Wednesday July 10, 2013 at 12:18pm
Former multi-British champion Jason Wildman came out of retirement for the fifth round of the DWT NORA MX Championship at sun-bathed Grittenham on Sunday and nicked the Masters class from under the noses of the club regulars.
After an 18 month break since last riding competitively, the popular 39-year old from Devizes used a borrowed Yamaha fitted with some old tyres he claimed to have found "at the back of the garage" to take a brace of second places and race win to secure the overall. However, Wildman, who was using the outing to get bike fit before racing at Pont de Vaux next month, did get a major stroke of luck in the final race. After trailing home well behind Ed Davies in the first two races he took victory in the last race after Davies pulled out with an electrical fault.
Darren Bridge also capitalised on Davies' demise to take second place in the final race after a sterling charge through the field. This was enough to give him second overall after he had earlier taken third and fourth places.
Clint Eagle was third after going fourth, third and third.
In the Masters B contest, held within the same race, Barrie Dennis again took victory, but was given his sternest test of the season so far by Lee Waring, who sits behind him in the championship. The pair battled most of the day, with Dennis winning the first two encounters and Waring taking his second win of the year in the third. Richard Clark was third overall thanks to a fourth and two thirds.
In the Expert/Inters group Paul Winrow was again in fine form taking a convincing 20-point victory. He won the first race by almost ten seconds from Carl Bunce and Stefan Murphy, who posted faster lap times over the day. However, Bunce and Murphy lost any chance of overall victory after the former was disqualified from race two and latter went out of race three with a locked rear axle caused by a jammed chain. Winrow won race two ahead of Luke Cooper, who went out of race one after he lost a wheel. And Bunce won the third ahead of Winrow.
With so many no scores, Seal's consistent fifth, fourth, fourth bagged him second overall, with George Callaway taking third overall with fourth, sixth and eighth.
Honourable mention should go to Jason MacBeth - another rider coming out of retirement for some pre-Pont de Vaux practice - who took fifth overall thanks to some super consistency riding an old home built machine powered by a 2003 Honda CR250 two stroke!
In the Inters class Harry Miller, who won the opening round of the series, got back to winning ways after opening his account with two good wins, before a third in the final race. He ran out winner by just a point over championship leader Jake Smith, who followed Miller home in the first two, before winning the final race. Bradley John was third overall with his best score of the day a third in race two.
In the Clubman Group the expected showdown in the final race between Connor Taylor and Nick Tucker did not matrialise after Tucker didn'tt complete a lap. The pair had two great battles earlier, with Taylor winning the first from Tucker by less than a second, and roles being reversed in the second. Instead, Ryan Griffin scooped second overall thanks to a fourth, third and then a battling second in the last race when he harried Taylor all the day the flag.
Rookie Jordan Hickman was just two points behind him in third overall and took victory in the Rookie class.
In the 250 Youth class Connor Fitzgerald returned to winning ways with a fine three race maximum, never winning by big margins, but always looking largely in control. In the opener he led home Joe Ruby and Jamie Smith. In the second Smith and Bailey Edwards. Then in the third Edwards and Smith. That left Fitzgerald, Smith and Edwards on the podium for the 250 Group and in their 250 Open Class.
In the 250 Modified class the top two in the championship, Jack Naylor and Dafydd Davies, served up three cracking races, sharing a win and second a piece, before a last race decider which saw Naylor take the spoils by just half a second.
Kieran Heath's win in the 250 Standard class was rather more emphatic thanks to three class wins, each time from Joshua Crane. Kieran Taylor just pipped Daniel Hares for third thanks to a fourth and two thirds.
Bradley Lightfoot made it four wins out of five in the 250 Stock class with a fine maximum, ahead of Declan McKenna and James Verity.
In the 100/50 Youth Group, Josh Birch made it two wins from two thanks to a couple of race wins split by a second. However, Marcus Sprason had looked odds-on for overall victory thanks to a dominant18-second win in the opener. He then also led out the second race, only for mechanical problems to drop him to 16th. He again won race three, but could only manage third overall, behind Birch and Catrin Davies, who was the victor in the second moto.
