Old dogs, new tricks!
By TMX Archives on 25th Jun 08
DUE to a very uncertain weather forecast Shrewsbury MXC, organisers of the second round of the AMCA motocross championships, were left facing a dilemma. A year earlier they had been forced to abandon its championship round due to persistent rain so with the chance to try again in 2008, just what should they do? Should the club soak its superb Condover circuit before the event and play poker with the weather, risking another potential abandonment or wait to see just what the gods delivered on race day?
Well, the club decided on the latter and although it encountered a day of near gale-force winds and sun leaving the going very dry, slick and at times dusty, it was still well prepared for all eventualities with ample machinery on-site to water and grade when necessary. The result was a well-presented event, three full blocks, some top class racing and thankfully no mud!
Scoring a great result for experience over youthful desire, overall winners at Condover were Gary Davies and Phil Mercer, thus also gaining an early advantage in their respective MX1 and MX2 championship title chases.
Riding with great style, multiple AMCA champion Gary Davies rolled back the years with a superb opening MX1 victory at Condover. On his home club circuit, Davies took the lead early on lap one after David Campbell had fell shortly after grabbing the holeshot. With Campbell relegated to last place, Elliot Barrs provided the challenge to leader Davies before his handlebars began to worryingly work loose. Bravely, Barrs still managed to hold onto second until the latter stages when he finally had to surrender to a determined Jamie Powell.
Despite losing out to Powell, the Bristol-based rider refused to be relegated any further down the leaderboard, taking third at the flag, just ahead of his cousin Clinton Barrs, who had stormed through the pack after earlier being well outside the top ten. Chasing the Barrs boys to the chequered flag were Charlie Hollis, Brad O'Leary, Stephen Tillotson, Rick Du-Feu, Aaron Crowder and Ben Saunders, who's progress was hampered by a couple of spills. Early leader and current MX1 champion Campbell worked hard to get back to eventually finish twelfth.
With Campbell again striking trouble in the early stages of moto two, at the front it was a Barrs family delight as Clinton led the way closely followed by Elliot. Whilst Elliot gradually slipped back to a gallant fifth, Clinton managed to hold onto the race leadership until just three laps from home when Saunders took control. In a great, late scrap for third, Davies just held off a hard-charging O'Leary.
In the final MX1 clash, Davies again made a glorious start, hounded by Saunders, Clinton Barrs, Hollis, Crowder, Tillotson, Tom Fish and O'Leary.
Three laps in and Saunders took control before racing onto the win with Davies second. After holding third, Barrs suffered a heavy crash, eventually slipping back to 10th, behind cousin Elliot. Hollis' last moto third also earned him third overall after finishing on 51 points, same as O'Leary and Clinton Barrs.
In MX2, the battle for overall honours went to a last moto decider after Phil Mercer and Lee Payne had bagged a win each.
However, it all went wrong for Payne after he was T-boned off his machine on lap one. Restarting last, the Lancashire rider blasted back to a determined seventh. Critically, his comeback included a last lap pass on Simon Lane, which meant that he robbed Lee Dunham of a certain overall runner-up spot by a single point.
Whilst it was Mercer who secured another overall win by taking second in that decider, the moto win went to Owen Delaney, fair
reward for displaying great character after his day had started in very disappointing fashion with a DNF following a fall.
Chasing home Delaney – recording his maiden AMCA championship win – and Mercer was the consistent Dunham, Matt Porter, Jack Taylor and Sean Frayne.
Earlier, the top three riders in MX2, Mercer, Payne and Dunham had produced a thrilling moto one which saw them break away leaving fourth place finisher, James Shaw, 40 seconds in arrears. Mercer and Payne swapped positions with Dunham in very close attendance before ‘Factory Phil' recovered from an excursion into the track marking to earn the opening victory.
In the second clash, Payne, Mercer and Dunham again took control, the win going to Payne while taking fourth in moto two was Porter ahead of Delaney, Scott Mathia, Shaw, Jamie Dobson, Frayne and Simon Lane.
With three moto wins, Jonathan Stokes won the battle of the Non-qualifiers at Condover whilst top support class riders were Luke Chessell and Neil Whittingham in the Experts and Seniors respectively.
AMCA MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 2 – Condover (Shrewsbury MXC) (Event Sponsored by Hawk Plant Hire)
MX1 MOTO ONE: 1 Gary Davies (450 Cradley Kawasaki), 2 Jamie Powell (450 Stevens Yamaha), 3 Elliot Barrs (450 MotoXtreme Kawasaki), 4 Clinton Barrs (450 Fowlers KTM) 5 Charlie Hollis (450 Mission Control Honda) 6 Brad O'Leary (450 Direct CCTV/ AMS KTM), 7 Stephen Tillotson (450F Delkevic Honda), 8 Rick Du-Feu (450 Delkevic Kawasaki), 9 Aaron Crowder (450 Sandiford Honda), 10 Ben Saunders (450 Delkevic Kawasaki), 11 Tom Fish (450 Murray Harper International Transport Suzuki), 12 David Campbell (450 Honda), 13 Jonathan Slesser (450 Honda), 14 James Russell (450 Kawasaki), 15 Richard Meakin (450 Honda), 16 Gary Threadgold (450 Kawasaki), 17 Chris Neesam (450 Kawasaki), 18 Steve Bailey (450 Honda), 19 Matt Gordon (450 Honda), 20 Danny Blakeley (250 Silvesters Yamaha).
