Eastwood makes his Mark
By TMX Archives on 1st Aug 07
MARSHFIELD, in south Gloucestershire, was the next stop for the DEP British Two-stroke Cham-pionship last weekend.
Some 250-plus riders descended on the small butmotocross dominated village for the seventh round of the championshipwhich attracted a lot of interest locally from riders, including newcomers to the series, John May and Lewis Gregory.
Add to that a sprinkling of GP talent in the form of Brad Anderson, Mark Hucklebridge and Neville Bradshaw, and the atmosphere was electric.
Race one in the 125cc A class saw a huge battlebetween Jonathan Pettitt, Lewis Gregory, John May and Dave Willet. Allfour riders were giving it 100% for the entire 20 minute race but itwas veteran Pettitt who showed the young guns the way home with a finewin.
This type of action was repeated in all threemoto's with Pettitt taking two out of three wins and Gregory taking thefinal race in superb style from May. These two put on a great show forthe local crowd but it wasn't until the final few laps that Gregoryfinally broke the tough defence of the Meredith Suzuki rider andstormed on to the victory.
Pettitt and Gregory tied on points for theoverall, but Pettitt took the honours due to more wins. May took thirdoverall from iron man Willett, LPE Kawasaki's Scott Probert, who isimproving after each race, took fifth and TM's Stuart Edmonds in sixth.
The top ten included Matt Ridgway, James Dodd, Sean Frayne and Jim Davies.
Well done to Juniors Adam Reynolds, John Butlerand Sam Holloway, all qualifying for the A class 125cc races, and indoing so took the top three in the Junior class for the day.
Paul Shires was in dominant form and that showedwith him taking two of the three races, while Glen Bixby slottedhimself between Shires and a maximum by taking the first race of theday by only two seconds.
Close racing was going on throughout the classwith Richard Brown, Ady Peedle, Daniel Ward and Michael Deeleyfinishing in that order in race one. Matt Nash and Josh Scott put in agood performance to find themselves in the top five in moto two, whilein race three, Shires took the win by 15 seconds. Bixby and Deeley hadtheir ownpersonal dual with Bixby just taking it by under a second.
Justin Penny, Josh Wyatt and Ashley Crossley rounded off the top six in moto three.
In Junior C class, Terry Howlett dominated with abrilliant maximum. The racing in this group was going on behind himwith Neal Moore, Keith Pattison, Stephen Sapsford and Bob D'erlangerswapping places throughout the day.
Mitch Pearce took three fine wins in 250cc Bclass. Mitch looked comfortable on his local track and this showed withnobody getting within six seconds of him in any race.
DEP BRITISH TWO-STROKE
MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP Rd 7 - Marshfield, Gloucestershire
250cc A Class: 1 Mark Eastwood 129, 2 David Willet120, 3 Brad Anderson 120, 4 Mark Huckelbridge 103, 5 Neville Bradshaw102, 6 Ryan Voase 102, 7 Stuart Flockhart 85, 8 Joe Dark 74, 9 BenTaylor 72, 10 Chad Yarranton 58.
250cc Junior Class: 1 Ashley Harland 133, 2 EddyCarr 129, 3 Ricky Lethaby 112, 4 Kenneth Fuller 108, 5 Mitch Pearce 84,6 Darren Marklove 78, 7 Arron Sewell 72, 8 Alex Smith 70, 9 Ross Parry58, 10 Drew Smith 56.
125cc A Class: 1 Jonathan Pettit 130, 2 LewisGregory 129, 3 John May 120, 4 Dave Willet 108, 5 Scott Probert 100, 6Matt Ridgway 85, 7 Stuart Edmonds 84, 8 James Dodd78, 9 Sean Frayne 72, 10 Jim Davies 59.
125cc Junior: 1 Adam Reynolds 136, 2 John Butler117, 3 Sam Holloway 106, 4 George Winn 105, 5 Sean Stevens 100, 6 LeeHolland 91, 7 Daniel Grove 76, 8 Luke Dowsing 74, 9 Ben Evans 67, 10Paul Shires 60.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, August 3, 2007.