Irish eyes were smiling after the opening round of the Cromwell Trucks British Quad championship at Pontrilas on Sunday when the small but very competitive contingent from across the water headed home with every major honour.
Despite not winning a race David Cowan took overall victory, second placed overall Dean Colhoun won the ‘Connor Smith Six Sixty Under 21’ championship while the Irish won the opening round of the newly introduced Nations Cup too!
The only thing Irish didn’t win was the opening round of the Manufacturers Cup, which went to Yamaha!
Cowan did not even realise he had won and was packing up to head home when he heard the news saying he thought he “was probably in the top three” after two thirds, split by an eighth in race two.
“I just had a pretty trouble free day, apart from getting caught up in in a pile up near the start of race two,” said the 23-year-old from Bandridge.
At the start of race one it was the two oldest men in the field, Lindsey Duke and Paul Winrow – both in their 40s – that led the 38 strong field. However it was soon fastest qualifier, 19-year-old Mark McLernon, who hit the front, tracked by Winrow.
For several laps Winrow shadowed the youngster before making his move two laps from the end and pulling out a six second margin at the flag. McLernon in contrast had to put in a stern defence against his compatriot Cowan in the closing moments.
Sheldon Seal was less than a second behind the podium finishers at the flag. There was then a large gap of over nine seconds back to Colhoun, Callaway and Duke.
A shower before the second race left the track slick and several riders got tangled up at the slippery second turn, including Winrow Cowan and Luke Cooper. McLernon, in contrast, nipped through unscathed and won with relative ease with a margin of almost six seconds.
Oli Sansom, who had also just escaped the first lap scrum, secured second spot and put in a spirited chase over the closing laps, cutting the gap to the leader significantly. That ensured he was 15 seconds ahead of Duke in third.
Duke though was part of a tight bunch which saw less than seven seconds cover third to ninth, which also included Carl Bunce, Stefan Murphy, Colhoun, Seal and Cowan.
Winrow battled back from near last to ninth at the flag, setting the fastest lap on the way, as he had done on the first race.
McLernon now looked odds on to win overall, barring a disaster in race three, but disaster is what happened. First he stalled on the line, then as he fought back he crashed winding himself badly. He remounted to finish 18th.
Luke Cooper won the race in style, but his chances of overall victory were ruined earlier when a puncture in race one left him 14th, then he was 13th in race two after getting caught in the lap one melee.
That meant Winrow, running in second spot, was now odds on for overall victory but half way through the race he clouted an embankment and bent a tie rod, dropping him to 13th. That let Cowan free to take second, with Colhoun third.
Callaway picked up his best result of the day in fourth with Duke fifth and former champion Justin Reid in sixth.
In the Under 21 category it was Colhoun that took the honours thanks to three runner-up finishes. McLernon had led going into the final race after two wins, but his last race slump pushed him back to third in the overall standings, with Callaway just nipping in to grab second thanks to a better last race finish.
In the packed Clubman group it was the on-form Harry Walker who won overall after a win and two seconds. Jamie Morgan, who won the second heat, was second overall while fastest qualifier Jamie Smith, had his best run of the year in third.
The trio were also the top three in the Rookie class, which meant that fourth placed overall Tom Yates headed the Clubman.
The first heat had gone to Jack Naylor, by just half a second from Walker, but a broken tie rod in the third race ruled him out of overall contention.
Ed Davies maintained his domination of the ACU British Masters class with three easy wins, all over Barrett. Davies’ smallest winning margin was 12 seconds. Barrett had a lonely old day rarely seeing the leader, or the third placed Gary Aldington. Trevor Humphris was unbeaten in the Masters B group.
Estonian Martin Adamson again took victory in the ACU British 250 Championship, but only by two points from Bailey Edwards, with Connor Fitzgerald a further eight points back. All three riders took a race win.
Fitzgerald, who had failed to score in the opening two rounds, came out to prove a point in race one and led all the way, but just two seconds split the trio at the line.