MOTO TWO: 1 Saunders, 2 C Barrs, 3 Davies, 4 O'Leary, 5 E Barrs, 6 Hollis, 7 Tillotson, 8 Fish, 9 Powell, 10 Slesser, 11 Russell, 12 Campbell, 13 Du-Feu, 14 Sean Eckersley (450 Delkevic Kawasaki), 15 Gordon, 16 Threadgold, 17 Paul Coward (450 Honda), 18 Blakeley, 19 Crowder, 20 Neesam.
MOTO THREE: 1 Saunders, 2 Davies, 3 Hollis, 4 O'Leary, 5 Crowder, 6 Campbell, 7 Fish, 8 Tillotson, 9 E Barrs, 10 C Barrs, 11 Russell, 12 Meakin, 13 Du-Feu, 14 Powell, 15 Eckersley, 16 Threadgold, 17 Neesam, 18 Wesley Egan(450 Yamaha), 19 Ben Smith (450 Kawasaki), 20 Blakeley.
OVERALL: 1 Davies 67 points, 2 Saunders 61, 3 Hollis 51, 4 O'Leary 51, 5 C Barrs 51, 6 E Barrs 48
CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS: 1 Davies 112 points, 2 Saunders 98, 3 O'Leary 89, 4 Hollis 82, 5 Campbell 80, 6 C Barrs 78, 7 Fish 65, 8 Du-Feu 59, 9 Powell 54, 10 Tillotson 52, 11 E Barrs 48, 12 Russell 42, 13 Crowder 39, 14 Meakin 36, 15 Eckersley 33, 16 Blakeley 27, 17 Slesser 19, 18 Threadgold 17, 19 Neesam 16, 20 Coward 9.
MX2 MOTO ONE: 1 Phil Mercer (Delkevic Kawasaki), 2 Lee Payne (Malin Floors/ Rocket Centre Yamaha), 3 Lee Dunham (MotoXtreme Kawasaki), 4 James Shaw (Delkevic Kawasaki), 5 Simon Lane (Sutton MX Honda), 6 Scott Mathia (Wulfsport KTM), 7 Matt Porter (Select Homes Honda), 8 Aran Agius (Thornbury MX Kawasaki), 9 James Lane (Sutton MX Honda), 10 Aled Bellis, 11 Craig Chamberlain (Honda), 12 Daniel Parker (KTM), 13 Sean Frayne (Honda), 14 David Wall (Yamaha), 15 Joe Meachin (Suzuki), 16 Martyn Perkins (Kawasaki), 17 Gavin Hookham (Kawasaki), 18 Jamie Dobson (Honda), 19 Darren Dobson (Honda), 20 Sean Tranter (Yamaha).
MOTO TWO: 1 Payne, 2 Mercer, 3 Dunham, 4 Porter, 5 Owen Delaney (T+W Racing Yamaha), 6 Mathia, 7 Shaw ,8 J Dobson, 9 Frayne, 10 S Lane, 11 Wall, 12 Jack Taylor (KTM), 13 J Lane, 14 Rob Clark (Suzuki), 15 Andy Marchant (KTM), 16 Joseph Barry (Yamaha), 17 Shaun Scrivens, 18 Pete Weaver (Honda), 19 Phil Pearsall, 20 Chamberlain.
MOTO THREE: 1 Delaney, 2 Mercer, 3 Dunham, 4 Porter, 5 Taylor, 6 Frayne, 7 Payne, 8 S Lane, 9 Shaw, 10 Agius, 11 D Dobson, 12 Marchant, 13 Bellis, 14 J Lane, 15 Pearsall, 16 Chamberlain, 17 Carl Benjamin (Thornbury MX Kawasaki), 18 Hookham, 19 Meachin, 20 Mathia.
OVERALL: 1 Mercer 69 points, 2 Payne 61, 3 Dunham 60, 4 Porter 50, 5 Shaw 44, 6 Delaney 41.
LEADING CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS: 1 Mercer 119 points, 2 Dunham 102, 3 Porter 86, 4 Payne 84, 5 Mathia 60, 6 Shaw 60, 7 S Lane 56, 8 Delaney 51, 9 Taylor 47, 10 Frayne 46, 11 Agius 42, 12 J Lane 42, 13 J Dobson 35, 14 Marchant 28, 15 Chamberlain 27, 16 Tranter 21, 17 Bellis 19, 18 Clark 19, 19 Dale Halls 18, 20 Wall 17.
CHAMPIONSHIP NON-QUALIFIERS: 1 Jonathan Stokes (250 KTM) 75 points, 2 Robert Crowe (450 Suzuki) 56, 3 Sam Hyde 50, 4 Ash Newton (250 Honda) 46, 5 Karl Archer (450 Honda) 43, 6 Martin Streeton (450 Honda) 34.
EXPERTS UNLIMITED: 1 Luke Chessell (450 Yamaha), 2 David Hamlet (250 KTM), 3 John Caine (450 Kawasaki).
SENIORS UNLIMITED: 1 Neil Whittingham (450 KTM), 2 Jacob Pearce (125 Yamaha), 3 Russell Lewis (250 KTM).