Red hot Blax'!
By TMX Archives on 2nd Jul 09
ONCE again and despite the heat the Woodbridge club's Blaxhall circuit in Suffolk produced a day full of hard and fast racing as it hosted round four of the 2009 ACU MMX Motocross Championship last weekend...
In the Open class, the hard man of British motocross, fresh from his MX3 win in Holland, PAR Homes Honda rider Brad Anderson, didn't have things all his own way, but still managed to climb onto the top step of the winners podium, and in so doing closed the gap on series leader Kristian Whatley to just six points with two round to go.
And in the PAR Homes sponsored Under 21 Championship, Anderson's team mate, Scott Elderfield, turned on the style in both races and is now involved in a three-way battle for the championship as he, Shane Carless and Graeme Irwin are all on the same number of points.
It was hot, very hot, with most spectators diving for the shade of the trees whenever they could, but the club had worked overtime and the track was in excellent condition with hardly a hint of dust.
RELENTLESS Suzuki rider Martin Barr had set the fastest time in qualifying but badly twisted his knee in turn one of race one and took no further part in the meeting. While this was going on Danny Smyth on his Eastwood Honda took the holeshot with Scott Columb on another Relentless Suzuki in his wheel tracks as Keith Rice, Jamie Smith and Jamie Tempest all ended in a heap in turn two.
By the end of the opening lap, Columb was in the lead from Whatley as Smyth was pushed down to third and Anderson up to fifth. Three laps later, Anderson was in third and hunting down a flying Whatley with Carl Nunn on his NVR-D Suzuki leading up the best of the rest.
At the halfway stage things all got shook up as Anderson charged up the inside of Columb for the lead, sent him wide and over the berm, giving Whatley the chance to snatch second. But Whatley wasn't about to give up the chance of a win so he shadowed Anderson all the way, hoping for a mistake which never came. So Anderson took the first win of the day by just over a second from Whatley with Nunn, who had passed Columb with four laps to go, third, allbeit almost 11 seconds behind the two leaders.
Hardly noticed by most, Elliott Banks-Brown had had problems at the start and finished the first lap way down in 30th place, but lap after lap he had made his way forward and by lap 11 he was up to eighth, the position he finished.
Nunn got the holeshot in the second race, with Anderson and Whatley chasing him with Banks-Brown hanging on to their tails. Anderson took the lead on lap five as Whatley crashed down to seventh place, saying afterwards, "Was my own fault, I just used too much front brake and went down.”
By the halfway stage, Banks-Brown had passed Nunn for second from fifth on lap one and was now closing in on Anderson and the lead and it looked like it was going to be a great battle for the win. For the best part of a lap the two leaders were both going for it and the lead changed three or four times till as they went into the corner after the finish line - and only Anderson came out. He explained, "We were having a good go, but as we came into the corner Elliott went for the inside line and caught my back wheel and he came off.”
Banks-Brown was hurting a bit and went back to the paddock leaving Anderson in the lead with Nunn and Columb chasing. Just when the race looked settled, Anderson had a stone caught in his rear brake that had him off, leaving Nunn to take the lead and the win, with Anderson retaking Columb for second.
GRAEME Irwin and Shane Carless got the holeshot at the start of the first Under 21 race but as the dust settled Lewis Abbot was seen picking up his KTM from halfway down the start straight. Scott Elderfield took the lead on lap two and slowly stretched out a lead of just over five seconds which he held till the chequered flag. Carless took second from early leader Irwin, also on lap two, and held onto that position till the flag with Richard Sandberg fourth, almost a minute behind the leading three.
Alan Keet on his Pro-Seal KTM made hard work of the race as from starting 13th he eventually finished the race in fifth.
In the second encounter, once again Irwin got the holeshot but before the opening lap was over Elderfield was in the lead and checking out. On lap three, Carless found a way past Irwin who was disappointed with his pace and the three riders finished in that order, with Elderfield's winning margin just over 11 seconds with Irwin another three seconds back.
