Monday June 6, 2011 at 3:48pm
The British Clubman Sidecar Championship headed west for round 5 where a warm welcome from the Cornwall Motocross Club awaited them. The club put on a very smooth well run meeting at Truthan Farm, Trispen. The layout of the track had been changed a bit which caught out a few of the local crews! The club had even ordered warm sunny weather unlike last year which was very wet! The conditions did mean dust but this was contained as much as the club could with watering during the day.
As with most of this season’s series no one team dominated the day’s racing with a different winner in all three races. The line up consisted of 26 sidecars with 20 being registered clubman crews and therefore eligible to score points. Unfortunately Nick Bowers and Pete Batt, who were lying in second place in the championship were missing. Nick was advised by doctors not to ride after picking up an injury to his eye at the previous weekends British Championship round. Neil and Michael Franks are still heading the standings after the round with a lead of 36 over Dave Goddard and Scott Cooper but the overall on the day went to Martin Guilford and Rob Batten who have moved up to third.
Race 1 saw the Franks round the first corner in the lead from Goddard/Cooper who quickly pulled out a gap over Seemond Stephens/Simon Rogers in third who had Guilford/Batten and non clubman Tom Powell/Mike Curnow in hot pursuit. An incident on the third corner saw Luke Peters/Sam Harris dead last and after restarting the bike they set off to make up the lost ground. Guilford/Batten got past Stephens/Rogers but it took a few laps before they could shake them off. Up at the front Franks/Franks finally began to pull away from Goddard/Cooper who then had Guilford/Batten to contend with. Although the track seemed big it wasn’t as wide as it looked and Godard/Cooper hung on to take second place at the flag. Jon Pannell, with his brother Chris in the chair, was on a mission and stormed through the field to finally pick up his best finish yet as they crossed the line in fifth. Their other brother Steve, with his passenger Jo Reynolds, was also having a brilliant race in twelfth until disaster struck on the last lap. Jo lost her footing and was dragged under the sidecar wheel but she got back on to finish the race and score points! Rob and Dan Wade who were following had no where to go and hit Pannell/Reynolds and cartwheeled down the hill but they too were able to restart to pick up points. Wayne Delves/Darren Elcock were another team having their best race of the Clubman’s series crossing the line not far behind Pannell/Pannell in sixth.
Stephens/Rogers, who hail from Newquay, took the holeshot for race 2 and led from the start to the flag with help from the local crowd. They pulled out a healthy lead with Stephen Parr/Jonnie Waters, Franks/Franks and Guilford/Batten in their wake. Parr/Waters then went missing with bike problems leaving Franks/Franks to chase the leaders and dropping Guilford/Batten who in turn had pulled out a huge gap over Delves/Elcock in fourth. Goddard/Cooper who had started the race in twelfth began to pick their way through the field despite passing places being at a premium! The Franks brothers began to reel in the leaders bringing Guilford/Batten with them. A couple of laps from the end it looked like Stephens/Rogers were going to lose the lead but then the Franks began to slow with a sidecar wheel puncture and Guilford/Batten took over second position but weren’t close enough to spoil Stephens/Rogers glory much to the delight of the crowd. Franks/Franks still had enough of a lead to finish in third ahead of Goddard/Cooper who rode a brilliant race to finish in fourth with Delves/Elcock going one better than race 1 taking an excellent fifth.
Race 3 saw Stephens/Rogers once again take the holeshot but with Guilford/Batten close behind wasn’t able to pull away. Dave Keane, with Ben Blythe as his passenger for this round, was having a much better race in third with Delves/Elcock in fourth. Unusually Franks/Franks didn’t have such a good start back in seventh although it wasn’t long before they made their way through into fourth. This time Stephens /Rogers had to relinquish the lead to Guilford/Batten who once past began to pull away to have a lonely race out front. Keane/Blythe held onto their third to the end but despite having reeled in Stephens/Rogers they couldn’t quite overhaul them to pinch second. Once up into fourth Team Franks found that was as far as they could get even though the crews ahead were getting ever closer! Goddard/Cooper repeated their start of the previous race in twelfth leaving them work to do once again but crossed the line in fifth. Delves/Elcock, having their third great race, in sixth after keeping Jon Rutherford/Elliott Browne behind them
Report and photos
Ann Reynolds