Cheltenham MXC at Brookthorpe

Written by MIKE WOOD Wednesday, 07 September 2011 00:00

It was the final meeting of the year for the Cheltenham Spa SC at their track at Brookthorpe, and they closed their season in style with a bumper turn out of riders making the journey to the ever popular circuit.

Almost every class was full and most had a list of reserve riders waiting to get in on the day, with many out of centre riders using their freedom of choice to attend. The day started off wet and gloomy, but the sun soon came out leaving a surface that was in perfect condition to provide some very close racing.

The opening group out after practice was the MX1 Expert class, and this was the only group that provided a perfect score on the day. Adam Harris took three easy wins for the overall, leading every lap of each of his races. There was a fantastic battle behind him between Mark Bayliss and home rider Matt Hitchman, who were tied on points going into their final race. Hitchman got the better start, slotting into second behind Harris, whilst Bayliss quickly made his way past Richard Multon to move into third. Bayliss made his move into second on lap three, but was unable to gap Hitchman, who was being cheered on by the home support. They were never more than a second apart, with the position swapping back and forth between them, but as the flag dropped Bayliss was just able to hold Hitchman off, giving them second and third overall respectively.

The Inter Juniors provided more close action, with John Collins, Owen Hillman and Ross Jones each taking a race win and finishing all of their races on the podium. Race three saw the closest finish, with less then three seconds covering them as they crossed the line, but Collins took the overall thanks to his first race win and two second places, with Hillman second and Jones third. It was a day to forget for Grant Jones who is usually fighting for the overall, but DNF’s in the first two races meant his fourth in the final race was his only points score of the day.

There were three combined Junior groups on the day, mixing the under 18’s, MX1 and MX2 together. Joshua Bishop took the honours in Group One, with two wins and a third in the final moto, with Bradley Davis in second and Harry James in third. Group Two saw home rider Allan Biggs take the victory, finally taking the overall after being the nearly man for the last couple of weeks. He finished tied on points with Ashley Tillings, but Biggs had the better final race placing to just edge Tillings into second overall. Third went to Luke Smith, who had a great scrap with Biggs in the last race. Group Three was taken by Martyn Edginton, who started the day well with a second and a win, but seemed to struggle in the final moto. However, his sixth in the final leg did enough to secure the overall, with Wayne Vance in second and Martin Boseley in third.

Karl Wadley took the overall in the MX1 Seniors, although he was pushed hard by Lewis Stokes and Matthew Morgan. Wadley started the day well with a first and second in the opening races, and rode to fourth in the final to ensure he won the group. Stokes had been leading the first race, but then faded to fifth by the finish, however he made amends by winning race two and taking third in the final leg. Morgan seemed to prefer the harder dustier conditions later in the day, as his victory in race three was a stark contrast to his sixth and eighth in the opening motos.

The MX2 Experts saw a great battle between Ayrton Fiorenzio and Robert Clark. Fiorenzio took race one with a comfortable margin of over twelve seconds, but Clark had reduced the gap to just three seconds in race two. However, the final moto saw Fiorenzio make a bad start and having to fight his way through the field, finishing the first lap in thirteenth place. Meanwhile, Clark quickly moved from third to the lead by lap four, but Fiorenzio had already made his way to fourth by this stage. A lap later, Fiorenzio passed Scott Brown into third and as the laps counted down, looked like he had done enough to secure the overall – but a small error on the final lap saw him drop a couple of places and with no time to recover, crossed the line in seventh place. This meant Clark snatched the overall, with Fiorenzio in second and Joe Russell in third.

Jack Hill took the honours in the MX2 Seniors – his fourth, second and first place finishes giving him the overall in a class that saw the rest of the field struggle for consistent results. Oliver Vaughan continues to recover from injury with a win in race two, giving him second overall. Danny Finch went into the final moto looking like he was going to take the group, but a nightmare start left him stranded in the middle of the pack. Despite some great riding, he was only able to get up to eighth by the end of the race, dropping him to third overall.

Val Biggs and the rest of the Cheltenham Spa SC hosted another great day of racing. The track had been graded and well watered for the start of the day, which kept the dust down to minimum and enabled all the blocks to be completed. Despite the large number of riders that turned up, everything ran smoothly and all the racing was completed on time with very little delay.

David Richards (www.mxdave.com)

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