Full Mark's to Eastwood
By TMX Archives on 18th Sep 08
THE DEP British Two-stroke Motocross Championship visited Suffolk, on Sunday, for round eight of the series. The miserable wet British summer played a blinder and the deep sand was just as perfect as could be hoped for. Such a perfect canvas deserved top class action, and the sizeable crowd got it in bucket loads.
The first of three scintillating 125cc Group A races saw Jack Brunell lead the pack into turn one ahead of Christian Taylor, Jack Plowman and Ryan McLean, as reigning champ, Dave Willet, came out fifth and Jonathan Pettitt charged from the lower reaches of the top ten.
But before the lap was complete, Pettitt was sprawled in the dirt. He was up and going again in a flash, but by now he was almost outside the top 20 with the pack spreading out and the chance of a quick recovery was gone.
Brunell was building a gap at the front as Willet tussled with Taylor for second, but it took a long time for Willet to finally move to second. Taylor was up there entirely on merit.
By the time Willet overcame Taylor, Brunell was safely away down the road, while Pettitt worked his way back through to a distant fourth.
However, a late fall by the leader handed Willet the win with Taylor scooting through for a well-deserved second. Brunell must have been distraught at how close to victory he'd been.
Race two was epic! Taylor holeshot ahead of Pettitt and Brunell, with Willet a handful of places further back. Pettitt was unable to get by Taylor and Brunell held a watching brief as Willet moved into fourth and joined the freight train.
For 15 minutes, there was the most glorious Mexican stand-off as the four circulated nose to tail, before Pettitt finally got close enough to make his way through as they hit traffic.
Willet immediately at-tacked, quickly passing both Brunell and Taylor as the latter began to make errors. ‘Ironman' Willet began to close down Pettitt, as Brunell hopped past Taylor and back into third
Willet powered his Yamaha right up to the back of the series leader as they began the final few laps.
It looked like Pettitt was in danger of being beaten straight up for the first time this year, but as Willet launched his assault, he pushed just over the edge, dropping his bike and handing Pettitt the win, and second place to Brunell. This time the distress was all Willet's.
Pettitt nailed another decent start in moto three, ahead of Craig English, Sean Stevens and Taylor and by the time Willet had made his way into second, Pettitt was down the road and gone.
English pulled out early on as Stevens and Taylor battled over third, but Taylor then dropped the ball, falling way down the field to end the day on a damp note after two superb rides.
Brunell was way down the pack from the outset but spent 20 minutes charging hard, coming back to take an excellent third from Stevens after the latter spent large parts of the race in the top three.
Up front, Pettitt had a comfy lead but a spill passing a lapper late in the race allowed Willet to close up. The issue was never really in doubt and the TM veteran took yet another win with four seconds in hand.
Mark Eastwood led the first Open A moto after passing Matthew Moffat, but the race was halted within a couple of laps after a nasty accident left Jonathan Tapp stranded in the tunnel.
Willet led the restart and built a gap straight away as Eastwood made his way into second and pulled the trigger.
It was a battle of wills as Easty's big number one slowly closed the gap on the fleeing Willet.
With just five minutes left on the clock, Eastwood was close enough to make a move when Willet was baulked in traffic.
Once Eastwood was in front, he was only going to head in one direction.
Dan Brough holeshot race two, but Eastwood was right with him and was soon in front.
It took half a lap for Willet to follow Lewis Tombs ahead of Brough for second and third places respectively, and by then Eastwood had a gap.
Willet forced through into second and gave it everything, recording the fastest lap of the race and closing Eastwood down. However a mistake in the final turn left him almost ten seconds in arrears and that was too much to make up.
Moffat closed down Tombs, but a late incident dropped him back and gave Tombs a cushion as the top three cruised to the finish.
‘Easty' got out well in the third moto too, but before battle could commence, Willet's Yamaha pulled off the track with a suspension problem. Moffat took an excellent second place ahead of Tombs, who came out on top of an excellent battle with Nathan Rooks and Dale Raynor.
Two rounds left in the series, and it's the
big double-header at Marshfield on October 4/5. For the fans of premix, there'll be no better place to be...
EXPERT 125cc
1 Jonathan Pettitt 39 + 45 + 45 = 129
2 Dave Willet 45 + 39 + 42 = 126
3 Jack Brunell 42 + 42 + 39 = 123
4 Jim Davies 36 + 36 + 33 = 105
5 Sean Stevens 33 + 30 + 36 = 99
6 Adam Reynolds 30 + 33 + 22 = 85
7 Highway Oliver 20 + 22 + 30 = 72
8 Ashley Harland 28 + 26 + 18 = 72
9 Paul Shires 16 + 24 + 26 = 66
10 James Kensington 24 + 20 + 19 = 63
JUNIOR 125cc
1 Lloyd Morgan 39 + 30 + 45 = 114
2 Christian Taylor 45 + 45 + 22 = 112
3 Jack Plowman 42 + 42 + 26 = 110
4 Ady Peedle 28 + 33 + 42 = 103
5 Bradley Howlett 36 + 28 + 36 = 100
6 Ryan McLean 33 + 39 + 28 = 100
7 Oliver Rusby 24 + 36 + 39 = 99
8 Joshua Scott 26 + 22 + 18 = 66
9 Jason Wells 13 + 19 + 33 = 65
10 Ryan Turner 15 + 20 + 30 = 65
EXPERT 250cc
1 Mark Eastwood 45 + 45 + 45 = 135
2 Matthew Moffat 39 + 36 + 42 = 117
3 Lewis Tombs 36 + 39 + 39 = 114
4 Dale Raynor 33 + 33 + 36 = 102
5 Dave Willet 42 + 42 + 0 = 84
6 Alistair Clark 30 + 20 + 33 = 83
7 Stuart Houlston 19 + 30 + 30 = 79
8 Michael Hand 16 + 28 + 28 = 72
9 Justin Robinson 26 + 26 + 20 = 72
10 Andre David 18 + 24 + 26 = 68
JUNIOR 250cc
1 Dan Brough 42 + 45 + 42 = 129
2 Nathan Rooks 45 + 36 + 45 = 126
3 Justin Penty 36 + 39 + 39 = 114
4 David Dibble 39 + 33 + 36 = 108
5 Ashley Pennycook 33 + 30 + 33 = 96
6 Darren Marklove 26 + 28 + 30 = 84
7 John Richardson 28 + 26 + 28 = 82
8 Darren Richardson 22 + 24 + 26 = 72
9 Daniel Grove 24 + 22 + 24 = 70
10 Neil Stimson 20 + 20 + 22 = 62
FINAL ROUND: October 4/5 – Marshfield.
Mark Eastwood was untouchable as he finished the day with a hat trick in the Expert 250cc class.