A sunny Mothering Sunday saw the Woodbridge & DMCC hold their first motocross meeting of the 2014 season at the Blaxhall circuit near Woodbridge. With a bumper line up of nearly 160 riders across four different classes, including a strong Expert group consisting of a number of National riders as well as the opening round of the NGR championship for over 30's.
Following the recent good weather the track was in superb condition for racing after the club had spent many months preparing the venue for the new season.
The Expert group featured a 28 rider strong line with an additional 12 of the fastest juniors being added into the mix as well. In the morning time practice session James Cottrell, Luke Benstead and Jack Brunell all finished the session within half a second of each other to set up a good days racing.
The first Expert race of the day saw Shaun Southgate take the holeshot and lead the opening laps before James Cottrell took over the race lead ahead of Luke Benstead and Jack Brunell, until the Ipswich based rider crashed and handed the lead to Benstead and would have to recover from fifth. Once in the lead Benstead looked strong until a lap from the end when the chain came off and ended his race. Benstead's misfortune allowed Cottrell to take the race win ahead of Lewis Tombs, Steve Bixby in third with Jack Brunell and Shaun Southgate rounding out the top 5. In the opening race the first Junior rider home was Dean Smith in a well-earned 18th place.
The second Expert race saw Shaun Southgate again take the holeshot ahead of the rest of the chasing pack, unfortunately Benstead missed the start due to still repairing the bike from the first race and started almost a lap down on the leaders. Once the race settled down Cottrell soon moved into the lead and took a comfortable race win ahead of Aaron Pipon, Jack Brunnell in third with Lewis Tombs and Luke Parker rounding out the top 5, while Benstead recovered to finish in 14th ahead of the first Junior rider Dean Smith who finished in 18th once again.
The final Expert race of the day saw Southgate make it three out of three holeshot for the day, while Cottrell crashed on the second corner and had to start from dead last. At the front Tombs worked his way into the lead and went on to take a solid race win over Pipon, with Cottrell recovering to finish in third place. Fourth place went to Jack Brunell with Chris Bayliss finishing in fifth. Jake Gregory took the honour of being the first Junior rider home in an impressive 12th place beating a number of regular Experts in the process.
Blaxhall marked the opening round of the NGR Championship, a championship decided for the Over 30's and with a strong line-up of riders the racing was saw to be close all day long. In the first race it was Paul Hubbard who took the race win ahead of Brett Grip and Mark Hunt, with Aaron Hopkins and Luke Dowsing rounding out the top 5.
The second NGR race of the day saw different race winner in the former of reigning champion Tim Clark, with Brett Grip and Mark Hunt once again taking second and third places. Adam Gordon took a well-deserved fourth place with race one winner Paul Hubbard in fifth place.
The third and final NGR race of the day saw Tim Clark once again take the victory to prove that he is still a force to be reckoned with in this Championship. Mark Hunt and Brett Grip again battled hard all race with Hunt taking second place this time round. Fourth and fifth place went to Adam Gordon and Aaron Hopkins.
In the Junior A class Joe Cornwell took victory in the opening race ahead of Tomas Pattison, Jacob Chambers, Josh Keeble and Jamie Ladgen making up the top 5. The second race saw a different race winner, with Callum Reeves taking the win over Daniel Patterson, Josh Keeble, Sam Cook and a race one winner Joe Cornwell in fifth. The final Junior A race saw Josh Chambers take the win followed by Jake Broccolo, Josh Keeble, Callum Reeves and Joe Cornwell in fifth.
In the Junior B races it was Dave Ward who took the first race win ahead of Kyle Wilby, Harry Moore, Tom Downes and Haydon Jarvis in fifth. The second race for the B Group saw Tom Downes take the win over Glen Porter, Haydon Jarvis, Chris Lake and Lawrence Gowers in fifth place. In the final B group race, Lawrence Gowers took the win over Tom Downes, Harry Moore, Dave Ward and Kyle Wilby in fifth.
Results
Expert and Fastest Juniors
Race 1
1