No Payne no gain

By Mike Wood on 12th Oct 12

Hawkstone Park, arguably the toughest circuit in the UK, is a venue riders either totally love or absolutely hate.

Right now though, following a fantastic finale to the 2012 AMCA MX Championship, the famous Shropshire track sits right at the top of the ‘definitely likes' list of both new champions, Lee Payne and Jack Cox.

In MX1, Payne – having already bagged the Superclass crown at the start of the season – wrapped up the title, finishing 17 points ahead of out-going champ, Lee Dunham, with Clinton Barrs third.

In MX2 Cox – in his first championship season – brilliantly took the title, just seven points ahead of Ben Saunders, with Paul Neale finishing third for the second consecutive season.

As expected, both titles though were not decided until the final moto of the season, sending a large crowd home happy and providing a very fitting end to another superb and highly-competitive AMCA season.

The MX2 class was first to go sand-blasting, and as the gate dropped for moto one Jack Cox made a dream start to lead the charge ahead of Paul Neale, Ben Saunders, Carl Benjamin, James Lane, James Chadwick and Christopher Hill.

By lap two the drama was already beginning to unfold as Saunders fell, dropping back to ninth as Chadwick, Ryan Crowder and Adam Wellscontinued to climb the leader-board.

Chadwick got up to second place, even closing in on runaway leader and eventual winner Cox.

Crucially, Saunders recovered from his early spill to pass Crowder on the final lap and snatch third, with Lane fifth, Benjamin sixth, and Neale seventh, ahead of Wells, Scott Mathia and Ryan Jones.

This opening-moto result meant that Cox had regained the points lead, seven ahead of Saunders.

Brandon Benjamin initially led the MX2 pack in moto two, before quickly being overhauled by Cox and Chadwick, with Saunders fourth, Crowder fifth and Ryan Morris sixth.

With Benjamin dropping to 12th, the leader-board rapidly changed as Chadwick picked up a DNF, dropping out of contention on lap six.

Eventually this scrap settled down, with Cox galloping to another important victory, 11 seconds in front of Saunders.

FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX OCTOBER 12

AMCA MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP

Rd 6 – Hawkstone Park, nr Shrewsbury (Shropshire MXC)

1 Lee Payne (Rocket Centre KTM) 60 + 60 + 43 = 163

2 Lee Dunham (Maxxis Henderson Kaw) 50 + 54 + 50 = 154

3 Clinton Barrs (DK Off-Road Kawasaki) 39 + 47 + 60 = 146

4 Luke Meredith (Kawasaki) 54 + 50 + 37 = 141

5 Richard Cannings (450F Honda) 41 + 45 + 54 = 140

6 Shaun Pearce (Peter Jones Honda) 45 + 41 + 47 = 133

7 Chad Yarranton (Passion Kawasaki) 43 + 43 + 39 = 125

8 Stephen Tillotson (450F Honda) 47 + 39 + 31 = 117

9 Michael Reynolds (450F KTM) 37 + 35 + 35 = 107

10 Lewis Belfield (250 Hazport KTM) 25 + 37 + 41 = 103

11 Jamie Smith (450F Suzuki) 27+31+29=87, 12 Wesley Egan (450F Honda) 29+29+26=84, 13 Scott Bates (IDS Transport KTM) 31+26+24=81, 14 Elliot Barrs (LRT Honda) 35+0+45=80, 15 Tye Barrs (450F Kawasaki) 20+27+33=80, 16 Aran Agius (450F Kawasaki) 33+22+25=80, 17 Jamie Dobson (MTR KTM) 24+21+27=72, 18 Gary Brown (450F Honda) 22+23+22=67, 19 Joshua Williams (450F Kawasaki) 18+24+23=65, 20 Richard Meakin (250 Honda) 21+25+19=65, 21 Sean Bond (450F Honda) 19+17+21=57, 22 Michael Smith (Auto Repairs Honda) 16+33+0=49, 23 Sam Nicholls (???) 10+20+18=48, 24 Adam Castledine (450F Suzuki) 14+14+16=44, 25 Tim Burrows (450F KTM) 26+18+0=44,...

RACE ONE: 1 Payne, 2 Meredith, 3 Dunham, 4 Tillotson, 5 Pearce, 6 Yarranton, 7 Cannings, 8 Clinton Barrs, 9 Reynolds, 10 Elliot Barrs, 11 Agius, 12 Bates, 13 Egan, 14 Jamie Smith, 15 Burrows, 16 Belfield, 17 Dobson, 18 Lane, 19 Brown, 20 Meakin.

RACE TWO: 1 Payne, 2 Dunham, 3 Meredith, 4 Clinton Barrs, 5 Cannings, 6 Yarranton, 7 Pearce, 8 Tillotson, 9 Belfield, 10 Reynolds, 11 Michael Smith, 12 Jamie Smith, 13 Egan, 14 Tye Barrs, 15 Bates, 16 Meakin, 17 Williams, 18 Brown, 19 Agius, 20 Dobson.

RACE THREE: 1 Clinton Barrs, 2 Cannings, 3 Dunham, 4 Pearce, 5 Elliot Barrs, 6 Payne, 7 Belfield, 8 Yarranton, 9 Meredith, 10 Reynolds, 11 Tye Barrs, 12 Tillotson, 13 Jamie Smith, 14 Dobson, 15 Egan, 16 Meakin, 17 Williams, 18 Brown, 19 Agius, 20 Dobson.

FINAL SERIES STANDINGS after 6 rounds: 1 Lee Payne 952 points (CHAMPION), 2 Lee Dunham 935, 3 Clinton Barrs 922, 4 Pearce 780, 5 Belfield 656, 6 Tillotson 655, 7 Yarranton 640, 8 Elliot Barrs 616, 9 Reynolds 571, 10 Bates 547, 11 Jamie Smith 534, 12 Dobson 529, 13 Dean 513, 14 Tye Barrs 474, 15 Agius 463, 16 Michael Smith 447, 17 Burrows 428, 18 Meredith 403, 19 Lane 309, 20 Williams 299,...

SUPPORT CLASSES

Non-Qualifiers/ Expert: 1 Zac Stealey 164 points, 2 Bradley Tranter 164, 3 Shaun Scrivens 157.

Expert/ Senior– (Expert) 1 James Griffiths 180, 2 Ben Arden 158, 3 Jamie Ashbrook 154. (Senior): 1 James Earl 180, 2 Scott Morrell 158 3 Liam Palmer 147.

Senior: 1 Gregg Walker 180, 2 Andrew Ellis 147, 3 Joshua Smith 136.

Junior: 1 Ashley Morgan 174, 2 Shaun Jones 164, 3 Charlie Wright 148.