Sam Connor takes 10th Sidcup Sixty Trial victory

By Dick Law on 22nd Jan 24

News Trials

Sam Connor, on his 300 Beta, put on a trials master class to win the Sidcup Sixty Trial for the 10th time and, with it, received the Youngs Cup. Over 36 very testing sections, Connor lost just four marks, which was 25 less than the second-placed Daniel Da Breo (250 GASGAS), with a performance that even had his fellow Expert Elite competitors scratching their heads in wonder.

Last December, there was a massive pile of rocks tucked away in a corner of the Canada Heights motocross paddock waiting to be used. With a monumental effort by the club over the last six weeks, they were all in place to be used in a number of new and revamped sections, providing the riders with valuable experience of riding rocks, something you don’t get much of down in the southeast of the country.

Luckily for the 150 entered riders and all concerned, the icy cold spell that had frozen the ground and plummeted the temperature down to a record low of minus six had moved away but was unfortunately replaced by gale-force winds that increased in strength during the day.

Connor’s event started well as he cleaned the first 11 impossible-looking sections but needed a steadying one in Section 12. He stayed clean for the rest of the first lap to score just the one mark lost. His second and final lap looked like it was going to be better but an unexpected three on Section 13 – a section he had already cleaned the lap before – upped his total to four. 

Da Breo is obviously not superstitious, as he rode number 13 for the trial. He only lost one in the opening six sections but had a five on the rocks of Section Seven and another in Section 15. Those, with another couple of smaller losses, meant he finished the lap on 14. His second lap started off well with a further five marks lost as he reached Section 16, having picked up a three and a two. But disaster struck as he fived the last two sections on the lap and finished the event with 29 marks lost but that was enough for second place in the Expert Elite class.

Jake Challice (300 TRRS) had one five on his first lap and with a small number of ones and twos ended his lap on 21. He had a much better second lap, losing just three marks on Section Seven – which he had fived on the first lap – and ended the event in third – just one mark behind Da Breo.

Brett Harbud (300 Beta) was six points behind Challice in fourth place, with 10-time event winner Ashley Newbery (300 TRRS) in fifth.

Just as had Sam Connor had in the Expert Elite class, Gus Oblein (300 GASGAS), dominated the Expert slightly easier route. He had just two dabs on his first lap but had a disastrous five on Section 16 at the second attempt for a trial total of seven. Mason Meadows (300 Beta) had two consistent laps, the first for 13 and the second for 15 to give him an event total of 28 and second in class. Graham Marfleet (300 GASGAS) finished just two marks in front of Ronnie Day (300 GASGAS) to snatch third place.

It was close to the top of the Intermediate class, with a single point separating Aiden Bowker (300 Beta) and Leonard Tidd (300 Beta). Tidd was clean on his first lap but had a three and a one on his way to a total loss of four, while in contrast, Bowker had three single dabs on his first lap but cleaned his second lap for a total of three to take the class win. Glenn Keet (300 GASGAS) was third, with Aaron Richardson (300 Beta) fourth.

Both James Williams (250 Montesa) and Ashley Hall (300 Vertigo) finished the Over-40 class riding the Intermediate blue route with the loss of just one dab, so the winner was decided by the furthest clean rule, which made Williams the winner. The same rule decided third place as Lee Brocklehurst (300 GASGAS), Simon Bird, on an old air-cooled Yamaha and Mark Reason (250 Beta) all finished on three.

James Brown, on a vintage TY175 Yamaha, won the Novice class from James Coker (300 Beta) and Geoff Muston (125 Honda).

The furthest clean rule came out again for the Over 50 class on the red route, with Tim Carter (250 Vertigo) and Mike Hinton (300 Vertigo) both finishing on two marks lost. Warren Eves (250 Montesa) was third, with Ian Pape (200 Beta) fourth.

In the Youth classes, Max Dance (125 GASGAS) was the winner of those brave enough to ride the Expert Elite route. He would have finished fifth in the adults.

Kai Fisher (125 TRRS) won the Youth Expert route class, while Tommy Kett (80 Beta) won the Youth Intermediate class. Flynn Joyce (125 Beta) won the Youth Novice class.

2024 Sidcup 60 Trial – results

Expert Elite

Expert

Intermediate

Over 40 Blue Route

Novice

Over 50 Red Route

Youth Expert Eilte

Youth Expert

Youth Intermediate

Youth Novice

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