Jim and James come
By TMX Archives on 21st May 09
JAMES Noble and Jim Davies came away victorious from round four of the Fuchs Silkolene British Two-stroke Championships at Landrake on Sunday, but it wasn't plainsailing.
With good weather before the event, the bowsers were watering the track on Saturday evening, but a heavy squall brought torrential rain and gales in the early hours of Sunday morning. The horrendous conditions stuck about throughout the morning before the sun managed to break through and turn the track from barely rideable into almost perfect.
Lloyd Morgan was quickest out of the gate in the first 125cc A moto ahead of Luke Dean before Tim Heasman paddled his way into second. Jim Davies overcame a rubbish start to end the first lap in third.
The track was still hard-packed with a layer of slippery brown sludge covering it, and Morgan had a massive advantage as everyone else instantly got filled in.
By lap two, Morgan had a considerable advantage of over Davies and Willet as the pack spread out. Conditions were so bad that there were fallers everywhere and every lap was just a series of mistakes and incidents strung together.
Morgan was able to extend his lead but Willet had relentlessly closed on Davies. On the final lap it seemed that Davies had enough in hand to take second, but Willet summoned up something special to make an impossible pass in the final yards before the finish.
Morgan led race two from Ash Harland, Darren Redman, Tim Heasman, Dan Arnold and Davies, but the leader had a nasty looking spill early on – but the Welshman was straight back into the fray.
Harland inherited the lead but within a handful of laps he was heading backwards with a blown shock as Arnold went into battle with Redman and Davies, the three of them closing up on race leader Heasman.
Arnold and Heasman had a brief battle for the lead, their shenanigans allowing Davies to join the fun.
Davies was soon into second but Arnold edged away for the win.
Race three was epic! Sean Stevens led from Morgan, Redman, Davies and Heasman with Arnold initially back in seventh. Stevens had the chasing pack right on his tail.
Davies made his way through the leader-board, eventually claiming the lead on lap five. However, Arnold was starting to motor while Stevens and Morgan dropped off the pace, leaving Davies and Arnold to battle for the win. Arnold slowly snuck up on the pair before taking the lead with barely a lap-and-a-half remaining, but it was Davies who took the overall victory.
Scott Elderfield and James Noble were the class of the Open A field on pace. Mark Eastwood was neck and neck with Luke Hill into the first turn of race one but reigning champion, Eastwood, got pushed wide, allowing Elderfield and Matthew White through.
Dave Willet was sixth away from the start, behind Noble, but a small off on lap one cost him time. Another crash, a handful of laps later, left the Yamaha rider on the sidelines and out for the day.
Elderfield and Noble were quickly into the first two places and began pulling away from Hill in third. Noble had the edge on pace, driving past Elderfield into a lead he held to the flag.
Hill holeshot race two on his mighty Service Honda CR500 but Elderfield and Noble were again into first and second before the end of the lap. Tony Cuddy and White held fourth and fifth.
Noble managed to find an opening at the halfway mark and moved to the front, with Hill succumbing to a charge by Lewis Rose.
Hill posted his third holeshot of the day in race three, but Elderfield was again right there and straight into the lead, trying to escape from Noble. Eastwood was mid-pack but a collision halfway round lap one left the front pipe of his Honda badly mashed. Undeterred, he set off once more from dead last, recovering to 12th place as his bike just crept in under the noise limit afterwards.
Up front, Noble took a handful of laps to get into third ahead of Hill and by then Elderfield had a useful lead. However, Noble just went to work, whittling down the gap. As the clock ticked down, Noble caught the youngster and immediately made a move to pass, but a bobble as they left the whoops allowed Elderfield to squirt his Honda back in front. The pair were wheel-to-wheel with Elderfield refusing to be beaten.
Noble made a move that put him alongside for the last couple of corners. There was a clash and it looked as though Noble had made it through but Elderfield somehow returned the compliment and made his way back into the lead for the win. The pair of them again fin- ished a proverbial mile in front of Rose, Hill and Cuddy. It was a scintillating battle.
The series takes a five-week break now before heading north to Skelder Banks, Whitby. For fans of pre-mix racing there'll be no better place to be than the Yorkshire track on June 21.
Consistent riding, including three holeshots, gave Luke Hill third overall in the Expert Open
EXPERT 125cc
1 Jim Davies 39 + 42 + 42 = 123
2 Daniel Arnold 26 + 45 + 45 = 116
3 Lloyd Morgan 45 + 28 + 39 = 112
4 Leium Morgan 36 + 36 + 26 = 98
5 Darren Redman 28 + 33 + 36 = 97
6 Tim Heasman 18 + 39 + 33 = 90
7 Bradley Howlett 33 + 26 + 24 = 83
8 Luke Kennett 22 + 24 + 28 = 74
9 Tom Bidder 30 + 22 + 22 = 74
10 Kevin Green 20 + 20 + 20 = 60
JUNIOR 125cc
1 Matthew Thomas 42 + 42 + 45 = 129
2 Luke Dean 39 + 33 + 42 = 114
3 Jake Page 45 + 19 + 39 = 103
4 Charles Statt 30 + 45 + 28 = 103
5 Rowan Hill 26 + 36 + 33 = 95
6 Terry Lloyd 28 + 39 + 26 = 93
7 Jake Lord 33 + 26 + 19 = 78
8 Stevie Gesner 15 + 30 + 30 = 75
9 John Butler 16 + 16 + 36 = 68
10 Alex Davis 36 + 14 + 15 = 65
EXPERT OPEN
1 James Noble 45 + 45 + 42 = 132
2 Scott Elderfield 42 + 42 + 45 = 129
3 Luke Hill 39 + 36 + 36 = 111
4 Lewis Rose 30 + 39 + 39 = 108
5 Matthew White 36 + 30 + 30 = 96
6 Tony Cuddy 28 + 28 + 33 = 89
7 Mark Eastwood 33 + 33 + 19 = 85
8 Oliver Rusby 22 + 24 + 28 = 74
9 Zac Blackwell 18 + 26 + 24 = 68
10 Adam Reynolds 26 + 19 + 22 = 67
JUNIOR OPEN
1 Ben Howard 42 + 45 + 45 = 132
2 Adrian Deeley 39 + 39 + 28 = 106
3 Justin Penty 36 + 22 + 36 = 94
4 Lee Thornton 24 + 36 + 33 = 93
5 David Ford 45 + 30 + 13 = 88
6 Shayne Headon 33 + 28 + 26 = 87
7 Daniel Ward 0 + 42 + 42 = 84
8 Matthew Smith 28 + 26 + 30 = 84
9 Oliver Weeks 26 + 33 + 24 = 83
10 Jonathan Tapp 19 + 24 + 39 = 82