Down to the wire!
By TMX Archives on 13th Sep 07
IN what has been one of the best AMCA motocross championships for several seasons, the spectators present at Walterstone, on Sunday, for the penultimate round of the 2007 series, were served an absolute thriller. Following the event, again expertly presented by the Hereford MXC, it is now confirmed that the destinations of both titles are set to go right down to the wire at Nympsfield on October 7.
In the 125cc class, defending champion, Brad O'Leary, regained thechampionship lead by recording a brilliant maximum while rival, PhilMercer, endured an absolute nightmare. Electrical problems halted hismachine in moto two, and Phil then spun off in the final clash and wasunable to quickly restart. On both occasions he had been challengingO'Leary for race leadership.
Joining O'Leary on the 125cc podium was the very consistent James Lane,while the very much on form Matt Porter took third on the day.
Following the Open class action, Ben Saunders carries a 13-pointadvantage to the final showdown ahead of season-long rival, DavidCampbell. While the dynamic duo again earned the top two places on thepodium, third spot went to Jamie Powell with a 4-3-9 scorecard. Powellfinished just ahead of Simon Lane, Aaron Crowder, Charlie Hollis andco., who all produced some super action on the big, fast Herefordshirecircuit.
With Saunders and Campbell now set to go head-to-head for the 2007crown, the tussle for the bronze medal is definitely on as Hollis holdsa slender nine-point advantage over Crowder and just a single pointseparates Lane and Clinton Barrs for fifth spot.
Barrs took the first moto win of the day in the Open class, quicklypassing the fast-starting David Wright. Saunders slotted into secondand the leading duo fabricated a healthy lead while Campbell was forcedto work very hard to earn third spot at the flag after passing Powell.Having only his second outing aboard Kawasaki machinery, Aaron Poolman took a great fifth place.
In moto two, Campbell was the fastest rider away, followed by Powell,Hollis, Saunders, Lane, Crowder, Du-Feu and first moto winner Barrs.
AMCA MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP Rd 7 - Walterstone (Hereford MXC)
125cc Champs - Sponsored by Acumen Industrial Services Ltd
MOTO ONE: 1 Brad O'Leary (Foto-x AMS KTM), 2 James Lane (Honda Equipe),3 Matt Porter (Select Homes Honda), 4 Scott Mathia (Wulfsport KTM), 5Owen Delaney (T&W Yamaha), 6 Dan Hill (KTM), 7 Phil Mercer(Delkevic Kawasaki), 8 Andy Marchant (KTM), 9 Brad Greenwood (KTM), 10Shaun Pearce (Peter Jones Yamaha), 11 Lee Payne (Malin FloorsKawasaki), 12 Lee Dunham (MotoExtreme Kawasaki), 13 Aran Agius(Thornbury Kawasaki), 14 Michael Reynolds (Yamaha), 15 David Wall(KTM), 16 Dale Halls (Honda), 17 Joe Meachin (Yamaha), 18 Martin Truman(Honda), 19 Sean Tranter (Honda) 20 Sam Hyde (Honda).
MOTO TWO: 1 O'Leary, 2 Lane, 3 Porter, 4 Payne, 5 Marchant, 6 Agius, 7Jamie Dobson (MTR Honda), 8 Hill, 9 Greenwood, 10 Pearce, 11 CarlBenjamin (Thornbury Kawasaki), 12 Perkins, 13 Halls, 14 Dunham, 15 LukeSpence, 16 Meachin, 17 Hyde, 18 Wall, 19 Delaney, 20 Brad Nixon (KTM).
MOTO THREE: 1 O'Leary, 2 Payne, 3 Lane, 4 Porter, 5 Dobson, 6 Hill, 7Marchant, 8 Agius, 9 Dunham, 10 Mathia, 11 Benjamin, 12 Pearce, 13Greenwood, 14 Shaun Scrivens (Yamaha), 15 Mercer, 16 Jamie Wilson(Yamaha), 17 Nixon, 18 Tranter, 19 Truman, 20 Sam Jones (Honda).
