It was Ben's kind of day!
By TMX Archives on 8th Feb 07
SUNDAY saw sunshine, a sharp frost, a perfectly prepared track and the first round of the Northants SMXC winter series held at Woodford. With 151 riders booked in a good days racing was anticipated, and the spectators were not disappointed.
First out were the Adults who, due to the high numbers in attendance, had a heat race to initially sort them out into A and B groups.
With a good crop of nat-ional standard riders in the A group, good racing was ex-pected. Paul Edge was on fire, he grabbed the first race holeshot and was gone. But, due in part to a mega crash over the big step-up involving the visiting Glen Rosser and club regular Shaun Robinson, Sean Frayne found a clear track ahead and was able to reel Paul in, eventually making the pass for the first of two wins. Ricky Lathaby had a solid race for a clean third place.
In the second race, Sean Frayne showed Paul Edge a clean pair of heels out the gate and the young gun never looked back. Ricky had a nightmare of a race, which cost him third overall by just one point to V Bucas.
After this the B group came out to play and saw Luke Gallagher score two straight wins followed home in both races by Simon Bonham and Chris Creasey in second and third respectively.
Next up was the Junior class and Joe Tobutt threw down the gauntlet to club champ Jack Gardner by taking the lead in the first race and holding it for some time, Jack eventually getting past for a hard-earned win.
The second race saw much of the same as these two young stars of the future duelled. This time though, Joe held his nerve and the throttle wide open to score his first ever win in the Juniors. In their final race Jack just managed to hold Joe off for the win and the overall - well done both.
Travis Wolfenden, Tom Stafford and Max Pinney all raced hard, swapping places throughout the day, Travis came out on top for third overall. Young Toby Scott also had to work hard for his first top-six finish which was secured by a last corner block pass over Charlie Gilbert in the second race.
RESULTS
Auto: 1 Ben Kind, 2 James Camwell, 3 JC Verdugo, 4 Lewis Huckerby, 5 Dillan Fitzpatrick, 6 Thomas Gower.
Junior: 1 Jack Gardner, 2 Joe Tobutt, 3 Travis Wolfenden, 4 Tom Stafford, 5 Max Pinney, 6 Toby Scott.
Small-wheel 85cc: 1 Jordan Hind, 2 Ali Meadows, 3 Jack Gregory, 4 Max Hind, 5 Jordan Hughes, 6 Zac Derry.
Big-wheel 85cc: 1 Mitch Eaton, 2 Mark Sharman, 3 Ben Rollinson, 4 Cody Ling, 5 Kai Passmore-Jones, 6 Ben Huckerby.
Youth 125: 1 Michael McClurg, 2 George Winn, 3 Kyle Shead, 4 Matt Clegg, 5 Ashley Moulds, 6 Alec Everitt.
Adult A: 1 Sean Frayne, 2 Paul Edge, 3 V Bucas, 4 Ricky Lathaby, 5 Danny Ayres, 6 Steve Marlow.
Adult B: 1 Luke Gallagher, 2 Simon Bonham, 3 Chris Creasey, 4 Mathew Woodford, 5 Brad Willis, 6 Richard Lowe.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, February 9, 2007