Neale on wheels
By TMX Archives on 29th Jul 11
Another day of close, fiercely competitive racing at Little Bowden, in Leicestershire, on Sunday, produced a couple of firsts as Paul Neale recorded his maiden AMCA MX2 Championship overall win while Lee Dunham bagged his maiden AMCA MX1 moto victory.
While Neale's success means that he has closed the gap on second placed Ben Saunders to just two-points, over in MX1, Dunham now holds a healthy 83-point advantage at the top of the standings.
Dunham was also on the podium again at Little Bowden although the overall win went to Richard Cannings with a determined Brad O'Leary in third.
Having their best rides of the season so far, Aran Agius (fourth), Michael Reynolds (fifth), Shaun Pearce (sixth) and Simon Lane (seventh) were very good value in earning their respective final placings.
In the thrilling MX2 class encounters, Neale was joined on the podium by Carl Benjamin and Shane Holmes.
Typical of just how competitive this class really is, Holmes, Sean Frayne and Jack Taylor scored the moto wins although the very consistent Holmes still leads the title chase with a 43-point advantage.
The tight, twisting Little Bowden circuit was always going to produce an abundance of close, exciting racing and that's the way it proved with a classic opening MX2 clash. In a bar-banging, frantic lap one, both Frayne and Taylor bit the dust after making strong starts. Frayne broke his front-brake caliper, bent his gear-shift lever and was run over by several following competitors!
So, while Frayne restarted last and Taylor was down in 21st, a great battle developed at the front between Holmes, Lewis Abbott and Neale.
Although Neale passed Abbott and briefly challenged Holmes, there was no denying the Championship leader as he took the moto win.
Further downfield there was plenty of action with Ben Saunders charging from 19th back to a fine seventh, while Carl Benjamin moved from tenth through to fourth, and close rapidly on the leading trio.
On his way through, Carl had to pass his brother Brandon who had held a very impressive sixth for the opening few laps. With Matt Porter in fifth, Adam Wells produced a super ride to get home inside the top six ahead of Scott Mathia, Ryan Crowder and Aled Bellis. Of the early fallers, Frayne – minus a front brake – and Taylor eventually finished 23rd and 24th respectively.
Following those early problems, Frayne made amends in the best way possible by scorching to a stunning gate to flag win in the second MX2 moto ahead of Benjamin, Neale, Taylor and Saunders.
In the early stages Porter held second with fast-starting Kieran Mulloy in third. Eventually, Porter dropped to sixth while Mulloy got home 11th.
Challenging at the front end of pack was Ryan Morris in seventh, Kristofer Ayres eighth, Mathia ninth and Joseph Del-Busso tenth.
Proving the strength in depth of the class and just how difficult it was to make progress and make those vital passes stick, series leader Holmes gated in 17th and eventually finished 12th!
Fast starting Neale led the final MX2 clash for the opening three-laps under intense pressure from Taylor. Eventually, Jack got through and there he stayed all the way to the chequered flag.
In the closing stages, Neale repelled a strong late challenge from Saunders and just held onto second place by the narrowest of margins.
Enjoying a better moto this time around, Holmes held fourth spot throughout the clash ahead of Mathia, Frayne, Porter, Carl Benjamin – who had initially gated 14th – Del-Busso and Ayres.
There's little time to rest for the MX2 boys as their next thrilling instalment in the title quest is this coming Sunday at Branston!
