Shob stopper!
By TMX Archives on 9th Sep 11
Although the Summer of 2011 has not been particularly hot and sunny, it has produced almost constantly dry weather, resulting in dramatically low water table levels. So with the wet stuff in short supply, Shobdon and District MCC must have been happy to hear the weekend weather forecast for rain showers!
Unfortunately, that big watering can in the sky failed to deliver the goods, so with menacing dust clouds rising and the programme already running late, the club decided to pull the plug and eventually abandon its promotion of the penultimate round of the AMCA Motocross Championship after just two blocks of racing.
Before that premature conclusion though, there had been some dramatic action as MX1 series leader, Lee Dunham, watched his title advantage slashed from 77 down to just nine points.
With Dunham suffering a rear-wheel puncture, which relegated him to last place, his closest rival, Clinton Barrs, took both wins and toppped the podium ahead of Richard Cannings and Jamie Dobson – the latter producing his best performance of the season.
Back to his rapid best, Jack Taylor took both MX2 wins to head home riders, Ben Saunders and Paul Neale. Sunday's result now means that Jack has narrowed the gap on second-placed Saunders to a slender three-points, but Shane Holmes is still hot favourite to take the crown!
Earlier in the day on an already bone dry track, Jack Taylor made his intentions perfectly clear by posting the fastest MX2 qualifying time just ahead of Lewis Abbott and Sean Frayne.
When the gate dropped for moto one though, Abbott grabbed the holeshot to lead the pack, chased hard by Taylor, Ryan Morris, Holmes, Saunders, Kristofer Ayres and Scott Mathia.
By lap two it was all change as Taylor hit the front while both Frayne and Paul Neale relegated Mathia. Holding a massive 111-points advantage at the top of the MX2 standings, Shane Holmes could afford to ride conservatively, although in this clash he surprisingly dropped down to finish eighth.
First past the flag was Taylor, as Abbott and Morris made it a Kawasaki 1-2-3. Saunders, despite having a holed radiator, which was rapidly losing coolant, still got home fourth ahead of Frayne and Neale as Carl Benjamin blasted from 13th back to seventh. After starring in the previous round, Ayres disappeared from proceedings on lap five.
Right from the gate in moto two, Taylor led the way, stylishly constructing an eventual eking out a winning margin of 11-seconds. While Jack dominated, there was plenty of action going on just behind. Neale and Saunders locked horns in a great battle for second while Joseph Del-Busso, Frayne and Holmes disputed fourth. They were later joined by Benjamin, who again initially started in 13th.
Despite having some track marking rope wrapped around his rear sprocket, Saunders eventually claimed the runners-up slot with Neale in third, Frayne fourth, Holmes fifth and Benjamin sixth.
After his strong ride in moto one, the unlucky Abbott had to settle for ninth this time, after clipping a post and falling on lap one.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX SEPTEMBER 9
AMCA MX1 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 7 – Shobdon (Shobdon & DMCC)
1 Clinton Barrs (Delkevic Kawasaki) 60 + 60 = 120
2 Richard Cannings (Craigs Honda) 54 + 50 = 104
3 Jamie Dobson (350 MTR KTM) 47 + 45 = 92
4 Stephen Tillotson (Suzuki) 43 + 43 = 86
5 Shaun Pearce (Peter Jones Honda) 33 + 47 = 80
6 Matthew Williamson (KTM) 37 + 41 = 78
7 Luke Meredith (KTM) 39 + 37 = 76
8 Aran Agius (Kawasaki) 31 + 35 = 66
9 Richard Meakin (Honda) 26 + 39 = 65
10 Lee Dunham (Maxxis Henderson Kaw) 8 + 54 = 62
11 Simon Lane (LRT Honda) 27+33=60, 12 Michael Reynolds (Suzuki) 29+29=58, 13 Sam Hyde (Honda) 20+31=51, 14 Lee Payne (Malin Floors Honda) 50+0=50, 15 Chad Yarranton (Kawasaki) 24+24=48, 16 Christian Dicks (KTM) 21+25=46, 17 Michael Smith (Honda) 19+26=45, 18 Edward Reynolds (???) 45+0=45, 19 Darren Marklove (Yamaha) 23+18=41, 20 Glen Phillips (KTM) 41+0=41,...
RACE ONE: 1 Barrs, 2 Cannings, 3 Payne, 4 Dobson, 5 Edward Reynolds, 6 Tillotson, 7 Phillips, 8 Meredith, 9 Williamson, 10 James Lane, 11 Pearce, 12 Agius, 13 Michael Reynolds, 14 Simon Lane, 15 Meakin, 16 Melland, 17 Yarranton, 18 Marklove, 19 Nash, 20 Dicks.
