Monday July 2, 2012 at 3:10pm
Considering the amount of rain that had fallen in the North East in the week preceding this event it was remarkable that the meeting took place at all. The organising club, The North East Motocross Club, had worked extremely hard to get the track in a rideable condition after the rains for which they must be applauded. As the day went on the track conditions improved and by the end of the day there was dust being kicked up but this wasn’t an issue as the bracing wind took it away.
Timed training was headed by Brown / Chamberlain with Jenkins / Chamberlain less than a tenth of a second behind in second place. A nasty spill put the Breachers out for the rest of the meeting.
In the first leg Daniel & Joe Millard took the holeshot from Brown with Wilkinson / Parmenter in third. A traffic jam on turn three dropped Brown to tenth place and Wilkinson to fourteenth and left Millard leading from Jenkins with the Franks / Franks in third. By the end of the second lap France / France were up to fourth place with Brown sixth and Wilkinson eighth. Just after half distance Millard made a mistake and Jenkins took the lead and France moved up to second place. With just over one lap to go Jenkins got stuck and France took the lead with Millard close behind. Millard took the lead again just before the two lap board came out. On the penultimate lap Jenkins stopped with an overheated clutch elevating Brown to fourth place.
Millard took the win from France with Franks coming home in an excellent third place, France and Franks both achieving their highest ever championship finish.
After this race and during the lunch interval the club did a lot of work on the track to improve some of the areas, particularly the last right hander, which had become very rutted.
In the second race Millard again took the holeshot this time with Brown in second and Wilkinson third. By turn three France was past Wilkinson. For the first few laps France was right in Brown’s wheel tracks and after ten minutes they had both closed up on Millard. Behind France, Wilkinson led the next group from Jenkins and Oldfield / Murch. On lap five France got past Brown to take second place and on the penultimate lap they actually got their wheel in front of Millard but could not complete the overtake. They held on to second place to the flag. Brown was third with Wilkinson fourth and Jenkins fifth.
In the final race of the day Millard made it a clean sheet of holeshots leading from Wilkinson and France. On the second lap Jenkins was up to second with Brown third and Peters / Cooper fourth. France had dropped back to sixth. After ten minutes Brown was up to second with Jenkins third and France now up to fourth. These four stayed in these positions to the flag. Behind them there was a real battle going on between Peters, Franks and Wilkinson with Wilkinson finally taking fifth place with two laps to go.
Brown now leads the championship by 42 points from Jenkins with Wilkinson a further twenty one points behind. The Millard brothers are now up to fourth place, just three points behind Wilkinson.
The next round is at Ringmer on 22nd July.