Report: MCF Grand Slam & Team Event
By TMX Archives on 16th Sep 16
Mildenhall in Suffolk played host to the MCF Team Event for the first time at the weekend.
Despite the changing weather conditions from Saturday to Sunday the circuit held up extremely well making for some of the best racing the event has witnessed to date.
Classified as the Team Event, which saw ten squads take part this year, it also includes the MCF Grand Slam, where the riders race for individual honours and the finale to the season-long MCF Youth League.
The Big-wheel group was first to hit the track for qualifying and two Newton-le-Willows riders set the pace with Luke Goodwin and Aaron McLaughlin both lapping at 1min 42secs.
Their form continued into moto one with Goodwin leading from the start and McLoughlin coming through to second, while Ethan Tollet (90 Racing) took third from an eighth-place start.
The leading duo were at it again in the rain in moto two but this time McLaughlin got the better of Goodwin for the race victory ahead of Thomas Andrew and Ben Clayton of the Cornwall team.
Moto four in the sunshine of Sunday morning was McLaughlin's race to miss and Goodwin narrowly took the win from Tollet and Andrew, with Harvey Thickett (90 Racing) fourth.
McLoughlin won moto five victory with Goodwin's day already complete, Tollet coming in second ahead of Andrew and another 90 Racing rider, William Clare.
The overall victory and Big-wheel Grand Slam title went to Goodwin by three points from McLoughlin with Andrew third, followed by Tollet, Clayton and South West rider, Stanley Earle.
Next up it was the turn of the Small-Wheel 85 riders and South West rider Harvey James set the pace ahead of Portsmouth's Olly Davidson, South Somerset's Jude Morris and 90 Racing's Jay Clark, all breaking a two-minute lap.
Davidson got away at the front of the pack in moto one and maintained a healthy gap throughout, taking victory by 16 seconds from Corsham's Billy Collins, with James third ahead of team-mate Ty Westcott.
Moto two was James' moto to miss and Davidson took another victory, this time ahead of Cameron Box (90 Racing) and Collins.
James was back for moto three but had no answer to the pace of Davidson, who took another big win. Vale rider Trystan Williams edged out Westcott to take third.
Davidson showed that he can ride just as well in sun or rain by winning his fourth and final moto on Sunday morning ahead of Clark Box, with James back in fourth ensuring Davidson of the Grand Slam.
The final moto belonged to James with a slender six-second margin over Portsmouth's Robert Storer, Clark and Morris.
Grand Slam honours in the Small Wheel went to Davidson on maximum points ahead of James, Box, Clark, Williams and Westcott.
Tyla Hooley (90 Racing) was on fire in qualification for the Junior 65cc class with a five-second advantage over Ringwood's Carter Brown and Henry Life.
Being rider No.5 in the 90 Team Hooley wasn't on the line for moto one and it was Life who got away and was running at the front until disaster struck on the final lap, which dropped him to eighth.
South Somerset's Louis Vincent and Billy Askew (90 Racing) made steady progress towards the front and took advantage to finish first and second ahead of Cornwall's Ben Zeale.
Hooley was back on track for moto two and made easy work of his first victory ahead of a fantastic performance from Vale's Grace Richards, with Life and Zeale next home.
Hooley again dominated moto three, chased by Life, while Askew just edged out Grace and Hudson Roper of 90 in fifth.
Hooley took his third win of the event in moto four but this time the margin to Vincent in second was smaller.
South West's Finley James finished third with the leaders still in sight.
Hooley completed his maximum in moto five, with James second from Brown, Zeal and Roper.
That gave Hooley the 65cc Grand Slam title with Vincent, Zeale, Richards, James and Askew making up the top six.
The Auto riders got to race the whole track at Mildenhall and weren't slouching with Graham Haddow (90 Racing) setting the fastest time in 2m 12s, ahead of Levi Hilling (South Somerset) and Charlie Richmond (Portsmouth).
Team 90's Archie Girdham upped his pace and got out the gate ahead of the pack and it took Haddow three laps to wrench the lead away and go on to victory. Girdham crossed the line in second clear of Portsmouth's Alfie Stevenson and Newton's Ben Casey.
Haddow started better in moto two and took the victory from the front with Girdham showing his earlier pace was no fluke, again finishing second.
Corsham's Charlie Hucklebridge had the track sussed and took third ahead of Jake Walker (Vale).
Haddow took another win in moto three ahead of Harris by 30-seconds with another 90 rider, Brandon Buckley, third.
