Stylish Searle makes lite work of Sheffield
By TMX Archives on 9th Nov 07
AS the long standing Future West promoted supercross series returned to full British Championship status, American Jeff Alessi and KTM's home grown hero Tommy Searle were the big Pro class winners at round one of the championship at the Hallam FM Arena, Sheffield, on Saturday night.
The traditional opener to the British supercrossseason, Sheffield again opened what is scheduled to be a four-round,three-venue series, taking in Liverpool and London in the new year, infront of a sadly less than packed house inside the Hallam FM Arena.However, those in attendance were treated to one of most closelymatched Pro class line-ups for a number of years, including classwinners Alessi and Searle, newly crowned British MX2 champ Mike Brown,American Jason Thomas, Gordon Crockard, popular Canadians ColtonFacciotti and Jean Sebastien Roy, Lewis Gregory, Shaun Simpson and more.
A small, fast and not particularly challengingtrack greeted riders, save for the usual whoops section which caughtmore than a few out, but it did make for close racing right the waythrough the Pro classes. However, at the end of the day, both Pro Liteswinner Searle and Pro Open victor Alessi both just had the legs on therest of the field.
Searle's victory in the Lites class came ahead ofthe veteran Roy and the impressive Shaun Simpson, making his debutaboard the Wulfsport KTM. Alessi held off a strong challenge from MikeBrown to take the win, while former Future West champion Facciotticlaimed the final podium position.
Elsewhere on the night, there were wins forCharlie Hollis and Ricky Lethaby in the Clubman ranks, while crowdfavourite Max Anstie headed-up the list of winners in the Youth classeswhich also included Lewis King, American Logan Karow, Ben Watson andJamie Clark.
FUTURE WEST ACU BRITISH SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd1 - Hallam FM Arena, Sheffield
PRO OPEN: 1 Jeff Alessi (Hon), 2 Mike Brown (Hon),3 Colton Facciotti (Yam), 4 Jason Thomas (Hon), 5 Shaun Simpson (KTM),6 Jean Sebastien Roy (Yam), 7 Xavier Hernandez (Yam), 8 Doug Dehaan(Hon), 9 Ryan Lockhart (Suz), 10 Ashley Greedy (Hon).
PRO LITES: 1 Tommy Searle (KTM), 2 Jean SebastienRoy (Yam), 3 Shaun Simpson (KTM), 4 Colton Facciotti (Yam), 5 LewisGregory (Suz), 6 Ashley Greedy (Hon), 7 Xavier Hernandez (Yam), 8Elliott Banks-Browne (Suz), 9 Luke Remmer (Yam), 10 Ryan Lockhart (Suz).
CLUBMAN OPEN: 1 Charlie Hollis (Hon), 2 DarrenManning-Coe (KTM), 3 Danny Blakely (Yam), 4 Mark Atkinson (???), 5Martin Downer (Hon), 6 Joe Gregory (Hon), 7 Billy Raffle (Hon), 8 PeterEccles (Kaw), 9 Alex Hornsby (???), 10 David Durose (Yam).
CLUBMAN LITES: 1 Ricky Lethaby (Yam), 2 DarrenManning-Coe (KTM), 3 Carl Jones (Hon), 4 Cossard Vincent (Hon), 5 BradNixon (KTM), 6 David Hornby (Hon), 7 Danny Whitworth (Suz), 8 LukeKennett (Hon), 9 Scott Wallis (Kaw), 10 Gavin Foulston (KTM).
YOUTH 125: 1 Lewis King (Kaw), 2 Jordan Booker(KTM), 3 Per Kristian Bakke (Yam), 4 Gavin Foulston (KTM), 5 JoeGregory (Hon), 6 Tom Bennett (KTM), 7 George Winn (KTM), 8 RyanPottenger (TM), 9 Cossard Vincent (Hon), 10 Stevie Medditch (???).
BIG-WHEEL 85cc: 1 Max Anstie (KTM), 2 Jamie Rayner(Suz), 3 Luke Norris (Kaw), 4 Ben Reed (Hon), 5 Ross Clarke (Suz), 6Jake Millard (Suz), 7 Jack Scurfield (Hon), 8 Anthony Reville (Hon), 9Alex Meadows (Hon), 10 Lewis Ellis (Suz).
SMALL-WHEEL 85cc: 1 Logan Karnow (KTM), 2 DanielClark (Hon), 3 James Dunn (Suz), 4 Brady Ward (Kaw), 5 Ryan Butler(???), 6 Harry Brady (Hon), 7 Damon Brooks (Hon), 8 Robery Hales (KTM),9 Michael Eccles (Kaw), 10 Sam Winterburn (KTM).
JUNIOR 65cc: 1 Ben Watson (KTM), 2 Tom Neal (KTM),3 Max Acres (KTM), 4 George Turner (KTM), 5 Alfie Bowtell (KTM), 6 JoshColeman (KTM), 7 Robert Davidson (KTM), 8 Scooter Webster (KTM), 9 SidEvans (KTM), 10 Connor Hughes (KTM).
AUTO: 1 Jamie Clark (Cobra), 2 Keenan Hird (KTM),3 Tommy Schofield (KTM), 4 Max Bickers (KTM), 5 Camlann McDonald (KTM),6 Alfie Mountfort (KTM), 7 Harry Wichman (KTM), 8 Jamie Osborne (KTM),9 Ben Kind (KTM), 10 Dylan Woodcock (KTM).
Next Rd - January 25/ 26, Liverpool ACC, Liverpool.
See T+MX News, Friday, November 9, 2007 for full report and pictures.