RACE TWO: 1 Barrs, 2 Dunham, 3 Cannings, 4 Pearce, 5 Dobson, 6 Tillotson, 7 Williamson, 8 Meakin, 9 Meredith, 10 Agius, 11 Simon Lane, 12 Hyde, 13 Michael Reynolds, 14 Popperwell, 15 Smith, 16 Dicks, 17 Yarranton, 18 Bond, 19 Callow, 20 Castledine.
RACE THREE: Not run due to dust.
SERIES STANDINGS after 7 (of 8) rounds: 1 Dunham 953 points, 2 Barrs 944, 3 Cannings 883, 4 Phillips 687, 5 Payne 676, 6 Turner 654, 7 Meredith 645, 8 Michael Reynolds 636, 9 Tillotson 632, 10 Williamson 626, 11 Dobson 611, 12 Pearce 605, 13 Agius 601, 14 Simon Lane 594, 15 James Lane 570, 16 Meakin 568, 17 Hyde 439, 18 Crowder 415, 19 Smith 407, 20 Neesam 406,...
FINAL ROUND: October 2 – Norley, Cheshire (Mid Cheshire MXC).
SUPPORT RACES
EXPERT/ NON-QUALIFIER (One Race): 1 Duncan Powell, 2 Darren Bennett, 3 Paul Lloyd, 4 Christopher Childs, 5 Jake Humphreys.
SENIOR: 1 Cameron Evans 114 points, 2 Ben Anderson 114, 3 Lee Jones 97, 4 David Scott 97, 5 Darran Huxley 88.
JUNIOR: 1 James Hockenhull 114, 2 Stefan Archer 114, 3 Chad Prosser 100, 4 Steven Birt 94, 5 Sean Jukes 86.
AMCA MX2 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 7 – Shobdon (Shobdon & DMCC)
1 Jack Taylor (Delkevic Kawasaki) 60 + 60 = 120
2 Ben Saunders (150 AJP KTM) 47 + 54 = 101
3 Paul Neale (RaceSpec Kawasaki) 43 + 50 = 93
4 Sean Frayne (SPS Honda) 45 + 47 = 92
5 Lewis Abbott (Kawasaki) 54 + 37 = 91
6 Ryan Morris (BCMX Kawasaki) 50 + 35 = 85
7 Shane Holmes (IDS Transport Yamaha) 39 + 45 = 84
8 Carl Benjamin (Thornbury Kawasaki) 41 + 43 = 84
9 Joseph Del-Busso (711MX KTM) 35 + 41 = 76
10 Scott Mathia (Wulfsport Honda) 37 + 39 = 76
11 Scott Williams (Suzuki) 29+33=62, 12 Ryan Crowder (Rocket Centre Honda) 25+29=54, 13 Martin Jones (Honda) 27+27=54, 14 Dean Swift (KTM) 24+25=49, 15 Brandon Benjamin (Thornbury Kawasaki) 23+24=47, 16 Adam Wells (Yamaha) 33+14=47, 17 James Chadwick (Suzuki) 19+26=45, 18 Tom Neesam (Suzuki) 22+23=45, 19 Jack Jones (KTM) 26+18=44, 20 Kieran Mulloy (IDS Transport Yamaha) 11+31=42,...
RACE ONE: 1 Taylor, 2 Abbott, 3 Morris, 4 Saunders, 5 Frayne, 6 Neale, 7 Carl Benjamin, 8 Holmes, 9 Mathia, 10 Del-Busso, 11 Wells, 12 Briscoe, 13 Williams, 14 Martin Jones, 15 Jack Jones, 16 Crowder, 17 Swift, 18 Brandon Benjamin, 19 Neesam, 20 Weston.
RACE TWO: 1 Taylor, 2 Saunders, 3 Neale, 4 Frayne, 5 Holmes, 6 Carl Benjamin, 7 Del-Busso, 8 Mathia, 9 Abbott, 10 Morris, 11 Williams, 12 Mulloy, 13 Crowder, 14 Martin Jones, 15 Chadwick, 16 Swift, 17 Brandon Benjamin, 18 Neesam, 19 Bagnall, 20 Meachin.
RACE THREE: Not started because of dust.
SERIES STANDINGS after 7 (of 8) rounds: 1 Holmes 1,023 points, 2 Saunders 929, 3 Taylor 926, 4 Neale 889, 5 Frayne 839, 6 Abbott 784, 7 Carl Benjamin 769, 8 Porter 720, 9 Morris 707, 10 Mathia 657, 11 Williams 564, 12 Del-Busso 528, 13 Briscoe 505, 14 Crowder 488, 15 Martin Jones 479, 16 Bellis 476, 17 Chadwick 441, 18 Ayres 437, 19 Mulloy 437, 20 Hill 393,...
FINAL ROUND: October 2 – Norley, Cheshire (Mid Cheshire MXC).
