Tuesday August 9, 2011 at 11:53am
If the penultimate round of any championship sets up just one cliffhanger to focus on at the seasons closer it's something of a bonus. If however it sets up two absolutely knife edge championship deciders with six guys going for just two titles it's absolutely sensational. Following the latest skirmishes on Irish soil it's all true enough and BYMX can now look forward to a mouthwatering September 10/11th Milton Park grand finale double shoot-out.
Adam Sterry on the RMJ Academy Honda won for the third time on the spin at Porters Pit Desertmartin. He claimed three of the individual heat victories and he now shares joint top spot in the Championship with Nathan Watson. Jamie McCanney is currently the other bang in form open class runner and he bagged the win in races four and five. McCanney finished in second overall - he is now just four points adrift of the leading pair - and it's now a winner takes all three-way decider. In a seasons best performance Suzuki mounted Scott Hamilton claimed third as Watson on the HM Plant Red Bull KTM had to settle for fourth. Fifth and sixth places went to Damon Brooks and Jake Millward respectively after they had spent most of the weekend locked together in a personal set too just off the leading edge. As in all of the classes there was a large influx of Irish non points scoring riders and John Meara certainly made his presence felt in the open division with a stunning 2-1-4-2-3 card.
In the BW 85cc section Liam Knight was the leader going into round six, but he was far from 100 per cent fit following his round five prang at Canada Heights. A mechanical failure in heat five proved to be frustrating and eighth overall was disappointing. It wasn't all bad news however for Knighter, as at the end of the day the RMJ trained Maverick KTM pilot still held second place in the series - just two points behind the new pole sitter. Brad Todd on the Ian Ridley backed Honda 150f is the new guy in top spot and on day one he went 1-1-2. Todd led overnight as the four bang Honda's went wild and Matty Callaghan claimed the win in heat three. Rob Davidson and Jack Gardner were also in the thick of the action up front and it was turning into a real Honda fire fight. On day two Matty Callaghan came to the fore again with a gutsy brace of wins to snatch the overall victory, Todd finished in second overall and Davidson went 3-2-3-7-2 for third. Jack Gardner came home in fourth, but crucially just six points off the top and that means it's another winner takes all decider between Todd, Knight and Gardner for the final round. Stuart Fee was the best of the two stroke runners carding fifth overall with an individual fourth and third place finish as his highlights. Former championship high flier Tom Neal took sixth overall on his return from injury - and in the support class Jay McCrum went home with the biggest smile and with the winners trophy.
Conrad Mewse and Jay Hague dominated the proceedings in the S/W 85cc section just as they have for most of the season. Mewse claimed the opening three race wins, but Hague finished with a real flourish wrapping up heats four and five in impressive fashion as the conditions worsened following heavy Saturday rain. Mewse totalled with three wins and a pair of seconds to stand tallest as Hague finished in the runner up berth. The battle for third overall could have gone any one of a number of ways as Aaron Piper, Jamie Carpenter and Jordan Eccles all grabbed an individual second place finish apiece. Consistency won the day however and Taylor Hammal kept it all on track skillfully and best to claim third overall. As the meeting went on Eccles and Carpenters luck ran out with DNF's and Piper took a creditable fourth overall. In the final race of the weekend Will Keogh snatched a hard fought third place finish and that lifted him to fifth overall with Twisted 7's David Keet in sixth. In a fully stacked support class David Galvin proved the very best and Josh Beausang claimed the runners up prize.
With five more terrific heat wins in a totally crushing display there seems to be absolutely no stopping young Alexander Brown on the MotoOne KTM as he remorselessly edges towards the junior 65cc title. Manxman Jed Etchells had a superb two days also, but he had to settle for a card full of second place finishes and that meant second step on the podium too. With Harry Kimber not on duty in Ireland third overall went the way of home based Callum Meara. Irishman Meara together with Oliver Costerdine shared out all the individual third place finishes 3-2 in the Irishman's favour. As a result Meara goes third in the title hunt. Costerdine manfully kept it all together with a polished two day effort to claim a fighting fourth overall just getting the better of Adam Dunn and Colin Scott in a close little three way scrap. In the support class Ruairi McKeown just nudged out Cameron Turley for the winners spoils.