Words and pictures : Rob McDonnell
British Championship leader Stefan Murphy continued his fine run of form with victory in a quality Pro class at the opening round of the 2015 NORA-MX championships at sandy Mepal in Cambridgeshire on Sunday.
Yamaha-mounted Murphy, who has already won events in the sand at Hawkstone and Margate this season, was a class apart over the three 20 minute motos winning all three with relative ease.
His smallest winning margin came in the third race when he won by 12 seconds, despite blowing his rear shock in the closing stages.
“Fortunately had done enough in the first part of the race so it didn’t really matter,” said Murphy.
The remaining podium places in all three races were shared between Carl Bunce and Sheldon Seal. In the first race Seal edged it as Bunce struggled to with the rear shock on his new French-built Handy Suzuki. However, a swap back to his trusty LTR Suzuki saw the positions reversed in the remaining races.
Fourth overall went to Oli Sansom who had led the second race briefly after yet another lightening start.
The Clubman class went down to a last-race decider between race one winner, Davino Bruneel from Belgium, and race two winners, Dafydd Davies. Initially Bruneel led after Davies hooked a neutral at the start, but the 15-year-old Welshman showed maturity behind his years on the super-rough track to peg back the leader and then stretch out a 52 second winning margin.
No less than 14-times British champion Paul Winrow described it as the ride of the day!
Third overall went to Tom Chell who ground out three thirds while holding off some big battles behind him.
Masters Champion Ed Davies – father of Dafydd - began the defence of his title in style with three solid wins. The battle for second however was epic with three riders – Darren Bridge, Rob Swann and Lee Waring - all ending on 99 points each.
Bridge got second overall after getting the better result, a second, in the final race, which he did on a borrowed Honda after his own Yamaha had broken a rear shock spring in the second race.
The 250 Youth race produced some cracking racing and also a new name on the top step in the form Oliver Martin.
Ayrton Knowles had just pipped Martin in qualifying and indeed led the first race comfortably until a misfire late on and tangle with another rider put him down to eighth. Martin took full advantage to win by just over a second from Jack Norris, who took his revenge by winning the second race. Knowles took race three, but a DNF in race two left him out of overall contention.
Good consistency, culminating in a second in race three, gave Harry Carmichael second overall and victory on the Modified class. Daniel Hares won the Standards after Bradley Lightfoot hit trouble in the third race after heading the class in the first two outings.
Josh Birch’s fifth overall in a class of 26 on a 150cc machine was another standout performance.
In the 100 groups Marcus Sprason was dominant winning all three races by around half a minute, each time from Alfie Walker
Results: PRO: 1 Stefan Murphy, 2 Carl Bunce, 3 Sheldon Seal, 4 Oli Sansom, 5 Bailey Edwards, 6 George Callaway.
Clubman: 1 Dafydd Davies, 2 Davino Bruneel, 3 Tom Chell, 4 Tom Yates, 5 Ryan Walters, 6 Ryan Griffin.
Masters: 1 Ed Davies, 2 Darren Bridge, 3 Rob Swann, 4 Lee Waring, 5 Darren Jukes, 6 Barrie Dennis.
250: 1 Oliver Martin, 2 Harry Carmichael, 3 Iestyn Rowlands, 4 Jack Norris, 5 Josh Birch, 6 Connor Paxton.
250 Open: 1 Oliver Martin, 2 Jack Norris, 3 Connor Paxton, 4 Kieran Taylor, 5 Lorne Sinclair, 6 Harry Ruby.
250 Mod: 1 Harry Carmichael, 2 Iestyn Rowlands, 3 Scott Berlyn, 4 Georgia Lent, 5 Catrin Davies, 6 William Booth.
250 Standard: 1 Daniel Hares, 2 Bradley Lightfoot, 3 Shanice Mott, 4 Vassna Willcock, 5 Maddie Martin, 6 Joseph Jukes.
100/50: 1 Marcus Sprason, 2 Alfie Walker, 3 Tom Fitzgerald, 4 Robbie Wood, 5 Reece Swann, 6 Aled Davies.
100 Geared: 1 Marcus Sprason, 2 Alfie Walker, 3 Tom Fitzgerald, 4 Robbie Wood, 5 Reece Swann, 6 Dillon Stepney.
100 Standard: 1 Aled Davies (no other finishers)
125 Raptor: 1 Lewis Humphris, 2 Tom Bainbridge, 3 Callum Lockett, 4 Luke Berlyn (no other finishers.
50: 1 Logan Paxton, 2 Nadine Barnes (no other finishers).