Rowland's for Baden fruits
By TMX Archives on 26th Feb 09
STEVE Ireland's promise of something special materialised on Sunday as the second round of the WOR Premiership Series blasted off at the brand new Baden Hall venue, near Stafford.The place really is fantastic and has something for everyone. Set in 85-acres of former MOD land, the course boasted three separate woodland sections, real bomb holes, open fields, technical woodland areas plus loads of short, sharp climbs and descents. Considering that 85-acres isn't that large an area, a 15-minute lap was par for the course at around 8.5km.
With a full entry for round two of this prestigious series, the course had to be good. It catered for all level of rider with no real stopper sections but plenty of challenges with room to rest in between.
With a three-nil win for KB Racing in the opening match, the team of Lincoln Brewster, Rowland Morris and Lewis Belfield had some stiff opposition for this event. Enduro guru, Ady Smith, took to the line alongside Rob Reese and Ben Wootton in the Open class with KB Racing's Craig Chadwick making a surprise appearance...
As the first wave of riders entered the first woodland section, there was a logjam for a few seconds as riders sorted themselves out but after that it was all plain sailing.
Smith swapped places with both Brewster and Morris over the three-hour period but disaster struck Smith when another rider fell onto him, flattening the front pipe on his KTM 150SX, pulling the exhaust away from the cylinder block.
Ady battled on and showed just how experience counts by taking the win, until referee Steve Ireland stepped in and showed Smith a ‘red card', eliminating him from the result for illegal refuelling. Smith had pitted for fuel, but failed to kill the engine of his machine, a small technical point perhaps but a rule, which applies to all.
With all the experience of a true Pro, Smith took it well and considered his performance to be good, considering his machine had very little power for the last few laps.
Rowland Morris' dogged determination saw him take the win in the Open class by some two-minutes over team-mate, Brewster, who had a few problems during the three-hours but carried on regardless for the runner-up berth. To complete yet another hat-trick for KB Racing, Lewis Belfield beat Ben Wootton to third by just one-second.
Wootton should have done better but missed a fuel stop and had to cruise for a lap, losing valuable time and places. Rob Reese claimed fifth but didn't look quite on top of his game. Even so, he gave the top four a run for their money and was the final rider to complete 14 laps.
WOR PREMIERSHIP SERIES
Rd 2 – Baden Hall, nr Stoke, Stafford
Open: 1 Rowland Morris, 2 Lincoln Brewster, 3 Lewis Belfield, 4 Ben Wootton, 5 Rob Reese.
Clubman: 1 Craig Parkes, 2 George Knowles, 3 Luke Williams, 4 Neil Marshall, 5 Stuart Gordon.
Over 40: 1 Ray Whittle, 2 Gareth Lloyd, 3 Ian Barnett, 4 Colin Jones, 5 Rob Sewell.
Sportsman: 1 Joe Wootton, 2 Scott Smith, 3 Jason Hicken, 4 Wyn Williams, 5 Lee Thomas.
Beginner: 1 Jake Ingram, 2 Jack France, 3 Craig Gandy, 4 Mike Evans, 5 Craig Folds.
Youth: 1 George Bayliss, 2 Josh Snowden, 3 Josh Parry, 4 Jon Hill, 5 Owain Davies.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2009
Paul Davidson blasts his Suzuki around the new venue of Baden Hall...