Sandberg started the race in sixth, was quickly up to fourth and, apart from passing Irwin for a lap, was where he finished.
James Hutchinson had a great race as he started in 23rd and made his way up the field to finish in eighth place, just behind Lewis Tombs and James Lassu.
In the three-leg Support event Darren Murfitt won overall as double race winner, Andrew Fisher struggled in race two dropping him to third behind local rider James Potter.
BRITISH UNDER 21 MOTOCROSS CHAMPS Rd 4 – Blaxhall MP, nr Woodbridge (Woodbridge & DMCC)
1 Scott Elderfield (PAR Honda) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Shane Carless (Moto One KTM) 22 + 22 = 44
3 Graeme Irwin (KTM UK) 20 + 20 = 40
4 Richard Sandberg (Twisted 7 Honda) 18 + 18 = 36
5 James Lassu (Lassu KTM) 15 + 15 = 30
6 Alex Rockwell (R&T Yamaha) 12 + 16 = 28
7 James Hutchinson (KTM) 13 + 13 = 26
8 Daniel Arnold (LPE Kawasaki) 11 + 14 = 25
9 Lewis Tombs (Utag Yamaha) 14 + 10 = 24
10 Ashley Greedy (Talbot Cabs Kawasaki) 10 + 12 = 22
11 James Dodd (MotoXtreme Kawasaki) 9+11=20, 12 Alan Keet (Kawasaki) 16+0=16, 13 Matt Burrows (Relentless Suzuki) 6+9=15, 14 Will Worden (Wheeldon Suzuki) 5+8=13, 15 Ewen McLaren (KTM) 7+6=13, 16 Brad Cavill (Stevens (Devizes) Yamaha) 8+3=11, 17 Michael McCammond (TSR KTM) 0+7=7, 18 Brad Tomlin (GH Suzuki) 2+4=6, 19 Gregory Fisher (Twisted 7 Honda) 0+5=5, 20 David Goosen (D&B KTM) 4+0=4, 21 Ross Hill (KTM) 3+0=3, 22 Harry McKenna (KRM Yamaha) 0+2=2, 23 Christopher Wratten (Hanson Yamaha) 0+1=1, 24 Junior Thomas (Yamaha) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Elderfield, 2 Carless, 3 Irwin, 4 Sandberg, 5 Keet, 6 Lassu, 7 Tombs, 8 Hutchinson, 9 Rockwell, 10 Arnold, 11 Greedy, 12 Dodd, 13 Cavill, 14 McLaren, 15 Burrows, 16 Worden, 17 Goosen, 18 Hill, 19 Tomlin, 20 Thomas.
RACE TWO: 1 Elderfield, 2 Carless, 3 Irwin, 4 Sandberg, 5 Rockwell, 6 Lassu, 7 Arnold, 8 Hutchinson, 9 Greedy, 10 Dodd, 11 Tombs, 12 Burrows, 13 Worden, 14 McCammond, 15 McLaren, 16 Fisher, 17 Tomlin, 18 Cavill, 19 McKenna, 20 Wratten.
SERIES STANDINGS after 4 (of 8) rounds: 1 Elderfield 166 points, 2 Carless 166, 3 Irwin 166, 4 Sandberg 134, 5 Keet 92, 6 Rockwell 92, 7 Dark 87, 8 Arnold 85, 9 Goosen 78, 10 Dodd 72, 11 Waterman 57, 12 Tombs 57, 13 Lassu 51, 14 Nicholls 50, 15 Cavill 40, 16 Remmer 39, 17 Cottrell 32, 18 Burrows 32, 19 Hawkins 29, 20 Hutchinson 26,...
NEXT ROUND: August 2 – Comerton Farm, Leuchars, Fife (Glenrothes Youth MCC).
