Kerry source...
By TMX Archives on 25th Jun 09
WITH the 2009 AMCA MX Championships having reached its midway point, Brad O'Leary and Lee Dunham deservedly lead the respective MX1 and MX2 classes although such is the high standard of performance that both lads expect to reach, they will probably have been just a little disappointed with their points return from Sunday's fourth round at Kerry.O'Leary in particular endured a nightmare in Wales, injuring his left hand and also have a stone punch a hole in his number one KTM's gearbox casing during practice. Jumping aboard his spare machine, Brad still bravely produced a 3-7-7 scorecard while Lee, after starting with a brace of very strong second places then blasted from last back to a brilliant fourth spot in the final moto after falling, being run over, and badly bending his handlebars.Taking the wins at Kerry though were Delkevic Kawasaki pilots Ben Saunders and Phil Mercer, both riders scoring a very impressive maximum points haul to thus also close the gap on O'Leary and Dunham at the top of the Championship standings. In MX1, Saunders is now just a very narrow five points in arrears while Mercer trails Dunham over in MX2 by some 43 points, ensuring that it should be a very interesting second half to another super AMCA season.Report and Pictures: MIKE WOOD So, with his sore hand creating difficulty in operating his clutch, how would O'Leary fair in the opening MX1 clash on the hillside Kerry track?
Well, a strong start saw Brad sitting in fifth behind early leader James Russell, Tim Truman, David Campbell and Ben Saunders while Charlie Hollis was picking himself up off the floor after slipping off on lap one.
At the front, a very determined Saunders was quickly reeling in and passing his rivals to take control of proceedings as both Russell and Truman dropped down the leaderboard.
While Saunders then blasted onto victory, moto one was proving to be an absolute disaster for another of the fancied runners, Brad Turner, the overall winner of the previous round at Cleobury. Falling no less than three times, Turner eventually finished in tenth spot behind runner-up Campbell, O'Leary, home club favourite Jamie Powell, Russell, Hollis, Truman, Aaron Crowder and Rich Meakin.
Despite expanding a lot of energy in his superb recovery ride in moto one, Charlie Hollis still produced a lightning holeshot in the second MX1 clash of the day to head Campbell, Saunders, Russell, Meakin, O'Leary, Stuart Rawlings, Powell and Turner.
While first Campbell then Saunders took over the race leadership, Turner was on a mission and a serious charge.
At the flag, the young Ride MX pilot had not only climbed up to second spot but was also rapidly reeling in eventual winner Saunders.
With Campbell producing another controlled, quality ride for third, Hollis had to settle for fourth, Powell fifth and Russell sixth. In pain from his injured hand, O'Leary slipped off but quickly remounted and still earned seventh in this clash.
After his strong moto two ride, Turner was looking to finish his day in style but instead again tasted the Kerry soil as he crashed on turn three of the final MX1 clash.
Not surprisingly though it was Hollis who had grabbed the holeshot and lead the way before Saunders took control at the end of lap two.
With Hollis now in second and Russell going well again in third, Powell, Truman and Campbell thrilled the crowd with a great scrap for fourth, a tussle which the reigning champion Campbell eventually won.
On completion of another super MX1 contest, Saunders claimed another crucial victory in his title crusade while Turner after his earlier tumble charged all the way back to eighth place, one spot behind the series leader O'Leary.
Shane Holmes was the fastest rider away in the opening MX2 clash of the day before quickly being relegated downfield by Paul Neale and Phil Mercer, Mark Hooley and Lee Dunham.
Although Neale, enjoying his best AMCA Championship meeting of the season so far, only briefly got his Kawasaki into pole position, he still showed great determination to keep himself in contention, going on to record a great fourth spot.
At the front, Mercer raced to victory ahead of his rival Dunham while Hooley remarkably held onto third spot after his left knee had jumped out of its joint.
Holding second spot at the time, the Yorkshireman was forced to surrender ground to Dunham but despite being in immense pain still bravely managed to fight off a hard charging Jack Taylor, Matt Porter, Scott Mathia, Jonathan Slesser, Shaun Pearce and Carl Benjamin.
Despite his problematic knee joint, Hooley then remarkably claimed the moto two holeshot to lead Porter, Mercer and Dunham.
In a ferocious opening few laps, Mercer closely followed by Dunham then took control of proceedings leaving Hooley and Porter to pick up the pieces in third and fourth place respectively.
After machine problems had restricted Sean Frayne to a very lowly 17th spot in moto one, the Honda rider recovered to earn a strong fifth place in this second clash aboard his spare bike.
