It's Show Tyne
By TMX Archives on 14th Feb 14
It has been a long time coming, but last weekend it was finally time for the Garmin Arenacross Tour to hit Newcastle.
The northern city, rich in sporting history, can now add motorsport to its pedigree, because the level of racing witnessed at the Metro Radio Arena certainly was top notch.
Track-wise, the event was challenging. The dirt, described by some as softer than in Belfast, was kept in marvellous shape by the track crew, but it did cause some spectacular offs in the Pro class as well as in the Youth classes.
The most prominent victim of this was Pendrich Kawasaki's Flying Scotsman Bryan Mackenzie, who in qualifying found himself on the ground with several injuries, which were serious enough to mean the end of his Arenacross season.
Another rider who wasn't racing at the weekend was the winner of the previous weekend's racing at Liverpool's Echo Arena, Buildbase Honda's Elliott Banks-Browne, who opted to sit out this round to prevent any further injuries to his wrist.
But that aside, the thousands who decided to make the trek to the Arena definitely got their money's worth.
In the Pro class, a dark horse reared its head.
While names like Steve Clarke, Dan McCoy, Angelo Pellegrini and Fabien Izoird have been on everyone's lips, there was another who showed that he has become a fine indoor rider.
Chris Bayliss showed that not only could he stay on the pace with his older compatriots, but he could also play them well at their own game, much to Izoird's surprise in the ‘Head-to-Head'.
The first Pro heat saw Dyer and Butler KTM's Clarke put in a dazzling performance, closely followed by Dan McCoy and Pellegrini.
Local ace, Brad Anderson, simply didn't seem to gel with the track and found himself trounced by Bayliss and Ed Allingham.
In the second heat, it looked like another great win for McCoy's team-mate, Kristian Whatley, but with two laps to go the current British MX1 champ hit the deck, giving the win away to challenger Izoird.
He was followed by Cyrille Coulon and Izoird's team mate, Loic Rombaut, while Nev Bradshaw crossed the line in fourth, with Whatley fifth.
As is the custom, heats three and four were a mash-up of the first two and Clarke nailed the holeshot again and led the way until a stall dropped him straight into Coulon's clutches.
The Frenchman didn't wait around for long and powered on to take the win by several bike lengths. For Whatley, the fourth heat was a repeat of his first. Although Rombaut took holeshot honours, Whatley sailed past him to cruise around in first place for much of the race until Izoird finally reeled him in and relegated him to second.
Bayliss kept himself out of trouble until a rapidly approaching McCoy clipped him and both went to ground.
Bayliss took sixth in the end, while McCoy received some attention from the paramedics.
The LCQ finally saw the Oakleaf Kawasaki boys shine.
Relegated to the dreaded event all too many times, Tyler Villopoto pulled out every stop and together with team-mate Romain Biela, took the honours to the main event.
Elation was short-lived though as, much to the team's consternation, Villopoto pulled off with a leg injury in the Main event.
The ‘Head-to-Head' races were not really a surprise, other than Bayliss stunning Izoird with his unrelenting attack and Bayliss nearly – oh so nearly – beating the French indoor veteran.
In the end Izoird took the four points on offer with Coulon, Clarke and Pellegrini mopping up the 3-2-1.
