Majestic Mercer
By Mike Wood on 30th Aug 07
AFTER losing his 125cc series lead, Phil Mercer has taken just one round to regain the advantage, following a truly majestic performance at Wymeswold, Leicestershire, on Bank Holiday Monday. While Phil recorded a 2-1-1 scorecard, the battle for second overall was a very tight affair as Brad O'Leary, Lee Payne and Mark Hooley all finished the meeting on 58-points apiece, the verdict being decided by their last moto placings.
With Mercer taking the win in that final race, adetermined Payne moved through from sixth back to second to earn theoverall runners-up slot with Hooley in third. Over in the Open class,Ben Saunders still leads the way, with just two rounds remaining,despite having his advantage cut to 11-points by closest rival DavidCampbell. At Wymeswold, it was Campbell who took the overall win withSaunders in second and the very consistent Aaron Crowder third, just asingle point ahead of Simon Lane.
On a tight, Supercross-style circuit, closefinishes were the order of the day, typified by a thrilling opening125cc race in which home club favourite Matt Porter forged a healthylead only to be caught in the closing stages by both Mercer and O'Leary.
On the final lap, Mercer even managed to move ahead only for Porter to quickly re-pass and earn a popular win bythe narrowest of margins. For Tom Fish, Lee Dunham and Owen Delaneythough moto one proved to be rather non-productive in their quest forseries points. Fish crashed, suffering a suspected broken collarbone,while Dunham and Delaney both fell on lap one, the former breaking hisfront brake lever.
Although Hooley led the early stages of moto two,Mercer was in a very focussed, determined mood, eventually takingcontrol for the win. While O'Leary slotted into third, Payne produced astrong ride to move through from an early 11th to earn fourth at theflag just ahead of Scott Mathia, Porter and James Lane. After initiallystarting in last place, Dunham had to work hard again to earn 12th atthe flag.
With the very unlucky Delaney crashing out on lapfour of the final 125cc moto whilst holding second spot, Mercerproduced another polished performance to lead from gate to flag. In theearly stages, Hooley, O'Leary and a rejuvenated Dunham provided themain challenge.
AMCA MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Rd 5/6 - Wymeswold, Leicestershire (Shepshed Sporting MCC)
AMCA 125cc CHAMPS (Rd 5)
MOTO ONE: 1 Matt Porter (Select Homes Honda), 2Phil Mercer (Delkevic Kawasaki), 3 Brad O'Leary (Foto-X AMS KTM), 4 LeePayne (Malin Floors Kawasaki), 5 Mark Hooley (Servo KTM), 6 James Lane(Honda Equipe), 7 Aran Aguis (Thornbury Kawasaki), 8 Scott Mathia(Wulfsport KTM), 9 Andy Marchant (KTM), 10 Jamie Dobson (MTR Honda), 11Brad Greenwood (KTM), 12 David Wall (KTM), 13 Owen Delaney (T&WRacing Yamaha), 14 Michael Reynolds (Yamaha), 15 Carl Benjamin(Thornbury Kawasaki), 16 Dean Haughton (Honda), 17 Shaun Scrivens(Yamaha), 18 Lee Dunham (MotoExtreme Kawasaki), 19 Jamie Wilson(Yamaha), 20 Jack Taylor (KTM).
MOTO TWO: 1 Mercer, 2 Hooley, 3 O'Leary, 4 Payne,5 Mathia, 6 Porter, 7 Lane, 8 Marchant, 9 Agius, 10 Dobson, 11 MartynPerkins (KTM), 12 Dunham, 13 David Wall (KTM), 14 Greenwood, 15 ShaunPearce (Peter Jones Yamaha), 16 Martin Truman (Honda), 17 Wilson, 18Sam Hyde (Honda), 19 Benjamin, 20 Brad Nixon (KTM).
