Points make Champions
By Mike Wood on 7th Oct 11
They think its all over! Well it is now, and its many congratulations to the new AMCA Motocross champions Lee Dunham (MX1) and Shane Holmes (MX2). At a very dull and cool Norley in Cheshire on Sunday, both lads remained totally composed and focussed to earn enough points and bag their respective crowns.
Dunham's final winning margin was just seven-points as his closest rival, Clinton Barrs, did his very best to take it to the wire by defeating Lee in all three motos – a truly gallant and noble effort!
Indeed, the final MX1 podium of the season had a very familiar look about it as Richard Cannings scored maximum points and take the victory with Barrs second and Dunham third.
In MX2, Shane Holmes required just 87-points to take his first ever AMCA crown and in his usual, smooth, untroubled style, he got the job done and dusted with one race to spare.
On the day, Shane finished sixth overall as Jack Taylor took the class win from Paul Neale and Ryan Morris.
About to embark on a 12-month break in Australia, Jack signed off in style, also claiming the Championship silver medal after his closest rival, Ben Saunders, crashed heavily in the final MX2 moto, breaking a toe and injuring his leg in the process.
So, back to MX1, and Clinton Barrs made a perfect start to the day, grabbing the opening holeshot and led Simon Lane, Richard Cannings, Stephen Tillotson, Michael Reynolds and Matthew Williamson while Lee Dunham was down in ninth.
As the race settled down, Lane gradually slipped down the leader-board while Dunham was charging in the opposite direction although, crucially, at this point a very determined Barrs was still the pace-setter.
By lap seven, Dunham was up into third spot but then lost his place following an excursion over the handlebars. However, desperate to retain his pole position in the series standings, Dunham was rapidly on his feet and back in action, re-passing Tillotson for that crucial third spot and 50 big points.
After what had been a tough opening battle, it then got better for Dunham as up front Cannings passed Barrs with just two-laps remaining. Despite blowing his own Honda engine in practice, Lee Payne – on a Kawasaki loaned to him by DK Off-Road – took a super fifth in moto one chased by Reynolds, Jamie Dobson, Lane, Williamson
and Richard Meakin.
This time using a bike from rival Clinton Barrs, Payne had an anxious moment at the start of moto two, frantically pumping air into the Kawasaki's front tyre with a foot pump.
When the gate dropped though it was almost a repeat of the opener as Barrs made another dream start to lead Cannings, with Dunham in sixth and just behind Williamson, Meakin and Shaun Pearce.
On this occasion though, Cannings took just five-laps to overhaul Barrs while Dunham coolly slotted into third and that's the way it remained with Williamson, Pearce, Meakin, Payne, Dobson, Luke Meredith and Glen Phillips all finishing inside the top ten.
So, going into the final MX1 moto of the season, just 11-points separated front runner Dunham and chaser Barrs.
To snatch the title at the last gap, Barrs was looking to take the race win and hope Dunham was lower than third. When the gate dropped, however, a focussed Dunham popped out first and was seriously on the gas, leading the long charge to turn one.
At the end of the lap though, Cannings was in control. Crucially Dunham was still second with Pearce third and Barrs fourth.
Although Barrs eventually moved through and passed both Pearce and Dunham, it was to be a case of ‘what might have been' for the likeable Bristol rider. Instead it was congratulations to Lee Dunham, MX1 Champion in his maiden season on 450F machinery – a great achievement!