However an early spin on the now slick track in race two left Fitzgerald battling back from near last to sixth while Edwards cleared off to win over Adamson by 17 seconds.
With Edwards and Adamson now battling for the overall, their last race was a cracker with Adamson eventually taking victory by three tenths of a second.
Dafydd Davies took victory with a clean sweep in the Modified class and was the best placed non-Open machine in the group in a fine sixth. On form Oliver Martin won the Standards for the second round in a row.
In the 100s Josh Birch was victorious with three dominant wins, as you would expect from a rider who qualified almost nine seconds quicker than his nearest rival. Alfie Walker was the best of the rest with two seconds and a sixth and tied on points with Marcus Sprason, but got the nod after a better last race result.
In the increasingly popular 125 Raptor group Luke Berlyn went undefeated to secure victory. Shelley Smart pipped Tom Fitzgerald on the 100 Modifieds after Fitzgerald DNF’d race two. In the 50s Elis Humfryes went unbeaten to secure victory.
RESULTS:
Cromwell Trucks British Championship: 1 David Cowan, 2 Dean Colhoun, 3 Lindsey Duke, 4 Mark McLernon, 5 Stefan Murphy, 6 Sheldon Seal.
Conner Smith Six Sixty Under 21 British Championship: 1 Dean Colhoun, 2 George Callaway, 3 Mark McLernon, 4 Luke Cooper, 5 Murray Graham, 6 Luke Davies.
Clubman: 1 Harry Walker, 2 Jamie Morgan, 3 Jamie Smith, 4 Tom Yates, 5 James Bevan, 6 Kyle Hawkes.
Rookie: 1 Harry Walker, 2 Jamie Morgan, 3 Jamie Smith, 4 Jack Naylor, 5 James Bevan, 6 Joe Ruby.
Masters British Championship: 1 Ed Davies, 2 Ant Barrett, 3 Gary Aldington, 4 Darren Bridge, 5 Clint Eagle, 6 Keith Harden.
Masters B: 1 Trevor Humphris, 2 Clyde Thomson, 3 Richard Clark, 4 Marcus West, 5 Andrew Willcock, 6 Pat Carr.
250cc British Championship: 1 Martin Adamson, 2 Bailey Edwards, 3 Connor Fitzgerald, 4 Jack Holmes, 5 Lawrence Whyte, 6 Dafydd Davies.
250 Open: 1 Martin Adamson, 2 Bailey Edwards, 3 Connor Fitzgerald, 4 Jack Holmes, 5 Lawrence Whyte, 6 Ryan Spratt-Wyatt.
250 Modified: 1 Dafydd Davies, 2 Dean Porter, 3 Tom Chell, 4 Harry Carmichael, 5 Ben Colhoun, 6 George Hill.
250 Standard: 1 Oliver Martin, 2 Daniel Hares, 3 Harry Ruby, 4 Bradley Lightfoot, 5 Joseph Dukes, 6 Declan McKenna.
250 Stock: 1 Shanice Mott. No other finishers
100 Group Overall: 1 Joshua Birch, 2 Alfie Walker, 3 Marcus Sprason, 4 Catrin Davies, 5 Woody Jackson, 6 Bobby Carmichael.
100cc Geared: 1 Joshua Birch, 2 Alfie Walker, 3 Marcus Sprason, 4 Catrin Davies, 5 Woody Jackson, 6 Bobby Carmichael
100cc Modified: 1 Shelley Smart, 2 Thomas Fitzgerald. No other finishers.
100cc Standard: 1 Dillon Stepney. No other finishers.
Yamaha Raptor: 1 Luke Berlyn, 2 Lewis Humphris, 3 Josh Talent, 4 Reece Swann, 5 Vassna Willcock. No other finishers
50cc: 1 Elis Humphris, 2 Aled Davies. No other finishers.
PICTURES Paul Tuckey and zip-pics.co.uk