clive Gowen, 4 John Anderton, 5 Colin Blackwell, 6 Andy Johnson.
Junior Unlimited Group Two: 1 Jonathon Hoppner, 2 Benjamin Newman, 3 Luke Smith, 4 Ashley Rymer, 5 Connor Franklin, 6 Thomas Wilkins.
Inter Junior: 1 Elliot Woodward, 2 Zachary Hackett, 3 James Kay, 4 Jed Stockham, 5 Jack Roebuck, 6 Harry Wieczorek.