Olé Olé O'Leary
By TMX Archives on 1st Aug 07
FOLLOWING the muddy hell that was Condover, competitors arriving at Anchor Hill, Kerry, for round three of the AMCA Motocross Championships must have feared a quick return of their nightmare as they were greeted by persistent rain.
Thankfully though, before it was time to goracing, the sun was shining and drying a majority of the circuit.However, in some of the low lying areas, the going remained tricky ascorners which started wet then became very rutted, demanding theultimate respect, with the need to carefully get your wheels in line torailroad the turns absolutely essential.
Indeed as the event progressed, the changing trackconditions resulted in some super action from the championship boys onduty. In the 125cc class, a very determined Brad O'Leary fought off therejuvenated Lee Payne and Owen Delaney for the overall verdict. Over inthe Open class, former ACU racers Ben Saunders and David Campbellcontinued to dominate, joined on the podium on Sunday by Charlie Hollis.
Before the Kerry event, Mark Hooley was closestrival to 125cc championship leader Phil Mercer in the points table. OnSunday though the Yorkshireman endured an absolute disaster.
In moto one his bike stalled as the gate was aboutto drop, then stubbornly refused to restart. Undeterred, Hooley made atrademark lightning holeshot to lead moto two before slipping back tofourth and becoming another victim of those horribly rutted corners.With his bike again not rapidly firing back to life, more vitalchampionship points were lost, thus signalling a frustrating end to hisday.
So, with Hooley out, O'Leary moved up to second spot in the 125cc championship table.
On Sunday, a couple of potential new, young starsalso impressed the watching crowd as Dale Halls and Jack Taylor, both16-year-olds, finished sixth and eighth respectively in the overallstandings. In the opening moto, Taylor despite still suffering from asore foot, led until the midway point before being eventually passed bywinner O'Leary.
Quickly getting to terms with his new Kawasakimachines, Lee Payne took a fine third in moto one, just ahead of Mercerwho had come through from an early tenth. Earlier in the contest, TomFish had made a strong start in seventh place before crashing out onlap three.
As already mentioned, Hooley led the earlyexchanges of moto two before eventually slipping back to fourth. Movingin the opposite direction though was a rapid Payne, taking over thelead on lap three, and there he remained all the way to the flag,chased hard by Delaney, O'Leary and Mercer.
AMCA MOTOCROSS CHAMPS (Sponsored by Ray Hockey Racing)
Rd 3 - Anchor Hill, Kerry (Druids MXC Ltd)
125cc CLASS (sponsored by David & Elizabeth Walker/ RP Hughes Contractor)
RACE ONE: 1 Brad O'Leary (FotoX AMS KTM), 2 JackTaylor (KTM), 3 Lee Payne (Malin Floors Kawasaki), 4 Phil Mercer(Delkevic Kawasaki), 5 Dan Hill (KTM), 6 Matt Porter (Honda), 7 JamesLane (Honda Equipe), 8 Lee Dunham (MotoExtreme Kawasaki), 9 OwenDelaney (T&W Yamaha), 10 Dale Halls (Honda), 11 Brad Nixon (KTM),12 Brad Greenwood (KTM), 13 Carl Benjamin (Thornbury Kawasaki), 14Michael Reynolds (Yamaha), 15 Jamie Dobson (MTR Honda), 16 David Wall(KTM), 17 Scott Mathia (Wulfsport KTM), 18 Martin Truman (Honda), 19Richard Hughes (Yamaha), 20 Marc Roe (TM).
RACE TWO: 1 Payne, 2 Delaney, 3 O'Leary, 4 Mercer,5 Tom Fish (Murray Harper KTM), 6 Lane, 7 Mathia, 8 Halls, 9 Hill, 10Porter, 11 Nixon, 12 Dobson, 13 Shaun Pearce (Pete Jones Yamaha), 14Benjamin, 15 Aran Agius (Thornbury Kawasaki), 16 Jamie Wilson (Yamaha),17 Reynolds, 18 Wall, 19 Sean Tranter (Honda), 20 Nicholas Leer(Suzuki).
RACE THREE: 1 O'Leary, 2 Payne, 3 Delaney, 4Mercer, 5 Mathia, 6 Lane, 7 Dunham, 8 Agius, 9 Taylor, 10 Halls, 11Greenwood, 12 Benjamin, 13 Porter, 14 Truman, 15 Pearce, 16 Dobson, 17Colin Conduit (Honda), 18 Roe, 19 Shaun Scrivens (Yamaha), 20 Wall.
