Seven Up' for Simon
By TMX Archives on 12th Oct 07
UPTON MCC ran its annual two-day meeting at the superb Bromsberrow track at the weekend, hosting the penultimate round of the AMCA Sidecar Championship. Bradford Racing's number one sidecar combination, Simon Bradford and Simon Morgan, had three faultless rides to regain the lead at the top of the table, after series leaders Steven France and Martin Taylor had a disappointing outing which saw them drop to second in the standings.
The club worked hard all weekend, grading thetrack in between races, but suffered at the hands of the start gate,which caused an unusually high number of red flags over both days.Notable for its rough sandy terrain, the Bromsberrow sand forced itsway into the gate mechanism, preventing it from dropping correctly.Despite the problems, the club persevered and ran all three blocks overboth days with some fast competitive racing.
Some 19 outfits lined up for the opening sidecarrace with two of the top five outfits missing. John and Scott Grahamestormed off the gate in the opening moto, followed by France/Taylor.Alan and Tony Grahame suffered a nasty spill in the opening lap,causing them to dnf.
It was all change on lap two, as Bradford/ Morgancame into view, with France/ Taylor nowhere to be seen, the reasonlater explained as a blown engine.
Bradford cruised home to an easy win ahead of Alan Peever/ Anthony Phillips and Mark Banks/ Mike Geraghty.
Bradford holeshot race two and within a few lapshad opened up a nice lead on second placed France/ Taylor, who hadmanaged to change the engine between races.
Midway through however, the race was red flaggedwith five outfits stuck on a hill, blocking the track. The restart wasred flagged immediately as the gate didn't drop. The club sent theJuniors out for their second race, whilst members worked tigerishly tofix the gate. Third time lucky, the gate dropped and the outfitsstormed off the line, with Bradford taking his second win of the day,followed home by France/ Taylor and France/ France.
The final Sidecar race was once again red flagged,the unwitting perpetrators Bishop/ Evans disqualified from the restart.If Steven France thought his day had been disastrous till then, littledid he know worse was to come.
Swapping bikes with dad, Ron, France lined up forthe final race with Stewart France, as regular crewman Taylor hadbroken his hand in race two. Tony Phillips jumped onboard with RonFrance, as Peever's clutch had gone in race two.
Bradford/ Morgan holeshot again for the final timeand claimed the win while Ste France, unbelievably, snapped the chainon his (swapped) machine loosing him valuable championship points. Alanand Tony Grahame finished the race in second place followed by Banks/Geraghty in third.
Bradford now leads the Sidecar series, 32 points clear of second place France/ Taylor.
**Full report in T+MX issue October 12, 2007.
RESULTS
AMCA SIDECAR-CROSS SERIES
Rd 7 – Bromsberrow (Upton Motorsports Club)
1 Simon Bradford/ Simon Morgan(H'berg) 25 + 25 + 25 = 75
2 Mark Banks/ Michael Geraghty(VMC) 20 + 16 +20 = 56
3 Ron France/ Stewart France(EML) 14 + 20 +18 = 52
4 Keith Helliwell/ Simon Dadson(KTM) 15 + 15 +16 = 46
5 Andy Grahame/ Neil Friary(EML) 18 + 18 + 7 = 43
6 John & Scott Grahame (EML) 13 + 8 +14 = 35
7 Alan Grahame/ Dean Evans (EML) 0 + 11 +22 = 33
8 Matthew Taylor/ Mikey Evans(KTM) 6 + 12 + 15 = 33
9 Colin Griffiths/ Martin Brown(VMC) 11 + 13 + 9 = 33
10 Steven France/ Luke Peters (EML) 3 + 22 + 8 = 33
11 Thomas Mann/ Neil Burke (BSU) 12+7+12=31, 12Mark & Melissa Griffin (Suzuki) 4+10+13=27, 13 Andrew & DavidNourish (Zabel BSU) 7+9+10=26, 14 Alan Peever/ Tony Phillips (KTM)22+4+0=26, 15 Stephen Evans/ Darren Bishop (Husaberg) 9+14+0=23, 16Ross Bowers/ Dan Phelps (Husaberg) 5+5+11=21, 17 Edward Turner/Kristian Turner (KHR) 10+6+0=16, 18 Glen & Grahame Howard (BSU)16+0+0=16, 19 Neil Warrington/ Chris Whatmore (WJM) 8+0+0=8.
RACE ONE: 1 Simon Bradford, 2 Peever, 3 Banks, 4Andy Grahame, 5 Howard, 6 Helliwell, 7 Ron France, 8 John Grahame, 9Mann, 10 Griffiths, 11 Turner, 12 Evans, 13 Warrington, 14 Nourish, 15Taylor, 16 Bowers, 17 Griffin, 18 Steven France.
RACE TWO: 1 Simon Bradford, 2 Steven France, 3 RonFrance, 4 Andy Grahame, 5 Banks, 6 Helliwell, 7 Evans, 8 Griffiths, 9Taylor, 10 Alan Grahame, 11 Griffin, 12 Nourish, 13 John Grahame, 14Mann, 15 Turner, 16 Bowers, 17 Peever.
RACE THREE: 1 Simon Bradford, 2 Alan Grahame, 3Banks, 4 Ron France, 5 Helliwell, 6 Taylor, 7 John Grahame, 8 Griffin,9 Mann, 10 Bowers, 11 Nourish, 12 Griffiths, 13 Steven France, 14 AndyGrahame.
SERIES STANDINGS after 7 (of 8) rounds: 1Bradford/ Morgan 434 points, 2 France/ Taylor 402, 3 Grahame/ Friary327, 4 Petty/ Machin 279, 5 Grahame/ Evans 274, 6 Bradford/ James 270,7 Helliwell/ Dadson 268, 8 Banks/ Geraghty 247, 9 Peever/ Phillips 238,10 Grahame/ Grahame 229, 11 Evans/ Bishop 198, 12 Howard/ Howard 195,13 France/ France 175, 14 Rowlands/ James 168, 15 Griffiths/ Brown 164,...
NEXT ROUND: Nov 4 – Upavon (Upavon MXC).