THE ACU Events sponsored(supported by TRC Trucks and Michelin) series starts in Yorkshire on March 6th at Westwood, near Barnsley, which will be signed from Junction 36 of the M1 and only a few minutes drive from there.
Car parking and spectator viewing is excellent and with Dirt Bike Action and Graham Jarvis looking after the sections you can be certain that they will be an excellent sporting test.
The same format as 2010 exists for the current series with practise taking place between 3 - 5pm on Saturday and then the trial will start at 10am Sunday.
James Dabill won every single round of the 2010 series, a feat I don’t think has ever been previously achieved and in all honesty he just never looked like loosing any of the events.
So what has changed to make things any different. Well the leading three riders have all changed machines over the winter, Dabill has gone from Gas Gas to Beta , Michael Brown has moved from Sherco to Gas Gas and Alexz Wigg transfers from Beta to take Brownie’s berth as number 1 Sherco rider.
Both Brown and Wigg retain their same Minders in Shaughan Galway and Harold Crawford and Jack Lee’s place with James has been taken by Ben Hemmingway. Ben is a vastly experienced rider himself and haven ridden Beta’s for many years so he should be an ideal replacement.
Both of these riders are desperate to beat James with Michael having finished British number two more times than he cares to remember. Alexz has won Championship rounds previously but he is aware that he needs to find a higher level of consistency early on and he has been out of the country recently getting in some good weather training.
So far we have mentioned the current top three but who else can get up there with them? Last season Midlander Ross Danby had a superb year winning many National trials and in the BTC he came home fourth just ahead of Sam Haslam. Both are superb young riders and could well get podium placings. Sam was unlucky to sustain a hand injury at Kent’s final round last year so he was unable to push Ross for the #4 plate.
Another man to look out for is 20 year old Jack Challoner the Top Trial Team Beta rider who spent much of 2010 riding in the Italian Championships. He also won the World Junior Championship last season so he is a rider who can handle pressure. There is apparently less of a clash of dates with Italian rounds this year so if Jack rides look out for him.
Interestingly there is also the spectre of Dougie Lampkin who has also changed machine and now rides for Gas Gas. The multi World Champion has entered the series but at this stage how many rounds he will contest is an unknown factor. What we do know is that he still has the ability and determination to win events.
2010 Expert A Champion Gary Macdonald has signed up once again but we can expect a serious challenge to come from Jack Sheppard. Ian Austermuhle is also listed but he only competed in selected rounds as did Joe Baker but one thing is for sure if either of them ride then look out for them at the sharp end of proceedings. Last year Jack Spencer had some excellent results as did Andy Chilton so both will be looking for similar performances this time around.
Experts B has been a huge success since its introduction with Darren Brice the current Champion. Although Brice was a runaway victor in 2010, Guy Kendrew looked ominously good all through the series and he is now Ossa mounted and he finished well up in The Wallace Cup two-weeks ago. With John Crinson, Richard Timperly, Dan Farrer , Buster Regan and many others for company this should once again be a fascinating year.
Championship 1 JAMES DABILL 2 MICHAEL BROWN 3 ALEXZ WIGG 4 ROSS DANBY 5 SAM HASLAM 7 GEORGE MORTON 8 BEN MORPHETT 9 JONATHAN RICHARDSON 10 CRAIG ROBINSON 11 JACK CHALLONER 12 DOUGIE LAMPKIN
The following riders have been accepted for Expert A. IAN AUSTERMUHLE JOE BAKER JOSH BRAIN ANDY CHILTON DAN CLARKE JAKE EVANS LUTER JAMES FRY ROBERT HARRIES BEN HEMINGWAY GARY MACDONALD MICHAEL PHILLIPSON RICHARD SADLER JACK SHEPPARD CHRIS SHORT JACK SPENCER DAN THORPE BEN WIBBERLEY RICKY WIGGINS
The following riders have been given priority 1 of entry for the Expert B Class. DARREN BRICE GUY KENDREW JOHN CRINSON RICHARD TIMPERLEY DAN FARRER BUSTER REGAN JOSHUA WOODS ANDREW BLACKMAN ADAM MILNER DANNY GAMBLE BEN SPRIGG SHAUN FOX ZAC SHERWIN JAMES CARR LEE SHANKIE KEELAN HANCOCK ROSS HANCOCK DAN HEMINGWAY
The following riders have been given priority 2 of entry for the Expert B Class. PHIL DISNEY GRANT LAMING SIMON BIRD BECKY COOK TOM NICHOLAS ALAN AYRES HARRY HARVEY PHILIP KETTLEWELL LEE WHEELAN RUSSELL ROOKSBY EMMA BRISTOW MARK HARRIES JOEL SADLER MATHEW MAYNARD