Midshires gathered together the very best entry to celebrate the 10th Anniversary at their super new venue on the Fosse Way, Leamington Spa.
With one of the hottest and driest spells we have seen for a long time the track preparation was all important. It had been watered for over a week and all this effort paid off with very little dust to spoil the event.
500cc National Solo Class had an array of star names. Chris Bomber Harris, Theo Pijper, Adam Ellis, Andrew Appleton, Rob Finlow and James Shanes all had heat wins. The top 5 went straight into the A Final. The next 8 contesting the B Final with the first 3 going through to the A Final.
James Shanes had made a great effort to be in the meeting flying back from the European Final and using borrowed equipment, but it was not going to be his day he flipped and took a heavy fall at the start of the B Final, Bradley Wilson Dean took the B Final on is first meeting on the grass along with Charley Powell and Daniel Winterton.
Chris Harris, Theo Pijper and Adam Ellis all had the same qualifying number of points, but it was a straight final - winner takes all. Swindon Speedway star Adam Ellis made the gate from Dutch legend Theo Pijper who tried everything to catch him, but Adam rode a great line to take his first major victory. Back to his best and World Longtrack qualifier for next year, Andrew Appleton took 3
rd. A special mention goes to Daniel Winterton who passed Chris Harris on the line to take 4
th place.
1000cc National Sidecars Class. This was one of the strongest line ups seen for a long time of the awesome chairs. Mark Cossar / Carl Blyth and Rob Bradley / Darren Wilce had taken 3 heat wins and unbeaten going into the A Final along with Paul Whitelam / Alan Elliott and Gary Shearer / Billy Winterburn. Going through from the B Final was Tom Cossar / Wayne Rickards and Rob Wilson / Terry Saunters.
Cossar / Blyth lined up on the inside and Bradley / Wilce on the outside of the start line. Cossar / Blyth made the start and led into the first bend trying all they could Bradley / Wilce could not catch them and settled for 2
nd place. This was an amazing result for Rob and Darren as it was the first time they had ridden together and the first meeting of the year for Rob Bradley, 3
rd having his best result on the chairs Gary Shearer and stand in passenger Billy Winterburn, 4
th Tom Cossar / Wayne Rickards, 5
th Rob Wilson / Terry Saunters, 6
th Paul Whitelam / Alan Elliott. Champions Cossar / Blyth were just too good for everyone and well deserved their victory.
250cc Solo Support Class was over 4 points scoring legs, no runaway winner hear. Henry Atkins, David Knowles, Charlie Brooks taking leg wins but when totalled up the winner for the 2
nd year in a row was British 250cc Champion Henry Atkins, 2
nd David Knowles - he has got to win it one year and 3rd Neil Taylor on his welcomed return to the sport.
350cc Solo Support Class, again over 4 legs. Tom Perry took 3 out of the 4 legs to win the 350cc class and continue his success after being crowned British 350cc Champion only a couple of weeks ago, Mark Giles pushed him all the way for a gallant 2
nd, with Mark Taylor taking 3
rd place.
500cc Sidecar Support Class. Wow, one crew took all the spoils, youngsters Shaun Hughes / Louis Bennett taking all 4 legs in fine style from Dan Berwick / Mark Hopkins and Tony Dart / Karl Hocaniuk. So good were the Welsh youngsters that they were given the Dave Harris Trophy for riders of the day.
Congratulations to Midshires Grasstrack Club for a great meeting to celebrate your 10
th Anniversary.