Hereford MXC at Walterstone

Written by MIKE WOOD Tuesday, 19 April 2011 00:00

The Hereford club hosted their first meeting of the year at their stunning Walterstone venue on Sunday, which was also the second qualifying round for the MX2 Championships. Practice was delayed by nearly an hour, as the paramedics were late arriving at the circuit, which meant it was going to be a real struggle to fit all 3 blocks of racing into a packed day.

However, two further delays due to injured riders being treated meant that only the MX2 Qualifiers got a third race, as all other groups were cut down to just two races on the day.

The MX2 Qualifiers kicked off the days action, and local rider Kieran Mulloy stormed to the front of the pack, followed by Bradley Tranter and Clinton Thomas. Late entry Lewis Abbott starting working his way forward, and by the halfway point had moved though the pack and up into second bringing Tom Guilding with him. Tom had used a lot of time fighting his way up to third, and Kieran and Lewis had pulled too much of a gap for him to challenge for the win, so he set about consolidating third place. Meanwhile the two front runners were pushing hard and by the flag, Kieran just held off Lewis for the win. Race two roared from the start gate, and it was another great start for Hereford rider Kieran Mulloy as he lead them across the line at the end of lap one. This time, Lewis Abbott got a much better start and didn’t have to come from so far back so he was challenging for the lead right away. By lap three, he had pushed Kieran down to second – and a lap later, Ryan Morris moved into this slot meaning the top three places were Abbott, Morris and Mulloy and as the race ended, this was how they finished. Race three was between Abbott, Morris and Guilding as they gapped the rest of the field. Morris hit the front on lap two, followed by Guilding and Abbott – but second and third swapped by the halfway stage as they fought for crucial points. As the flag came out for the end of the race, it was Morris from Abbott with Guilding in third. This made Lewis Abbott the overall winner, with Ryan Morris in second and Kieran Mulloy just doing enough in race three to hold onto third.

Over in the Junior classes, the MX1 category was won by Andrew Frazer Holland with a first and fourth in his two races. Philip Thomson was second overall with a consistent three / three finish, with Ryan Phillips recovering from a bad first race placing of ninth to win the second race and grab third overall. The MX2 under 18 class was very close, with only 3.5 seconds covering the top three finishers in the second race. Cameron Evans (2,1 finishes) tied on points with Harley Jones (1,2 finishes) – but Cameron’s second race win gave him the tie-breaker, with Adam Litchfield getting third overall with two third places. The MX2 over 18 class was won by Matthew Tooth (4,1) with Martin Boseley in second (3,4) and Darren Savage in third (7,2).

The Inter Junior class was again won by Zak Watkins, who scored a perfect 120 points, from Grant Jones and David Fellows. Although Zak was saved from having to fight his way back from a first lap error when the second race was red flagged so that Alex Goode could be treated for his injuries after he took on the downhill double.

The Experts were combined, so again we had the prospect of seeing Brad Turner on the 450 four stroke up against Ben Saunders on his 150 two stroke. Race one started well and looked like it was going to be a cracking fight, but Ben had to pull out with a technical problem, to give Brad an easy win. However, race two lived up to it’s promise with Brad and Ben locked in battle from the start. Ben held the upper hand through most of the race, but then on lap six Brad managed to get in front and tried to break free. Saunders was not be shaken off, and was keen to make up for the disappointment of his race one DNF and fought back, hitting the front again a lap later. He was just able to hold Turner off at the flag, to give him the race two victory. The MX1 class was won by Brad Turner, with Christian Dicks in second and Andy Watkins in third, and over in the MX2 class Scott Williams took the overall win, with Dan Young in second and Joe Preston in third.

Peter Reed and the Hereford club did a fantastic job of keeping the dust down, with lots of track watering being carried out during the day but without causing delays to the programme. It was a shame that this hard work was not rewarded with a full days racing, but events conspired against them.

Report and images by Dave Richards

David Richards (www.mxdave.com)

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