Venture across the Desert'
By TMX Archives on 30th Apr 08
THE second round of the Ian Durston Plant Services British Sidecarcross Championship was held at the brilliant Desertmartin track in Northern Ireland. This was the first time the championship had ventured across the water' to the province and it was worth the effort as the track was in excellent condition, though it was tough as the soft sandy track cut into deep ruts as the day progressed making it a real survival of the fittest!
The noticeable absence this week was Luke Peters, passenger to multi-champion, Stuart Brown. Luke injured his wrist while practicing and will be out for at least the next month. The first race started with an early lead for Andy Eastman and Steve Kirwin with Scott Wilkinson and Gary Burt holding second ahead of Brown and stand-in passenger, Colin Dunkley, with Paul Pelling and Andy Breacher alongside. The leading teams stayed close with Brown trying to find a way through.
By the end of lap one Brown held the lead ahead of Wilkinson with Eastman holding third. Despite getting caught in the back marker after a few laps. The leading positions did not change, so Brown and Dunkley claimed a safe win. Behind, Paul Pelling and Tim Breacher held fourth with Dan and Joe Millard taking advantage of a good start to hold fifth despite strong challenges from John Lyne and Pete Girling in the closing laps.
Close behind, Michael Hodges, back with dad Steve as ballast, in the absence of Colin Dunkley, had a great race, finally taking seventh.
In race two, Eastman again headed the battle into the first bend ahead of Pelling with Lyne third.
The action in lap one was fast and furious with Brown fighting through to the front ahead of Lyne with Eastman in trouble, falling back out of the leading places. Wilkinson was in top form, moving through to third, just ahead of Pelling.
After a few laps, all eyes were on the leaders Wilkinson was heading the pack, Brown had gone missing.
At the far side of the circuit, Brown's bike had dug into the deep sand causing him to crash and passenger Colin was taken to the ambulance with a badly damaged collar bone.
Wilkinson held the lead throughout the remainder of the race with Lyne staying close. Pelling held a safe third despite being challenged by Eastman on the final lap. Behind, the Millard boys did well to hold fifth, with Mark and Gary Kinge hanging on to sixth.
For the final race, track conditions were challenging. The sand was now well rutted, especially the corners. For the third time Eastman headed the pack into turn one, ahead of Wilkinson, with Brown and new stand-in passenger, Josh Chamberlain. Within a few laps Wilkinson had taken a safe lead. Brown and Chamberlain were second with Eastman just behind.
With the teams settled into a rhythm it looked like the positions would not change, but in the last few laps of the race, disaster struck for Wilkinson. He stopped at the very same section of the track where Brown crashed in race two. With many back-markers also stuck, he couldn't find a way through. It took Wilkinson a while to get going again and by then Brown had passed and pulled out a safe lead with Eastman third ahead of Pellin.
Wilkinson recovered well and fought back through to fourth. Behind him, the Millard brothers were going well until they derailed the chain. The Kinge brothers used this to their advantage and moved up to fifth just ahead of Andy Breacher. Richard Jenkins was close behind taking his best championship position to date.So after another exciting and eventful day, Brown still holds the championship lead over Pelling, but with one DNF the lead is now just six-points. Wilkinson is just a further four points adrift.
As the battles move to Devon next week, the action will be worth watching see you there!
BRITISH SIDECAR-CROSS CHAMPS
Rd 2 Desertmartin, nr Cookstown, NI
(Quad Racing Ireland)
1 S Wilkinson/ G Burt (700 Zabel VMC) 22 + 25 + 18 = 65
2 A Eastman/ S Kirwin (580 KTM VMC) 20 + 18 + 22 = 60
3 P Pelling/ T Breacher (660 H'varna VMC) 18 + 20 + 20 = 58
4 Brown/ Dunkley & Chamberlain (H'berg) 25 + 0 + 25 = 50
5 Mark Kinge/ Gary Kinge (525 KTM VMC) 13 + 15 + 16 = 44
6 D Millard/ J Millard (650 Husaberg WSP) 16 + 16 + 11 = 43
7 A Breacher/ A Hillyard (KTM VMC) 10 + 12 + 15 = 37
8 John Lyne/ Peter Girling (Zabel VMC) 15 + 22 + 0 = 37
9 R Jenkins/ R Eastman (700 Zabel VMC) 3 + 11 + 14 = 28
10 M Hodges/ S Hodges (KTM VMC) 14 + 14 + 0 = 28
11 Craig Parmenter/ Dan Chamberlain (Zabel VMC) 9+8+9=26, 12 Alan Campbell/ Arthur McMullan (Husaberg VMC) 4+7+13=24, 13 Peter Batt/ Dug Woods (525 KTM VMC) 6+9+8=23, 14 Scott Balsillie/ Neal Bann (650 Husaberg WSP) 8+13+0=21, 15 Tony Murch/ John Murch (525 KTM VMC) 11+10+0=21, 16 Steve Pannell/ Chris Pannell (525 KTM VMC) 7+6+7=20, 17 Ian Durston/ George Galliot (525 KTM VMC) 2+2+12=16, 18 Nick Bowers/ Ben Millard (525 KTM VMC) 5+5+6=16, 19 Alan Sturt/ Chris Sturt (650 MTH VMC) 0+3+10=13, 20 Rob Topp/ Mike Geraghty (525 KTM EML) 12+0+0=12, 21 Stephen Parr/ Brian Parr (Zabel VMC) 0+4+5=9, 22 Paul Rutherford/ Paul Young (580 KTM VMC) 1+0+0=1.
RACE ONE: 1 Brown, 2 Wilkinson, 3 Eastman, 4 Pelling, 5 Dan Millard, 6 Lyne, 7 Hodges, 8 Kinge, 9 Topp, 10 Murch, 11 Breacher, 12 Parmenter, 13 Balsillie, 14 Pannell, 15 Batt, 16 Bowers, 17 Campbell, 18 Jenkins, 19 Durston, 20 Rutherford.
RACE TWO: 1 Wilkinson, 2 Lyne, 3 Pelling, 4 Eastman, 5 Dan Millard, 6 Kinge, 7 Hodges, 8 Balsillie, 9 Breacher, 10 Jenkins, 11 Murch, 12 Batt, 13 Parmenter, 14 Campbell, 15 Pannell, 16 Bowers, 17 Parr, 18 Sturt, 19 Durston.
RACE THREE: 1 Brown, 2 Eastman, 3 Pelling, 4 Wilkinson, 5 Kinge, 6 Breacher, 7 Jenkins, 8 Campbell, 9 Durston, 10 Dan Millard, 11 Sturt, 12 Parmenter, 13 Batt, 14 Pannell, 15 Bowers, 16 Parr.
SERIES STANDINGS after 2 (of 8) rounds: 1 Brown 122 points, 2 Pelling 116, 3 Wilkinson 112, 4 Eastman 110, 5 Kinge 85, 6 Dan Millard 83, 7 Lyne 69, 8 Hodges 69, 9 Breacher 55, 10 Murch 48, 11 Jenkins 40, 12 Topp 39, 13 Jarvis 39, 14 Balsillie 38, 15 Stevens 37, 16 Parmenter 34, 17 Banks 27, 18 Campbell 24, 19 Batt 23, 20 Lines 23,
NEXT ROUND: May 4 Waggadon Farm, Torrington (Torridge & DMCC).
For full report and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, May 2, 2008