BRITISH OPEN MOTOCROSS CHAMPS Rd 4 – Blaxhall MP, nr Woodbridge
(Woodbridge & DMCC)
1 Brad Anderson (PAR Honda) 25 + 22 = 47
2 Carl Nunn (MVR-D Suzuki) 20 + 25 = 45
3 Scott Columb (Relentless Suzuki) 18 + 20 = 38
4 Kristian Whatley (Hanson Kawasaki) 22 + 16 = 38
5 Neville Bradshaw (DB Honda) 16 + 18 = 34
6 Alex Snow (KTM UK) 14 + 15 = 29
7 Jamie Law (Relentless Suzuki) 12 + 14 = 26
8 Danny Smyth (Eastwood Honda) 15 + 10 = 25
9 Luke Benstead (Danger UK Honda) 10 + 8 = 18
10 Sam Simmons (Moto-Ward Yamaha) 5 + 12 = 17
11 Jamie Smith (LPE Kawasaki) 6+11=17, 12 Ashley Wilde (Manchester Xtreme Yamaha) 9+7=16, 13 Lloyd Vercuil (JS Racing KTM) 0+13=13, 14 Elliott Banks-Browne (LPE Kawasaki) 13+0=13, 15 Lewis Rose (LPE Kawasaki) 11+0=11, 16 Syd Bales (GH Suzuki) 7+3=10, 17 John May (Meredith Suzuki) 0+9=9, 18 Andreas Johansson (Twisted7 Honda) 2+6=8, 19 Jason Morland (Honda) 4+4=8, 20 Luke Mellows (Meredith Suzuki) 8+0=8, 21 Alex Butler (Kawasaki) 0+5=5, 22 Robert Barney (KTM) 3+0=3, 23 Jason Boutell (Boutell Electrical Suzuki) 0+2=2, 24 Lee Foyle (D&B Suzuki) 0+1=1, 25 Alex Reitveld (Honda) 1+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Anderson, 2 Whatley, 3 Nunn, 4 Columb, 5 Bradshaw, 6 Smyth, 7 Snow, 8 Banks-Browne, 9 Law, 10 Rose, 11 Benstead, 12 Wilde, 13 Mellows, 14 Bales, 15 Smith, 16 Simmons, 17 Morland, 18 Barney, 19 Johansson, 20 Reitveld.
RACE TWO: 1 Nunn, 2 Anderson, 3 Columb, 4 Bradshaw, 5 Whatley, 6 Snow, 7 Law, 8 Lloyd Vercuil, 9 Simmons, 10 Smith, 11 Smyth, 12 May, 13 Benstead, 14 Wilde, 15 Johansson, 16 Butler, 17 Morland, 18 Bales, 19 Boutell, 20 Foyle.
SERIES STANDINGS after 4 (of 8) rounds: 1 Whatley 159 points, 2 Anderson 153, 3 Nunn 144, 4 Snow 117, 5 Columb 109, 6 Bradshaw 105, 7 Law 94, 8 Smyth 94, 9 Barr 85, 10 Willet 50, 11 Banks-Browne 48, 12 Lloyd Vercuil 45, 13 Rose 43, 14 Tom Church 42, 15 Sword 42, 16 Wilde 37, 17 Simmons 35, 18 Mellows 35, 19 Gregory 34, 20 May 32,...
NEXT ROUND: August 2 – Comerton Farm, Leuchars, Fife (Glenrothes Youth MCC).
SUPPORT CLASS
Support: 1 Darren Murfitt (250 KTM), 2 James Potter (125 Kawasaki), 3 Andrew Fisher (450 Honda), 4 Sam Smith (250 Suzuki), 5 Matthew Hunt (450 Honda), 6 Liam Faiers (125 Kawasaki), 7 Rhys Loran (250 Suzuki), 8 James Jackson (250 Suzuki), 9 Dan Richardson (450 Suzuki), 10 Oliver Champness (250 Kawasaki).
Danny Smyth (64) takes control of an early lead ahead of Scott Columb (28) at the start an Open class encounter.