Conditions were perfect; despite rain on Saturday for the 4th Round of the GH Motorcycles/ Husaberg/ Eastern Centre Solo Championship at Home Farm Little Hadham Herts. The organisers, the Sudbury Motor Cycle Club, were well pleased with the total entry of 118 competitors which 73 were members of the promoting Club.
The early sessions the riders had plenty of time to complete the required number of laps and to familiarise themselves with the course and to do the special tests on laps 2 and 3. It is the last two sessions when the time allowance is reduced to 15 and then 10 minutes with penalties for lateness. It was a day of surprises with a sonic boom during the morning which must have spurred some riders on to achieve some of their best results.
In the Championship Class Jamie Roper (Sudbury) did not ride as he was in Barcelona for the Moto GP so it left for Chris Hockey (Sudbury) to capitalise on his absence. In the first special test Hockey was fasted with a time of 4 minutes 16 seconds, with Jason Morland (Halstead) and Tom Braddock (Lowestoft) two seconds behind. Braddock pulled out all the stops in the second special test with a time of 4 minutes 8 seconds, Hockey was 3 seconds slower and Morland 4 seconds. All Championship Class riders received penalties for lateness the first seven 60 seconds and the others 120 seconds and this resulted in a surprise win for Braddock over Hockey by one second and Morland by 4 seconds. Fourth place was 15 year old South African Travis Teasdale riding for the home Club who is in the U K for a few months and the Hockey brothers have taken him under their wing. 5th Sam Toy, 6th Steve Mason, 7th Craig Roper all Sudbury while Sudbury Chairman and Contest Sponsor Gavin Hockey secured 10th place.
In the Expert Class current Contest leader Michael Ridge did not ride and Tim Rose (Diss) took advantage of this with a fine victory of 21 seconds over another surprise ride by Phil Roper (Sudbury) and again with another bigger surprise with Club Secretary Graham Mays 3rd. Dan Rose (Woodbridge) was 4th, Ian Tutton (Sudbury) 5th and round 3 victor Dexter Wharton 6th. In the Clubman Class it was three wins out of four for Lewis Bond (Lowestoft) with a 10 second victory over David Stevens (Diss) and young Ross Taylor (Diss) 3rd, Jack Grice (Lowestoft) 4th, Tom Sargent (Bury) 5th. Again there were surprise finishers for Dean Curry (Sudbury) 6th and in joint 7th place were Jeff Turner and Simon Larner both Sudbury. A special mention for Team Dave Roper squad member James Hockey with 11th place and scoring his first Contest points and dedicated this triumph to the Dave Roper Fund and the Sudbury Motor Cycle Club.
The Sportsman Class saw a win for Paul Willis (Sudbury). Other placings for Team Dave Roper Squad were Matt Rampton 28th, Ryan McDonnell 36th, Jack Nicolaou 43rd and Ben Roper 59th. 15 year old Alex Rampton riding in his first event finished 30th so older brother need to watch out.
The unofficial Contest positions after four rounds shows Hockey has a 12 point lead in the Championship Class over Morland and 13 points over Roper. All is not lost for Roper as the rider’s best five out of six scores count and with good finishers in the last two rounds could see him in contention for the Title.
Tim Rose victory in the Expert Class has leapfrogged him into first place over Ridge by eleven points and Phil Roper is also jointly in 2nd place. Lewis Bond is outshining everyone in the Clubman Class with a 26 point lead over second place Stevens and only need a 9th place in the next round to secure the Contest while Grice has leapt up to 3rd place.
Fifth round takes place on 25th August at Butley and is organised by the Woodbridge Club and there may be a few surprises on that day.