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX OCTOBER 7
AMCA MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 8 – Norley, Cheshire (Mid Cheshire MXC) Sponsored by Advance Autosports Ltd
1 Jack Taylor (Delkevic Kawasaki) 47 + 60 + 60 = 167
2 Paul Neale (RaceSpec Kaw) 50 + 50 + 47 = 147
3 Ryan Morris (BCMX Kawasaki) 39 + 39 + 54 = 132
4 Aled Bellis (CF Racing Kawasaki) 45 + 37 + 50 = 132
5 Lewis Abbott (Kawasaki) 43 + 54 + 31 = 128
6 Shane Holmes (IDS Transport Yam) 37 + 41 + 45 = 123
7 Joseph Del-Busso (711MX KTM) 54 + 24 + 33 = 111
8 Ben Saunders (150 AJP KTM) 60 + 45 + 0 = 105
9 Ryan Crowder (Rocket Centre Honda) 17 + 43 + 43 = 103
10 Scott Mathia (Wullfsport Honda) 22 + 35 + 35 = 92
11 Carl Benjamin (Thornbury Kawasaki) 21+29+41=91, 12 Brandon Benjamin (Thornbury Kawasaki) 27+33+29=89, 13 Edward Briscoe (EBL Kawasaki) 41+47+0=88, 14 Scott Williams (Suzuki) 33+27+20=80, 15 Jack Jones (KTM) 19+31+24=74, 16 Dean Swift (KTM) 25+25+22=72, 17 James Chadwick (Suzuki) 23+23+25=71, 18 Adam Wells (Yamaha) 24+17+26=67, 19 Martin Jones (Honda) 26+0+37=63, 20 Jack Forrest (Yamaha) 29+13+18=60, 21 Christopher Hill (Honda) 35+0+23=58, 22 Luke Smith (Honda) 18+19+21=58, 23 Tom Neesam (Suzuki) 31+26+0=57, 24 Bradley Bird (Kawasaki) 15+22+19=56, 25 Lee Clarkson (Kawasaki) 14+20+16=50,...
RACE ONE: 1 Saunders, 2 Del-Busso, 3 Neale, 4 Taylor, 5 Bellis, 6 Abbott, 7 Briscoe, 8 Morris, 9 Holmes, 10 Hill, 11 Williams, 12 Neesam, 13 Forrest, 14 Brandon Benjamin, 15 Martin Jones, 16 Swift, 17 Wells, 18 Chadwick, 19 Mathia, 20 Carl Benjamin.
RACE TWO: 1 Taylor, 2 Abbott, 3 Neale, 4 Briscoe, 5 Saunders, 6 Crowder, 7 Holmes, 8 Morris, 9 Bellis, 10 Mathia, 11 Brandon Benjamin, 12 Jack Jones, 13 Carl Benjamin, 14 Williams, 15 Neesam, 16 Swift, 17 Del-Busso, 18 Chadwick, 19 Bird, 20 Ryan McPartland.
RACE THREE: 1 Taylor, 2 Morris, 3 Bellis, 4 Neale, 5 Holmes, 6 Crowder, 7 Carl Benjamin, 8 Frayne, 9 Martin Jones, 10 Mathia, 11 Del-Busso, 12 Abbott, 13 Brandon Benjamin, 14 Stuart Owen, 15 Wells, 16 Swift, 17 Del-Busso, 18 Chadwick, 19 Bird, 20 Ryan McPartland.
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS after 8 rounds: 1 Shane Holmes 1,146 points (CHAMPION), 2 Jack Taylor 1,093, 3 Paul Neale 1,036, 4 Saunders 1,034, 5 Abbott 912, 6 Frayne 888, 7 Carl Benjamin 860, 8 Morris 839, 9 Mathia 749, 10 Porter 720, 11 Williams 644, 12 Del-Busso 639, 13 Bellis 608, 14 Briscoe 593, 15 Crowder 591, 16 Martin Jones 542, 17 Chadwick 512, 18 Mulloy 481, 19 Brandon Benjamin 469, 20 Hill 451,...
