Cul' of the wild
By TMX Archives on 6th Oct 06
WET, wet, wet could well be the headline best suited to the penultimate round of the AMCA Motocross championships held at Culham Park on Sunday. With the ground already saturated from rain in the days leading up to the event, an almost continuous belt of heavy, sometimes thundery showers then battered the Oxfordshire circuit on raceday.
With the lower parts of the track already waterlogged, the organising Eastbourne MXC was forced to virtually completely re-route the layout, although conditions did still resemble a sticky bowl of porridge rather than a motocross track, the meeting was thankfully completed. With axle-deep, energy-sapping ruts being formed all around the circuit, Sunday's meeting became an interesting battle of skill, strength and survival.
Following a thrilling season-long battle in the 125cc championship class which looked all set to go right down to the final chequered flag of the campaign, reigning champion, Brad O'Leary, now appears to be odds-on favourite to retain his crown.
Travelling to Culham, O'Leary was 17-points behind rival Mark Hooley. However, the unfortunate Yorkshireman who was already in agony from two broken ribs sustained during the previous round at Walterstone, then suffered a painful knee injury in moto two on Sunday and now looks almost certain to miss the final round at Nympsfield on October 15.
With Hooley out, O'Leary continued his recent fantastic form by taking another overall win at Culham and now leads the title chase by 35-points.
Despite the pain that he was to encounter later, Hooley started Sunday's meeting with a strong third place behind moto winner O'Leary and a very impressive Rob Clitheroe. At the front of the pack, the dominant orange KTM-mounted trio held a massive advantage over fourth placed finisher Lee Payne, whilst Richard Cannings had a great ride for fifth.
The performance of this opening race though belonged to Rick Du-Feu who after crashing on turn two then blasted his way from last all the way back to a brilliant sixth at the flag ahead of Alan Pearce, Tom Fish, James Lane and Jamie Dobson. Earlier in the moto, Clinton Barrs and Leroy Dunham had been well in contention until being involved in a collision.
AMCA MOTOCROSS CHAMPS
Rd 7/8 – Culham (Eastbourne MXC)
125cc CLASS (Rd 7)
OVERALL: 1 Brad O'Leary (FotoX AMS KTM) 25+25+22=72 points, 2 Rob Clitheroe (One11MX KTM) 22+18+25=65, 3 Rick Du-Feu (DK Offroad Honda) 15+22+20=57, 4 Richard Cannings (MG Metalcraft Honda) 16+20+16=52, 5 James Lane (Honda Equipe) 12+16+12=40, 6 Lee Payne (Sandiford Honda) 18+14+8=40
SERIES STANDINGS after 7 rounds: 1 O'Leary 447 points, 2 Hooley 412, 3 Du-Feu 348, 4 Clitheroe 337, 5 Barrs 328, 6 Dunham 269OPEN CLASS (Rd 8)
OVERALL: 1 Richard-Mike Jones (ER Williams Honda) 18+25+25=68 points, 2 Simon Lane (Honda Equipe) 22+18+18=58, 3 David Wright (Sandiford Honda) 20+22+15=57, 4 Phil Mercer (DK Offroad Kawasaki) 16+20+20=56, 5 Charlie Hollis (Invek Foods Honda) 25+16+11=52, 6 Aaron Crowder (Sandiford Honda) 13+15+22=50,SERIES STANDINGS after 8 rounds: 1 Mercer 427 points, 2 Barrs 401, 3 Lane 360, 4 Crowder 336, 5 Jones 316, 6 Blakeley 301, 7 Hollis 265, 8 Burn 252, 9 Wright 220, 10 Coward 216, 11 Danny Ayres 160, 12
Expert Unlimited: 1 Michael Nicholls, 2 Kevin Mills, 3 Luke Hawkins, 4 Peter Brandrick, 5 Peter Harrison, 6 Luke Spence.
Senior Unlimited: 1 Stuart Keen, 2 Paul Larkin, 3 Oliver Johnson, 4 Mick Moore, 5 Ashley Wheeler, 6 Keith Prevost.
Junior Unlimited: 1 Ryan Crowder, 2 Samuel Williams, 3 Phillip Dunstone, 4 Dan Burnett, 5 Steve Boddy, 6 Simon Whitting.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX News, Friday, October 6, 2006