Upton MXC at Longdon

Written by MIKE WOOD Tuesday, 24 May 2011 00:00

It was the first meeting of the year for the Upton club, which was held at their fantastic track at Longdon. The club had spent 4 hours the previous day watering the circuit, plus there was a lot of rain on the Saturday night – so the huge turn out of riders had near perfect conditions come the racing.

There was a very stiff wind blowing across the hill-side course throughout the whole day, and although this dried the surface out very quickly, and dust that was kicked up was almost immediately blown away, so there was no additional watering required during the day.

First out were the MX2 Experts and their first two races were almost exact copies of each other – Ben Saunders lead Scott Williams from start to finish, with Cory Mcshane coming through in the early laps to take third each time. However, it was all change in race three, Saunders failed to make the start due to a problem in the second MX1 Experts race that caused him to miss the rest of the day. Now it was Williams that lead from the first lap, with Mcshane getting past Leigh Martin to resolve second and third places – which was how the overall podium stood after all three races.

The only other two groups that were not won by perfect scores, were the MX2 Seniors and the MX2 Juniors under 18’s. Ryan Davis looked to be well on course for three race wins, but was denied a clean sweep by Jordan Davies in race three, who just pipped him by one second as they crossed the line. Both Michael Croudace and Adam Litchfield were set for good results on the day, but race three went wrong for both of them, with Croudace failing to finish and Litchfield only managing a 15th. This meant the overall went to Ryan Davis, with Jordan Davies getting 2^nd with a 10^th 8^th and a win, with Paul Bennett getting third with a 9^th 4^th and a 3^rd. The MX2 Juniors under 18 class was split with just two points covering the top four places on the day. Sam Mumford tied with Brad Davies with 149 points, with Sam getting the verdict with his race three win over Brad’s second place. Ben Hodgkins tied with Josh Jones on 147 points, but Ben had the stronger result in the final race with a 3^rd as an error dropped Josh from the lead to the back of the pack and he could only recover to 9^th place.

Zak Watkins was untouchable in the Inter Junior class, taking three very easy wins on the day. Grant Jones led the rest of the pack home each race in second place, but was still over 25 seconds behind Zak each time. David Fellows had already racked up two 3^rd places come the final race, but he crashed after the rhythm section in race three which dropped him to last place. Despite a spirited fight back, he could only climb his way back to 5^th place – but this was still enough to give the final podium spot overall. Other clean sweeps went to Nick Woodward in the MX1 Juniors, Jamie Chandler in the MX2 Juniors over 18 class and Matthew Evans in the MX1 Seniors.

Spectacle of the day had to go the formation flying of the Lanes’ Brothers in the final MX1 Experts race. They had already placed 1^st and 2^nd in each of the first two races, with James beating Simon each time. However, Simon was determined to take at least one victory on the day and really put up a fight in race three. They were never more than a second apart for the whole race, and were regularly side by side at several parts round the track. On lap six it looked as if Simon had found his way through and led briefly, trying everything he could to put a gap between him and his brother. However, James gathered himself together and launched a blistering counter attack, forcing his way back to the front on the very next lap and was just able to hold Simon off for the rest of the race.

Big thanks go to Sarah Jane Pollock and the Upton MX Club, who put in a huge amount of work getting the track prepped for racing. Thanks to a lot of time and money spent watering the circuit, all three blocks of racing were completed, despite the very long run of dry weather we have had. They had also modified the rhythm section along the bottom of the hill, which whilst still a challenge to all the riders, didn’t cause any races to be stopped. The next meeting to be held at this venue is on the 3^rd of July when they host round 4 of the group championship.

Report and images by Dave Richards

David Richards (www.mxdave.com)

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