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX NEWS JULY 29
AMCA MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 4 – Little Bowden (Northampton MCSC)
1 Paul Neale (250 RaceSpec Kaw) 54 + 50 + 54 = 158
2 Carl Benjamin (250 Thornbury Kawasaki) 47 + 54 + 39 = 140
3 Shane Holmes (250 IDS Transport Yam) 60 + 31 + 47 = 138
4 Ben Saunders (150 AJP KTM) 41 + 45 + 50 = 136
5 Matthew Porter (KTM) 45 + 43 + 41 = 129
6 Jack Taylor (250 Delkevic Kawasaki) 17 + 47 + 60 = 124
7 Scott Mathia (Wullfsport Honda) 39 + 37 + 45 = 121
8 Sean Frayne (250 SPS Honda) 18 + 60 + 43 = 121
9 Kristofer Ayres (KTM) 33 + 39 + 35 = 107
10 Joseph Del-Busso (250 711MX KTM) 27 + 35 + 37 = 99
11 Ryan Crowder (250 Rocket Centre Hon) 37+21+33=91, 12 Lewis Abbott (Kawasaki) 50+11+29=90, 13 Aled Bellis (250 CF Racing Kawasaki) 35+29+26=90, 14 Adam Wells (Yamaha) 43+25+17=85, 15 Martin Jones (Honda) 24+22+27=73, 16 Kieran Mulloy (IDS Transport Yam) 21+33+19=73, 17 James Chadwick (Suzuki) 20+19+31=70, 18 Jack Forrest (Yamaha) 29+15+22=66, 19 Christopher Hill (Honda) 13+27+25=65, 20 Tom Neesam (Suzuki) 23+26+15=64, 21 Dean Swift (KTM) 26+16+20=62, 22 Ryan Morris (BCMX Suzuki) 12+41+7=60, 23 Edward Briscoe (250 EBL Kawasaki) 16+18+21=55, 24 Brandon Benjamin (Thornbury Kawasaki) 31+23+0=54, 25 Scott Williams (Suzuki) 7+20+23=50,...
RACE ONE: 1 Holmes, 2 Neale, 3 Abbott, 4 Carl Benjamin, 5 Porter, 6 Wells, 7 Saunders, 8 Mathia, 9 Crowder, 10 Bellis, 11 Ayres, 12 Brandon Benjamin, 13 Forrest, 14 Del-Busso, 15 Swift, 16 Luke Smith, 17 Martin Jones, 18 Neesam, 19 Meachin, 20 Mulloy.
RACE TWO: 1 Frayne, 2 Carl Benjamin, 3 Neale, 4 Taylor, 5 Saunders, 6 Porter, 7 Morris, 8 Ayres, 9 Mathia, 10 Del-Busso, 11 Mulloy, 12 Holmes, 13 Bellis, 14 Hill, 15 Neesam, 16 Wells, 17 Meachin, 18 Brandon Benjamin, 19 Martin Jones, 20 Crowder.
RACE THREE: 1 Taylor, 2 Neale, 3 Saunders, 4 Holmes, 5 Mathia, 6 Frayne, 7 Porter, 8 Carl Benjamin, 9 Del-Busso, 10 Ayres, 11 Crowder, 12 Chadwick, 13 Abbott, 14 Martin Jones, 15 Bellis, 16 Wells, 17 Meachin, 18 Brandon Benjamin, 19 Martin Jones, 20 Crowder.
SERIES STANDINGS after 4 (of 8) rounds: 1 Holmes 612 points, 2 Saunders 569, 3 Neale 567, 4 Taylor 524, 5 Porter 498, 6 Frayne 492, 7 Abbott 449, 8 Carl Benjamin 442, 9 Morris 397, 10 Mathia 388, 11 Bellis 376, 12 Williams 321, 13 Briscoe 305, 14 Martin Jones 302, 15 Crowder 295,... 16 Del-Busso 294, 17 Scott Smith 271, 18 Mulloy 256, 19 Chadwick 252, 20 Forrest 226,...
NEXT ROUND: July 31 – Lawns Farm, Branston, nr Burton-on-Trent (Burntwood Barracudas MCC).