Moto four was Haddow's time to miss out and Hucklebridge took full advantage with the win ahead of Girdham and Kalvin Kelly (90).
The 90 Racing team took a one-two in the shape of Haddow and Kelly in the final moto with Harris third from Cornwall's Kyran Nicholas.
Haddow took another maximum overall ahead of Girdham, Harris, Kelly, Walker and Buckley, putting four 90 Racing riders on the podium.
The Rookie class was the last Youth group and the pace was comparable with the two Adult groups.
Portsmouth's Jake Deacon set quickest time with a 1m45 ahead of Cornwall's Drew Anderson and 90's Kurt Griffiths.
Deacon took his pace into moto one and after following South Somerset's Jake Parker for three laps, moved to the front to take victory by nearly 20-seconds, Parker taking second from Griffiths and Cornwall's Jack Wankling.
With Deacon due to sit out moto two Parker took advantage to win by six seconds from Griffiths, with 90 Racings Connor Fish heading Cornwalls Jake Curtis Stevens.
Deacon was back for moto three – the last race of the day due to time constraints – but Griffiths got away at the front and took victory.
Deacon was under pressure from Anderson and lost second place mid-race finishing third ahead of 90's Daniel Shepherd.
The dry conditions of Sunday morning switched the order around with Anderson taking the win from Shepherd, with Deacon and Griffiths third and fourth.
Griffiths wouldn't be on the line for moto five, so the rest had it all to play for and Deacon was back on form taking a close victory from Shepherd after Anderson had to give a place up for an illegal pass. Curtis Stevens finished fourth.
Grand Slam honours went to Deacon with a five-point advantage over Griffiths with Parker, Shepherd, Anderson and Wankling making up the top six.
The AMX class runs with a 250cc limit and Bradley Wheeler, racing for Corsham, set pole pace by just over a second from 90 Racing's Thomas Kirk, who went on to claim a four-race maximum.
Wheeler crossed the line just ahead of Kirk, with South Somerset rider Harry Pritchard comfortably in third.
It was the same three at the front in moto two, with Portsmouth's Aaron Gordon fourth.
Moto three was held over to Sunday, a saving grace for the riders when the sun came out.
This time Pritchard got the better of Kirk to take second, with 90's Danny Tollet coming home in fourth.
Moto four was Wheeler's final victory as he was due to miss moto five and Gordon this time followed him across the line ahead of Pritchard and Tollet.
Kirk took full advantage in moto five and claimed the win by a second from Pritchard.
Tollet this time was third ahead of Gordon and Portsmouth's Mitch Young.
Wheeler claimed the top step and Grand Slam title ahead of Kirk with Pritchard third.
Joe Clayton set the fastest time in AMX qualifying for South Somerset.
The AMX Open class produced an almost identical time for Portsmouth rider Sean Barnstable in second and another SSMXC rider Corey Hockey in third.
In moto one Clayton and Hockey got away at the front and ran together throughout with Clayton claiming a slender victory.
Portsmouth's Jordan Bachelor got the better of team-mate Nicky Watts for third.
Moto two saw a rematch between Clayton and Hockey but Clayton had enough edge just to take another win, with Portsmouth riders in third and fourth in the shape of Barnstable and Watts.
In Sunday morning's third moto Clayton make it a hat-trick, this time without Hockey in close company, as he had to come through to third following a slow start.
90 Racing team member Lee Harrison took second with Bachelor and Barnstable next home.
Clayton wasn't in moto four but Hockey couldn't take advantage losing out to Harrison and Bachelor in first and second with 90's Josh Bentley fourth.
Clayton was back to claim moto five from Harrison with SSMXC's Luke Williams making a late showing to snatch third .
Clayton was crowned Grand Slam Champion from Harrison with just a point separating him from Hockey in third.
After finishing day one in second place to Portsmouth MXC in the MCF Team table, 90 Racing's riders put in maximum effort on Sunday to snatch the title by 174 points.
South Somerset finished third, with the South West having their strongest showing to date in a very credible fourth place.
Once all of the overall positions had been confirmed, leading to the allocation of the club's final MCF Youth League tally, it couldn't have been closer.
Ringwood MXC came into the event with almost a 300-point advantage over Portsmouth and the North East – who weren't in attendance.
90 Racing MXC jumped up to third following a strong Team Event performance, but Portsmouth edged out Ringwood by a very slender ten-point margin on a total of 8,366 points.
As a prize the club will receive six free events from the MCF in 2017, with Ringwood taking away three as runners-up.