In the sub classes, Birch won the 100 Geared, Davies the 100 Modified, while Josh Talent took the 100 Standards.
In the 50s Woody Jackson notched up his third win of the year, to close the gap on championship leader Alfie Walker, who was second overall, with Logan Paxton third.
RESULTS:
Expert/Inters Overall: 1. Paul Winrow, 2 Sheldon Seal, 3 George Callaway, 4 Oli Sansom, 5 Jason MacBeth, 6 Jake Smith
Expert: 1. Paul Winrow, 2 Sheldon Seal, 3 George Callaway, 4 Oli Sansom, 5 Jason MacBeth, 6 Jamie Clarke
Inters: 1. Harry Miller, 2 Jake Smith, 3 Bradley John, 4 Aaron Pole, 5 Harry Hinkley, 6 Kieran Power
Clubman/ Rookie Overall: 1 Connor Taylor, 2 Ryan Griffin, 3 Jordan Hickman, 4 Luke Ryan Davies, 5 Jordan Howell, 6 Philip Munday
Clubman: 1. Connor Taylor, 2 Ryan Griffin, 3 Luke Ryan Davies, 4 Philip Munday, 5 Ameelie Miller, 6 Laurence Stopps
Rookie: 1 Jason Hickman, 2 Jordan Howell, 3 Callum Bates, 4 Connor McKenna, 5 Joe Hurley, 6 Nick Tucker
Masters Overall: 1. Jason Wildman, 2 Darren Bridge, 3 Clint Eagle, 4 Mark Stepney, 5 Ed Davies, 6 Mark Smith
Masters A: 1 Jason Wildman, 2 Darren Bridge, 3 Clint Eagle, 4 Ed Davies, 5 Mark Stepney, 6 Mark Smith
Masters B: 1 Barrie Dennis, 2 Lee Waring, 3 Richard Clark, 4 Trevor Humphris, 5 Pat Carr, 6 Adrian Howard
250cc Youth Overall: 1 Connor Fitzgerald, 2 Jamie Smith, 3 Bailey Edwards, 4 Jack Naylor, 5 Dafydd Davies, 6 Joe Ruby
250 Open: 1 Connor Fitzgerald, 2 Jamie Smith, 3 Bailey Edwards, 4 Joe Ruby, 5 Harry Walker, 6 Ryan Spratt-Wyatt
250 Modified: 1 Jack Naylor, 2 Dafydd Davies, 3 Alex Bethell, 4 Connor Paxton, 5 Thomas Chell, 6 George Hill
250 Stock: 1 Bradley Lightfoot, 2 Declan McKenna, 3 James Verity
250 Standard: 1 Kieran Heath, 2 Joshua Crane, 3 Kieran Taylor, 4 Daniel Hares, 5 Harry Ruby, 6 Oliver Martin
50cc/100cc Overall: 1 Joshua Birch, 2 Catrin Davies, 3 Marcus Sprason, 4 Shelley Smart, 5 Thomas Fitzgerald, 6 Woody Jackson
100cc Modified: 1. Catrin Davies, 2 Thomas Fitzgerald, 3 Shelley Smart, 4 Jack Evans, 5 Dylan McKenna
100cc Geared: 1 Joshua Birch, 2 Marcus Sprason, 3 Joseph Jukes, 4 Vassna Wilcock, 5 Liam Griffiths
100c Standard: 1 Josh Talent, 2 Reece Swann, 3 Lewis Humphries, 4 Finley Cooper, 5 Charlotte Parson, 6 Dillon Stepney
50cc Youth: 1 Woody Jackson, 2 Alfie Walker, 3 Logan Paxton
DWT NORA MX QUAD CHAMPIONSHIP
5th ROUND - 7 July, 2013
GRITTENHAM, WILTS
Words
Rob McDonnell
Pics
Rob McDonnell & Zip Pics