With Mercer leading Dunham by just a very narrow two-seconds, this moto was eventually halted by a red flag in the closing stages and with the result standing, the top ten was completed by Neale, Luke Spence, Mathia, Jamie Dobson and Rob Clark.
There was plenty of drama on the opening lap of the final MX2 clash at Kerry, as first Jack Taylor fell heavily after colliding mid-air on an uphill jump with Porter while Dunham also bit the dust before being run over by two following riders, badly bending his Kawasaki's handlebars in the process.
At the front, KTM-mounted Holmes had again claimed the holeshot only to be passed by first Porter and then Mercer. Stylishly Mercer then took control of the moto before racing onto another crucial victory ahead of Hooley and Porter.
The story of the moto though was the incredible comeback by Dunham. Slicing through the pack, the Championship leader displayed sheer class to earn an amazing fourth spot at the flag with early leader Holmes, Mathia, Frayne, Spence, Neale and Dale Halls being just a few of his late race victims.
In the Support action at Kerry, the award for the performance of the day should surely go to Expert Unlimited winner Darren Dobson.
Aboard his two-stroke 144cc Kawasaki, Darren recorded a 1-1-2 scorecard beating the four banger brigade on their 250F and 450F projectiles.
Over in the tussle of Championship Non-qualifiers, Phil Lloyd, Derek Read and eventual overall winner Christopher Hill took the moto wins while Leon Hubble and Luke Francis topped their respective Senior and Junior classes. n
AMCA MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 4 Kerry (Druids MXC)
Sponsored by David Jones Motorcycles
1 Ben Saunders (Delkevic Kawasaki) 60 + 60 + 60 = 180
2 David Campbell (Corby Kawasaki) 54 + 50 + 47 = 151
3 Charlie Hollis (Proppa Honda) 43 + 47 + 54 = 144
4 James Russell (Fro/ Homer Hon) 45 + 43 + 50 = 138
5 Jamie Powell (KTM) 47 + 45 + 45 = 137
6 Brad O'Leary (Proppa Gear4 KTM) 50 + 41 + 41 = 132
7 Brad Turner (Ride MX Yamaha) 35 + 54 + 39 = 128
8 Tim Truman (Doodson Suzuki) 41 + 37 + 43 = 121
9 Aaron Crowder (Sandiford Husq) 39 + 29 + 35 = 103
10 Richard Meakin (Proppa Honda) 37 + 39 + 25 = 101
11 Stuart Rawlings (Artdeans Honda) 27+35+33=95, 12 Michael Reynolds (Yamaha) 24+31+37=92, 13 David Wright (Honda) 31+33+27=91, 14 Steven Bailey (SCCD KTM) 29+27+31=87, 15 Danny Blakeley (250 Silvester Yamaha) 26+26+29=81, 16 Alan Pearce (Suzuki) 25+20+23=68, 17 Andrew Summerton (Suzuki) 33+16+19=68, 18 Craig Chamberlain (Suzuki) 22+23+22=67, 19 Sam Hyde (Honda) 19+25+12=56, 20 Sean Eckersley (Husqvarna) 16+10+26=52,...
RACE ONE: 1 Saunders, 2 Campbell, 3 O'Leary, 4 Powell, 5 Russell, 6 Hollis, 7 Truman, 8 Crowder, 9 Meakin, 10 Turner, 11 Summerton, 12 Wright, 13 Bailey, 14 Rawlings, 15 Blakeley, 16 Pearce, 17 Reynolds, 18 Egan, 19 Chamberlain, 20 Castledine.
RACE TWO: 1 Saunders, 2 Turner, 3 Campbell, 4 Hollis, 5 Powell, 6 Russell, 7 O'Leary, 8 Meakin, 9 Truman, 10 Rawlings, 11 Wright, 12 Reynolds, 13 Crowder, 14 Bailey, 15 Blakeley, 16 Hyde, 17 Hookham, 18 Chamberlain, 19 Chappel, 20 Jones.
RACE THREE: 1 Saunders, 2 Hollis, 3 Russell, 4 Campbell, 5 Powell, 6 Truman, 7 O'Leary, 8 Turner, 9 Reynolds, 10 Crowder, 11 Rawlings, 12 Bailey, 13 Blakeley, 14 Wright, 15 Eckersley, 16 Meakin, 17 Hookham, 18 Pearce, 19 Chamberlain, 20 Hudson.
