Ram raiders
By Dick Law on 5th Nov 10
Jason Morris tamed the Ramsgate sand as he stormed to six convincing wins from six starts at last weekend's final two rounds of the BXUK Beach-cross Series at the very sunny Kent coast seaside town.
Morris may have won the last two rounds but Sam Holloway always finished at the sharp end of the field and took the championship by 11 points from Morris.
While Morris was doing the business in the solos a mistake from Ben Morgan in race two on Saturday robbed him of the overall on the day, but he won the rest of the Quad races over the weekend.
Morgan only competed in these final two rounds and coming to the event it was all about Michael Nash and Steve Bradbury and that battle went down to the very last race of the year with Nash just clinching the championship be seven points.
What a weekend, with bright sunshine, a good track and a crowd of about 3,000 according to a local councillor, most of which had never seen motorcycle racing before, and some good battles out on the course and the usual excellent organisation of the members of the QRA headed by the tireless Nash family.
After practice it looked like Morris was going to have to deal with a supper fast Steve Bixby, but after Bixby got the holeshot in race one and was opening up a commanding lead over the pack, Morris fought his way through the pack from seventh at the start and was in second after just two laps, it then all went wrong for Bixby.
He had completed nine laps when he was spat off as the sand grabbed hold of his bike wheels and had a troubled landing on one of the jumps.
The race was stopped as Bixby was taken off to hospital with a suspected broken femur, but word filtered back to the track on Sunday that he had dislocated his hip, which was operated on Saturday night. This handed the win to Morris from Frenchman Stefan Guilbert and Holloway.
With his main challenger gone Morris led race two from start to finish with Guilbert once again following him over the line, all be it some way back as once again Holloway was third but he didn't have an easy race as he had to work his way to the front from almost last on lap one.
Nigel Budgen got the holeshot in the last solo race of the day followed by Holloway and Morris, but by the end of the opening lap Morris was again in the lead with Holloway moving into second on lap two, with Guilbert relegating Budgen down another place on lap four.
In the quad races David Bryer got the first holeshot from Ant Barrett and Andy Heitman, with fast man Morgan down in sixth and in the thick of things.
It took just four laps for Morgan to hit the front with Ant Barrett following him through a lap later for second with Sam Barrett pushing Bryer back a further place on the very last lap.
Heitman took the lead at the start of race with Jon Morgan taking the lead on lap two and holding it for three laps till Sam Barrett claimed the lead and with it the win of race two, with Bradbury second and Ant Barrett, after tipping his quad completely over, third.
As for Ben Morgan, he had a bad start and a crash on the opening lap and didn't seem to really get going and finished fifth.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX NOVEMBER 5.
BXUK Beach-cross Series
Ramsgate Beach Race
Final - Ramsgate Beach, Kent (QRA)
Solo (overall)
Saturday: 1 Jason Morris (Yamaha), 2 Stefan Guilbert (Honda), 3 Sam Holloway (Suzuki), 4 Stefan Dufay (Honda), 5 Nigel Budgen (Suzuki), 6 Richard Bulot (Honda), 7 Henri Huchin (KTM), 8 Jeremy Leuliette (Yamaha), 9 Jack Scott (Yamaha).
Sunday: 1 Jason Morris (Yamaha), 2 Stefan Guilbert (Honda), 3 Nigel Budgen (Suzuki), 4 Sam Holloway (Suzuki), 5 Stefan Dufay (Honda), 6 Richard Bulot (Honda), 7 Henri Huchin (KTM), 8 Marck Darcourt (Honda), 9 Jack Scott (Yamaha).
Final championship top ten: 1 Sam Holloway, 2 Jason Morris, 3 David Willet, 4 Matthew Baylis, 5 Stefan Guilbert, 6 Jamie Wilson, 7 Nick Life, 8 Stefan Dufay, 9 Nigel Budgen, 10 Richard Bulot.
Grand three-lap dash final: 1 Jason Morris, 2 Nigel Budgen, 3 Marck Darcourt, 4 Jack Scott, 5 Aaron Grant, 6 Lewis Syvret.
Quad (overall)
Saturday: 1 Sam Barrett (Suzuki), 2 Ben Morgan (Honda), 3 Ant Barrett (Suzuki), 4 Steve Bradbury (Yamaha), 5 Michael Nash (Polaris), 6 Peter Gallagher (Honda), 7 Jon Morgan (Can Am), 8 Jamie Morgan (Yamaha), 9 Daniel Bloomfield (Honda),
Sunday: 1 Ben Morgan (Honda), 2 Steve Bradbury (Yamaha), 3 Michael Nash (Polaris), 4 Peter Gallagher (Honda), 5 Jon Morgan (Can Am), 6 Nik Blythe (Yamaha), 7 Karl Pilcher (Yamaha), 8 Michael Pittaway (Suzuki).
Final championship top ten: 1 Michael Nash, 2 Steve Bradbury, 3 Jon Morgan, 4 Ollie Drabble, 5 Ben Morgan, 6 Peter Gallagher, 7 Karl Pitcher, 8 Simon Vowles, 9 Nik Blythe, 10 Luke Sanfilippo.
Grand three lap dash final: 1 Ben Morgan, 2 Steve Bradbury, 3 Jon Morgan, 4 Peter Gallagher, 5 Michael Pittaway, 6 Karl Pilcher, 7 Nik Blythe.