Express delivery from Ben
By TMX Archives on 29th Apr 09
ALL roads led to the Commerton Farm Race track in Leuchars, Fife for the second round of the Express Insurance-sponsored ACU British Youth Motocross Championship. Organised by the Glenrothes Youth Motocross Club and run by Bobby Blair and his merry band, the hospitality and track preparations were excellent once again. Some fantastic battles by the riders on the deep sandy track made it a weekend to remember, even though the programme had to be cut to four races in each class, as injuries and the time taken by the excellent medical staff to clear the track took its toll on both days. Glorious sunshine on Saturday morning saw the racing get underway after the qualifying heats, And first to the line was the Big-wheel 85cc class.
Race one and it was Sunny Thompson who showed out front, with Luke Norris and Nathan Watson hard on his back wheel fighting for second place. Also in the mix were Ben Howell and Jake Millward closely followed by championship leader Danger UK man Ryan Houghton.
Thompson lead from start to finish to take the win, only to be docked a penalty at the noise test, which put him down in ninth place overall. Norris took the win, with Houghton taking second place after battling his way past Watson and Howell.
Race two and again Thompson hit the front with Houghton chasing him down, Matthew Fleming was just behind and going like a train. On lap two Fleming took Houghton and then took Thompson two laps later to take the lead. Houghton was having none of it and on the last lap, after passing Thompson, he took Fleming on the line to take the win, Fleming taking second and Norris in third.
Little pocket rocket PAR Homes Honda rider Ben Watson hit the front in race one of the PAR Homes sponsored Small-wheel 85's, cutting across the pack into the first corner, taking a start to finish race win, leaving the rest of the pack to battle for the minor placings. Callan Cooper and Matthew Callaghan were nose
to tail in second and third. Cooper hung on to take second, with Callaghan taking third. Charging through the field were Liam Knight and Connor Clarke after bad starts to take the fourth and fifth places. Race two and you guessed it, Watson again took off in the lead, with Cooper second and Callaghan third. Callaghan took Cooper to take the second place, Cooper settling for third.
In the Cobra backed Junior 65cc class, it was the championship leader, Conrad Mewse, who hit the front in race one. Never to be headed or challenged by the other riders, he went on to take the win. Sid Evans, Henry Williams and Connor Hughes were in their own battle, and finished race one in second, third and fourth. Race two and Mewse took off again at the front taking a start to finish win. Aaron Piper was in second this time but was chased down by Evans who eventually took him to take second place. Williams got a bad start in race two, but came through the field to take third place after battles with Bircher, Keogh and young Jake Edey. Keogh took fourth place.
The big race of the day, the Par Youth Open class, saw Championship leader Danger UK rider Josh Waterman come up against some talented riders from Scotland in Tommy Fenwick and Sean McDonald and also coming back from injury, PAR Homes rider Luke Hawkins. All were in with a chance of wins.
Waterman hit the front in race one in a confident mood, but at the start of lap two, going into the whoops he lost it big time, going over the bars with the bike just missing him as he hit the deck hard. Steven Smyth took over in the lead with Harry McKenna right behind him.
Tommy Fenwick who, was tenth on lap one, had stormed through nine riders to take the lead on lap two, and McKenna had to watch Waterman make his recovery from coming off to storm into second to take the battle to Fenwick. Fenwick held him off to take the win with Waterman taking second. Luke Hawkins had made his way through the pack to take third.
Waterman took the lead in race two ahead of Hawkins and Fenwick. Smyth and McKenna were also in the fight, but Fenwick was on a mission and took over at the front on lap three. Hawkins followed him and took second pushing Waterman down to third. Fenwick won his second race of the day leaving Hawkins and Waterman to fight for second. Waterman won the fight and took second, Hawkins took a tumble on the last lap and finished the race with concussion, leaving the third place to go to Gary Sharp, and McDonald just behind in fourth.
EXPRESS INSURANCE BRITISH YOUTH MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 2 – Commerton Farm, Leuchars, Fife (Glenrothes Youth MXC)
Big-wheel 85cc: 1 Ryan Houghton 168 points, 2 Luke Norris 154, 3 Nathan Watson 153, 4. Jake Millward 150, 5. Matthew Fleming 144, 6 James Dunn 135, 7 Josh Brine 133, 8 Ben Howell 131, 9 Luke Newman 125, 10 Cameron Pendreich 124.
PAR Small-wheel 85cc: 1 Ben Watson 180 points, 2 Matthew Callaghan 166, 3 Callan Cooper 158, 4 Connor Clark 150, 5 Liam Knight 147, 6 Tom Neal 137, 7 Ben Green 136, 8 Brad Todd 132, 9 Robert Davidson 123, 10 Corie Southwood 121.
Cobra Junior 65cc: 1 Conrad Mewse 180 points, 2 Sid Evans 168, 3 Henry Williams 158, 4 Will Keogh 140, 5 Ben Edwards 130, 6 Jack Camwell 128, 7 Callum Bircher 122, 8 David Keet 119, 9 Kyle Peebles 119, 10 Connor Hughes 117.
PAR Youth Open: 1 Tommy Fenwick 180 points, 2 Josh Waterman 162, 3 Sean McDonald 154, 4 Gary Sharp 152, 5 Luke Hawkins 145, 6 Ewan McLaren 141, 7 Jack Rowland 126, 8 Warwick French 120, 9 Connor Walkley 119, 10 Ryan McLean 113.
Adult Clubman: 1 Robert Hail, 2 Zac Stealey, 3 Craig Clunie.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2009
Tenth overall, in the Small-wheel 85cc class, Corrie Southwood leads Brad Todd, who finished eighth.