OVERALL: 1 O'Leary 75 points, 2 Lane 64, 3 Porter 58, 4 Payne 50, 5 Hill 43, 6 Marchant 43.
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 O'Leary 374 points, 2 Mercer 365, 3 Payne 354, 4Porter 304, 5 Lane 291, 6 Mark Hooley 243, 7 Delaney 216, 8 Mathia 191,9 Dobson 181, 10 Pearce 174, 11 Agius 167, 12 Dunham 159, 13 Hill 143,14 Tom Fish 142, 15 Greenwood 123, 16 Marchant 109, 17 Benjamin 100, 18Jack Taylor 73, 19 Nixon 69, 20 Halls 68.
AMCA Open Class Champs - Sponsored by DGI Ltd
MOTO ONE: 1 Clinton Barrs (Wildmoor Wulfsport Honda), 2 Ben Saunders(Race Connections Honda), 3 David Campbell (Honda), 4 Jamie Powell(Atlantic Yamaha), 5 Aaron Poolman (G&S Patios Kawasaki), 6 DavidWright (Sandiford Honda), 7 Charlie Hollis (Invek Honda), 8 AaronCrowder (Sandiford Honda), 9 Simon Lane (Honda Equipe), 10 Rick Du-Feu(Delkevic Kawasaki), 11 Stephen Tillotson (Delkevic Kawasaki), 12 SteveBailey (Honda), 13 Danny Blakeley (Silvester Yamaha), 14 AndrewSummerton (Yamaha), 15 Gavin Hookham (Honda), 16 Stefan Garton (KTM),17 Shaun Sabin (Honda), 18 Craig Chamberlain (Honda), 19 Craig Martin(Honda), 20 Lance Parry (Honda).
MOTO TWO: 1 Campbell, 2 Saunders, 3 Powell, 4 Barrs, 5 Hollis, 6Crowder, 7 Lane, 8 Du-Feu, 9 Stuart Rawlings (Honda), 10 Martin, 11Paul Burn (Kawasaki), 12 Blakeley, 13 Sabin, 14 Summerton, 15 Bailey,16 Chamberlain, 17 Richard Meakin (Honda), 18 Wright, 19 Sean Eckersley(Delkevic Kawasaki), 20 Justin Bolton (Mission Honda).
MOTO THREE: 1 Saunders, 2 Campbell, 3 Lane, 4 Crowder, 5 Sabin, 6Du-Feu, 7 Hollis, 8 Poolman, 9 Powell, 10 Wright, 11 Bailey, 12Chamberlain, 13 Rawlings, 14 Bolton, 15 Martin, 16 Marc Popperwell(Honda), 17 Paul Coward (Honda), 18 Eckersley, 19 Burn, 20 Summerton.
OVERALL: 1 Saunders 69 points, 2 Campbell 67, 3 Powell 50, 4 Lane 46, 5 Crowder 46, 6 Hollis 44.
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Saunders 454 points, 2 Campbell 441, 3 Hollis 317,4 Crowder 308, 5 Lane 279, 6 Barrs 278, 7 Du-Feu 267, 8 Powell 259, 9Poolman 231, 10 Blakeley 176, 11 Wright 168, 12 Bailey 150, 13Chamberlain 119, 14 Coward 111, 15 Meakin 108, 16 Rawlings 73, 17Tillotson 66, 18 Martin 61, 19 Jason Rennie 57, 20 Martin Jones 55.
CHAMPIONSHIP NON-QUALIFIERS: 1 Chris Rudd 60 points, 2 Justin Hill 60,3 Wayne Holder 56, 4 Graham Nicklin 56, 5 Jake Thompson 53, 6 RichTudor 44.
SUPPORT SOLOS
Expert Unlimited (sponsored by AJP and Fusion MX): 1 Simon Baldwin, 2 Kevin Williams, 3 Paul Rogers.
Senior Unlimited (sponsored by Bethell Motors): 1 Thomas Owen, 2 Simon Linton, 3 Paul Preedy.
Junior Unlimited (sponsored by Mr Chips): 1 Will Roberts, 2 Ryan Jones, 3 Gareth Whittingham.
For full story and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, September 14, 2007.