AMCA MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 5 – Little Bowden (Northampton MCSC)
1 Richard Cannings (Craigs Honda) 60 + 60 + 43 = 163
2 Lee Dunham (Maxxis Henderson Kaw) 35 + 54 + 60 = 149
3 Brad O'Leary (Gear4 KTM) 45 + 45 + 50 = 140
4 Aran Agius (Kawasaki) 47 + 31 + 54 = 132
5 Michael Reynolds (Suzuki) 33 + 43 + 45 = 121
6 Shaun Pearce (Husqvarna) 41 + 47 + 29 = 117
7 Simon Lane (LRT Honda) 43 + 33 + 39 = 115
8 Stephen Tillotson (Suzuki) 50 + 29 + 33 = 112
9 Clinton Barrs (Delkevic Kawasaki) 37 + 27 + 47 = 111
10 Jamie Dobson (350 MTR KTM) 29 + 50 + 24 = 103
11 Richard Meakin (Honda) 27+35+35=97, 12 Sam Hyde (Honda) 31+39+27=97, 13 Brad Turner (IDS Transport KTM) 54+41+0=95, 14 Matthew Williamson (KTM) 39+23+31=93, 15 James Lane (LRT Honda) 0+37+41=78, 16 Luke Meredith (KTM) 26+26+25=77, 17 James Shand (250 KTM) 24+22+21=67, 18 Edward Reynolds (???) 25+14+26=65, 19 Chris Neesam (Kawasaki) 18+21+22=61, 20 Chad Yarranton (Kawasaki) 15+25+20=60, 21 Glen Phillips (KTM) 20+0+37=57, 22 Mark Popperwell (???) 19+9+23=51, 23 Stu Hughes (500 Honda) 16+17+17=50, 24 Sean Bond (Kawasaki) 17+19+13=49, 25 Matthew Dixon (Honda) 11+16+19=46,...
RACE ONE: 1 Cannings, 2 Turner, 3 Tillotson, 4 Agius, 5 O'Leary, 6 Simon Lane, 7 Pearce, 8 Williamson, 9 Barrs, 10 Dunham, 11 Michael Reynolds, 12 Hyde, 13 Dobson, 14 Meakin, 15 Meredith, 16 Edward Reynolds, 17 Shand, 18 Castledine, 19 Smith, 20 Melland.
RACE TWO: 1 Cannings, 2 Dunham, 3 Dobson, 4 Pearce, 5 O'Leary, 6 Michael Reynolds, 7 Turner, 8 Hyde, 9 James Lane, 10 Meakin, 11 Simon Lane, 12 Agius, 13 Tillotson, 14 Barrs, 15 Meredith, 16 Yarranton, 17 Dicks, 18 Williamson, 19 Shand, 20 Neesam.
RACE THREE: 1 Dunham, 2 Agius, 3 O'Leary, 4 Barrs, 5 Michael Reynolds, 6 Cannings, 7 James Lane, 8 Simon Lane, 9 Phillips, 10 Meakin, 11 Tillotson, 12 Williamson, 13 Pearce, 14 Hyde, 15 Edward Reynolds, 16 Yarranton, 17 Dicks, 18 Williamson, 19 Shand, 20 Neesam.
SERIES STANDINGS after 5 (of 8) rounds: 1 Dunham 737 points, 2 Turner 654, 3 Barrs 650, 4 Cannings 624, 5 Phillips 521, 6 James Lane 488, 7 Williamson 478, 8 Michael Reynolds 474, 9 Payne 472, 10 Meredith 470, 11 Simon Lane 453, 12 Pearce 445, 13 Tillotson 443, 14 Crowder 415, 15 Meakin 408, 16 Agius 402, 17 O'Leary 398, 18 Dobson 390, 19 Neesam 333, 20 Smith 308,...
NEXT ROUND: August 14 – Nympsfield, nr Stroud (Dursley MXC).
SUPPORT RACE RESULTS
AMCA CHAMPIONSHIP NON-QUALIFIERS: 1 Barry James 154 points, 2 Jake Humphreys 153, 3 Adrian Phelpstead 139.
EXPERT: 1 Matt Ryder 180, 2 Joe Severn 158, 3 Sean Kyle 144.
SENIOR: 1 Kevin Neesam 174, 2 Mitch Benjamin 150, 3 Luke Renshaw 139.
JUNIOR: 1 James Hockenhull 170, 2 Luke Masic 153, 3 Joe Humberton 146.