SERIES STANDINGS after 4 (of 8) rounds: 1 O'Leary 554 points, 2 Saunders 549,3 Hollis 531,4 Turner 485,5 Campbell 459,6 Russell 443,7 Truman 431,8 Powell 419,9 Clinton Barrs 357,10 Meakin 330,11 Pearce 305,12 Blakeley 301,13 Bailey 300,14 Rawlings 281,15 Elliot Barrs 262,
NEXT ROUND: August 2 Branston (Burntwood Barracudas MXC).
SUPPORT CLASSES
CHAMPIONSHIP NON-QUALIFIERS (Sponsored by Pete Jones M/cs): 1 Christopher Hill, 2 Kirk Whittle, 3 Ryan Crowder.
EXPERT UNLIMITED (Sponsored by Lovatt Brothers): 1 Darren Dobson, 2 Ryan Jones, 3 Simon Williams.
SENIOR UNLIMITED (Sponsored by Ray and Ben Bloor): 1 Leon Hubble, 2 Michael Lewis, 3 Gareth Jones.
JUNIOR UNLIMITED (Sponsored by Morris Corfield): 1 Luke Francis, 2 George Pritchard, 3 Derek Gerrard.
AMCA MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 4 Kerry (Druids MXC)
1 Phil Mercer (Delkevic Kawasaki) 60 + 60 + 60 = 180
2 Lee Dunham (MotoXtreme Kaw) 54 + 54 + 47 = 155
3 Mark Hooley (Craigs KTM) 50 + 50 + 54 = 154
4 Matt Porter (Select Homes Hon) 43 + 47 + 50 = 140
5 Paul Neale (Kawasaki) 47 + 43 + 37 = 127
6 Scott Mathia (Doodson Suzuki) 41 + 39 + 43 = 123
7 Sean Frayne (Honda) 24 + 45 + 41 = 110
8 Luke Spence (KTM) 26 + 41 + 39 = 106
9 Shaun Pearce (Peter Jones Hon) 37 + 25 + 33 = 95
10 Robert Clark (Suzuki) 29 + 35 + 29 = 93
11 Shane Holmes (KTM) 23+20+45=88, 12 Jack Taylor (Proppa Gear4 KTM) 45+24+17=86, 13 Carl Benjamin (Thornbury Kawasaki) 35+19+31=85, 14 Aled Bellis (Honda) 19+31+25=75, 15 Jamie Dobson (MTR Honda) 27+37+10=74, 16 Andrew Marchant (KTM) 18+33+22=73, 17 Brad Nixon (Honda) 31+21+21=73, 18 Daniel Hill (Suzuki) 9+29+24=62, 19 Chad Yarranton (Cradley Kawasaki) 14+23+23=60, 20 Simon Lane (LTR Kawasaki) 10+22+26=58.
RACE ONE: 1 Mercer, 2 Dunham, 3 Hooley, 4 Neale, 5 Taylor, 6 Porter, 7 Mathia, 8 Slesser, 9 Pearce, 10 Carl Benjamin, 11 Ben Smith, 12 Nixon, 13 Clark, 14 Dobson, 15 Spence, 16 Ayres, 17 Frayne, 18 Holmes, 19 Scott Smith, 20 Parry.
RACE TWO: 1 Mercer, 2 Dunham, 3 Hooley, 4 Porter, 5 Frayne, 6 Neale, 7 Spence, 8 Mathia, 9 Dobson, 10 Clark, 11 Marchant, 12 Bellis, 13 Daniel Hill, 14 Ayres, 15 Sam Smith, 16 Pearce, 17 Taylor, 18 Yarranton, 19 Simon Lane, 20 Nixon.
RACE THREE: 1 Mercer, 2 Hooley, 3 Porter, 4 Dunham, 5 Holmes, 6 Mathia, 7 Frayne, 8 Spence, 9 Neale, 10 Halls, 11 Pearce, 12 Carl Benjamin, 13 Clark, 14 Shaw, 15 Simon Lane, 16 Bellis, 17 Daniel Hill, 18 Yarranton, 19 Marchant, 20 Nixon.
SERIES STANDINGS after 4 (of 8) rounds: 1 Dunham 597 points, 2 Mercer 554,3 Porter 532,4 Frayne 457,5 Mathia 390,6 Spence 372,7 Hooley 350,8 Holmes 347,9 Neale 333,10 Carl Benjamin 331,11 Pearce 330,12 Clitheroe 319,13 Taylor 313,14 Slesser 291,15 Dobson 290,
NEXT ROUND: August 23 Nympsfield (Dursley MXC).
Brad O'Leary suffered a day of misfortune, but bravely battled to sixth overall and maintains a narrow lead at the top of the MX1 table.