MOTO THREE: 1 Mercer, 2 Payne, 3 Hooley, 4O'Leary, 5 Dunham, 6 Porter, 7 Lane, 8 Mathia, 9 Dobson, 10 Dan Hill(KTM), 11 Perkins, 12 Reynolds, 13 Peter Weaver (Honda), 14 Pearce, 15Haughton, 16 Benjamin, 17 Joe Meachin (Yamaha), 18 Greenwood, 19Marchant, 20 Tom Neesam (Delkevic Kawasaki).
OVERALL: 1 Mercer 72 points, 2 Payne 58, 3 Hooley 58, 4 O'Leary 58, 5 Porter 55, 6 Lane 43.
SERIES STANDINGS after 5 rounds: 1 Mercer 275points, 2 O'Leary 262, 3 Payne 243, 4 Hooley 199, 5 Lane 187, 6 Porter184, 7 Delaney 167, 8 Mathia 133, 9 Pearce 124, 10 Agius 121, 11 TomFish 117, 12 Dunham 104, 13 Dobson 100, 14 Greenwood 81, 15 Taylor 73.
AMCA OPEN CHAMPS (Rd 6)
MOTO ONE: 1 David Campbell (Honda), 2 CharlieHollis (Invek Foods Honda), 3 Simon Lane (Honda Equipe), 4 ClintonBarrs (Wildmoor Wulfsport Honda), 5 Ben Saunders (Race ConnectionsHonda), 6 Aaron Crowder (Sandiford Honda), 7 Jamie Powell (AtlanticYamaha), 8 Aaron Poolman (G&S Patios Honda), 9 Rick Du-Feu(Delkevic Kawasaki), 10 David Wright (Sandiford Honda), 11 Steve Bailey(Honda), 12 Craig Chamberlain (Honda), 13 Danny Blakeley (SilvesterYamaha), 14 Stefan Garton (KTM), 15 Stephen Tillotson (DelkevicKawasaki), 16 Gavin Hookham (Honda), 17 Craig Martin (Honda), 18Richard Meakin (Honda), 19 Sean Eckersley (Suzuki), 20 Phil Pearsall(Honda).
MOTO TWO: 1 Campbell, 2 Saunders, 3 Crowder, 4Poolman, 5 Lane, 6 Powell, 7 Bailey, 8 Blakeley, 9 James Shaw (DelkevicKawasaki), 10 Stuart Rawlings (Honda), 11 Hollis,12 Chamberlain, 13Meakin, 14 Du-Feu, 15 Wright, 16 Hookham, 17 Eckersley, 18 Garton, 19Martin Jones (Honda), 20 Sam Vickers (Honda).
MOTO THREE: 1 Saunders, 2 Campbell, 3 Du-Feu, 4Crowder, 5 Lane, 6 Powell, 7 Bailey, 8 Blakeley, 9 Rawlings, 10 Wright,11 Chamberlain, 12 Hookham, 13 Jones, 14 Garton, 15 Shaw, 16 Meakin, 17Tillotson, 18 Eckersley, 19 Steve Simpson (Suzuki), 20 Michael Smith(Suzuki).
OVERALL: 1 Campbell 72 points, 2 Saunders 63, 3 Crowder 53, 4 Lane 52, 5 Powell 44, 6 Du-Feu 39.
SERIES STANDINGS after 6 rounds: 1 Saunders 385points, 2 Campbell 374, 3 Hollis 273, 4 Crowder 262, 5 Barrs 235, 6Lane 233, 7 Du-Feu 228, 8 Powell 209, 9 Poolman 202, 10 Blakeley 159,11 Wright 139, 12 Bailey 125, 13 Paul Coward 107, 14 Meakin 104, 15Chamberlain 102.
CHAMPIONSHIP NON-QUALIFIERS: 1 Stu Hughes 69points, 2 Richard Hughes 67, 3 Jon Marshall 52, 4 Colin Conduit 52, 5Barry James 51, 6 James Brown 51, 7 Ryan Hampson 43, 8 Sean Tranter 41,9 Grant Hampson 39.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, August 31, 2007.