OVERALL ON DAY: 1 O'Leary 70 points, 2 Payne 67, 3 Delaney 54, 4 Mercer 54, 5 Lane 44, 6 Halls 35.
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Mercer 162 points, 2 O'Leary139, 3 Payne 118, 4 Lane 111, 5 Delaney 108, 6 Porter 106, 7 MarkHooley 83, 8 Pearce 80, 9 Agius 80, 10 Fish 73, 11 Mathia 55, 12 Halls53, 13 Nixon 53, 14 Dunham 52, 15 Taylor 50.
OPEN CLASS (sponsored by Jones and Co (Welshpool LTD)/ Harry Tuffins Supermarkets Ltd)
RACE ONE: 1 Ben Saunders (Race Connections Honda),2 David Campbell (Honda), 3 Jamie Powell (Atlantic Yamaha), 4 AaronCrowder (Sandiford Honda), 5 Charlie Hollis (Invek Foods Honda), 6Clinton Barrs (Wildmoor Wulfsport Honda), 7 Simon Lane (Honda Equipe),8 Rick Du-Feu (Delkevic Kawasaki), 9 Danny Blakeley (Silvester Yamaha),10 Paul Coward (Honda), 11 James Shaw (Delkevic Kawasaki), 12 RichardMeakin (Honda), 13 Craig Chamberlain (Kawasaki), 14 Steve Bailey(Honda), 15 Craig Martin (Honda), 16 Aaron Poolman (G&S PatiosHonda), 17 Martin Jones (Honda), 18 Justin Bolton (Mission Honda), 19David Wright (Sandiford Honda), 20 Andrew Summerton (Yamaha).
RACE TWO: 1 Campbell, 2 Saunders, 3 Hollis, 4Du-Feu, 5 Crowder, 6 Powell, 7 Lane, 8 Blakeley, 9 Poolman, 10 Bolton,11 Wright, 12 Coward, 13 Bailey, 14 Meakin, 15 Chamberlain, 16 Barrs,17 Sean Eckersley (Delkevic Kawasaki), 18 Stefan Garton (KTM), 19Jones, 20 Gavin Hookham (Honda).
RACE THREE: 1 Saunders, 2 Barrs, 3 Hollis, 4Du-Feu, 5 Campbell, 6 Crowder, 7 Poolman, 8 Blakeley, 9 Chamberlain, 10Lane, 11 Jones, 12 Meakin, 13 Bailey, 14 Coward, 15 Eckersley, 16Hookham, 17 Martin, 18 Shaw, 19 Garton, 20 Bolton.
OVERALL: 1 Saunders 72 points, 2 Campbell 63, 3 Hollis 56, 4 Du-Feu 49, 5 Crowder 49, 6 Barrs 42.
SERIES STANDINGS: 1 Saunders 185 points, 2Campbell 176, 3 Hollis 130, 4 Crowder 122, 5 Lane 110, 6 Powell 104, 7Poolman 103, 8 Du-Feu 98, 9 Barrs 96, 10 Blakeley 75, 11 Coward 60, 12Chamberlain 58, 13 Jason Rennie 57, 14 Wright 55, 15 Meakin 49.
Championship Non-Qualifiers - Overall: 1 PhilLloyd 42 points, 2 Rob Crowe 42, 3 Tom Neesam (Delkevic Kawasaki) 38, 4James Shand (KTM) 34, 5 Joe Meachin (Yamaha) 34, 6 Ryan Pridmore(Honda) 26, 7 Thomas Wightman (Honda) 26, 8 Andy Marchant (KTM) 25, 9Michael Du-Feu (Suzuki) 23, 10 Duncan Winnall 22, 11 Jon Marshall 21,12 Wayne Williams (KTM) 20, 13 Chris Rose 18, 14 Barry James 18, 15 SamHyde (Honda), 10, 16 Colin Conduit (Honda) 7.
Expert Unlimited (sponsored by E+M Motor Factors Aberystwyth): 1 Terry Jukes 25 points, 2 Darren Bennett 25, 3 Kevin Rogers 24.
Senior Unlimited (sponsored by Ray Bloor Haulage): 1 Paul Bagnall 27 points, 2 Ryan Crowder 25, 3 Barry Moore 22.
Junior Unlimited (sponsored by Mid Wales Shooting Centre): 1 Richard Jones 30 points, 2 Richard Hathaway 20, 3 Adam Jones 18.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, August 3, 2007.