Minimoto Racing SEMRC round 1

Minimoto Racing SEMRC Championships – round 1 Ellough Park, March 30-31, 2007

Fine but windy weather was the theme of the weekend, with 150 competitors turning out for round one.

Junior A’s were abundant, with Ben Joseph taking top honours with three straight race wins, chased down by second place rider, Sidney Hargreaves.

Third was where the battle was, with Ryan Folkes coming out on top of Elliot Atheton.

The B’s were a straight Wayne Ryan brace of victories, after which, it was announced that Wayne was not going to compete in the class any longer and was going to concentate on the Conti series.

The Academy series, which runs heavilly restricted machines, belonged to Jake Bayford, with Badley Hughes and Kieran Hagger fighting for second and third, despite his two second places.

Badley Hughes suffered a DNF in race two, handing second overall to Kieran Hagger.

A huge 4.2hp Senior A/B grid saw plenty of close action. Tom Weedon, fresh from some impressive results at Mallory Park on his Jawa RS70, cleared off, leaving Liam Ellis and William Shuckford, to battle out the second and third place standings, with Jake Swarbrick always a threat.

The B’s saw Lewis Taylor, Bernie Hook and Andy Weedon swap paint, tyre marks and almost bikes on what seemed to be almost evey corner!

With the Taylor and Hook both having race wins, although overall finishing results were as above. The superb Air-Cooled A/B class, introduced by the SERMC in 2006 was also to provide thrills a plenty.

With Tom Weedon once agin heading the A’s, Jack Keen scoring a brace of second places to come runner up, and Scott Gullen doing enough to fend off Michael Ford for the final podium spot.

The B’s saw 2006 Champ, Bernie Hook take three straight wins, with Thomas Wright and Andy Weedon fighting for the final two podium places, but the day belonged to Wright.

Production A was another demonstration race by Wayne Ryan, who isn’t going to feature in the class for the remainder of 2007, so Tom Callear was more than happy with his three second places, from the very young Ben Joseph.

The Superlights, which are mixed on the grid at the same time, saw yet another Tom Weedon victory, although second place man, Scott Gullen took the final race win, just to keep Weedon on his toes!

Third overall was Jamie Perrin with three third places.

A very large Production B class provided plenty of action, with Gregory Max-Madero doing enough with a third, win and second to take first place overall.

Even though R6 rider Arter had three straight race wins, Luke asked to be kept out of the results as is concentrating on riding the 600 Yamaha this year.

Second overall went to Stephen Good, although it was a very close run thing, with Will Shuckford (third overall) and Paul Garret detemined to not let Madero have an easy first win.

The Production C/D class was another big ‘un, and was just as hard fought as the B’s, Stephen Fench took top honours…..but without actually winning a race, so close was the action, Peter Bengston came second overall….again, without a race win!

Lewis Taylor came home third overall to top off a good day for him. The D’s was a straight Andy Weedon brace of third, leaving Glenn Bettney in his wake, although the second place points actually went to Neil Tidy with Bettney not being a club member.

Our very own Steve Wade took the third overall points.

The Supers seem to be going through one of it’s doldrum years once again, the A’s was won by Jamie French, with his brother, Stephen taking three straight wins in the B’s.

Lewis Taylor once again came home second and Bernie Hook third.

New for 2007, was the Conti Cup South, despite the newness of the class and riders, the racing was nothing short of stunning. James White and Wayne Ryan, both took race wins, but a bad start in race three was enough to demote Ryan to runner up, with Tomas Doughty securing third overall with a second place in race three.

The Supermoto classes on really starting to grown again, and a huge field ensured some top notch action. Mark Woof, from Luck Devils won Cat A from Simon Gardner, both sharing race wins. The other race winner was Ben Tuner, who turned out to have a nightmare of a day, with two non starts.

Jason Pollen however, I’m sure wasn’t too heartbroken, as he ended up third overall.

The Cat B class belonged to Daryl Martin, a veteran of this class, with Ashley Starr taking second and George Whitton third, despite taking a heavy tumble in race three.

The modified class finally seems to be growing, and with the 2006 Champions absent, it was anybody’s….except Jim Lovell had other idea’s, and shocked everybody with his three race wins for Monstermoto. Second on track was Tim Dance, although the points went to Kate Goldsmith, who was actually placed third overall.

For more information on starting minimoto racing with the SERMC goto www.phoenix-minimoto-racing.co.uk