AMCA MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 8 – Norley, Cheshire (Mid Cheshire MXC) Sponsored by Assures Concrete Pumping Ltd
1 Richard Cannings (Craigs Honda) 60 + 60 + 60 = 180
2 Clinton Barrs (Delkevic Kawasaki) 54 + 54 + 54 = 162
3 Lee Dunham (Maxxis Henderson Kaw) 50 + 50 + 50 = 150
4 Lee Payne (Malin Floors Honda) 45 + 41 + 41 = 127
5 Jamie Dobson (350 MTR KTM) 41 + 39 + 45 = 125
6 Matthew Williamson (KTM) 37 + 47 + 31 = 115
7 Michael Reynolds (Suzuki) 43 + 33 + 37 = 113
8 Richard Meakin (Honda) 35 + 43 + 33 = 111
9 Luke Meredith (KTM) 26 + 37 + 39 = 102
10 Shaun Pearce (Peter Jones Honda) 9 + 45 + 47 = 101
11 Stephen Tillotson (Suzuki) 47+26+27=100, 12 James Lane (LRT Honda) 27+27+43=97, 13 Aran Agius (Kawasaki) 29+29+35=93, 14 Simon Lane (LRT Honda) 39+24+29=92, 15 Wesley Egan (Honda) 33+31+25=89, 16 Michael Smith (Honda) 25+19+26=70, 17 Joshua Williams (Kawasaki) 22+25+23=70, 18 Christian Dicks (KTM) 23+21+22=66, 19 Glen Phillips (KTM) 31+35+0=66, 20 Sam Hyde (Honda) 18+23+24=65, 21 Paul Lloyd (???) 20+22+20=62, 22 Matthew Nash (Kawasaki) 17+15+21=53, 23 Adam Castledine (Suzuki) 14+18+19=51, 24 Phillip Foster (???) 16+12+18=46, 25 Sam Callow (Kawasaki) 12+16+17=45,...
RACE ONE: 1 Cannings, 2 Barrs, 3 Dunham, 4 Tillotson, 5 Payne, 6 Michael Reynolds, 7 Dobson, 8 Simon Lane, 9 Williamson, 10 Meakin, 11 Egan, 12 Phillips, 13 Agius, 14 James Lane, 15 Meredith, 16 Smith, 17 Sweeney, 18 Dicks, 19 Joshua Williams, 20 Edward Reynolds.
RACE TWO: 1 Cannings, 2 Barrs, 3 Dunham, 4 Williamson, 5 Pearce, 6 Meakin, 7 Payne, 8 Dobson, 9 Meredith, 10 Phillips, 11 Michael Reynolds, 12 Egan, 13 Agius, 14 James Lane, 15 Tillotson, 16 Joshua Williams, 17 Simon Lane, 18 Hyde, 19 Lloyd, 20 Dicks.
RACE THREE: 1 Cannings, 2 Barrs, 3 Dunham, 4 Pearce, 5 Dobson, 6 James Lane, 7 Payne, 8 Meredith, 9 Michael Reynolds, 10 Agius, 11 Meakin, 12 Williamson, 13 Simon Lane, 14 Tillotson, 15 Smith, 16 Joshua Williams, 17 Simon Lane, 18 Hyde, 19 Lloyd, 20 Dicks.
FINAL SERIES STANDINGS after 8 rounds: 1 Lee Dunham 1,103 points (CHAMPION), 2 Clinton Barrs 1,096, 3 Richard Cannings 1,063, 4 Payne 803, 5 Phillips 753, 6 Michael Reynolds 749, 7 Meredith 747, 8 Williamson 741, 9 Dobson 736, 10 Tillotson 732, 11 Pearce 706, 12 Agius 694, 13 Simon Lane 686, 14 Meakin 679, 15 James Lane 667, 16 Turner 654, 17 Hyde 504, 18 Smith 477, 19 Dicks 435, 20 Crowder 415,...
SUPPORT RACE RESULTS
EXPERT/ NON-QUALIFIERS: 1 Lewis King 180 points, 2 Jack May 142, 3 Jamie Thompstone 139.
SENIOR: 1 Aaron Starkey 174, 2 Luke Woodland 161, 3 Mark Bentley 151.
JUNIOR: 1 Frazer Martin 168, 2 Lucas Bruce 164, 3 Ben Pallier-Singleton 149.
