Tuesday June 28, 2011 at 9:20am
CLUB champion Stefan Murphy put a miserable British championship outing last weekend behind him and bounced back to dominate the sixth round of the NORA-MX Expert championship at Enstone in sunny Oxfordshire on Sunday.
Despite being threatened on occasions Murphy never seriously looked like being beaten around the fast open track, which had been left in perfect condition by the mid-week rain.
“Three holeshots, three wins. Text book, as they say,” said Murphy, who has extended his lead in this year’s championship to 56 points.
The opening race had seem him challenged early on by title rivals Giles Davis and Jason McBeth, before he stretched out a 15 second advantage and Davis pulled away from McBeth by a further seven seconds. Teenager George Callaway was back in fourth.
In race two Callaway upped his pace and secured second ahead of Davis, then McBeth.
However, any plans the two leading British championship runners had of pegging Callaway back in the third and final outing were scuppered, when first McBeth got held up by a first corner melee which left him over 30 seconds back in third at the flag. Then Davis was forced to ride the majority of the race (impressively) with a right rear puncture, demoting him to 10th
It is debatable whether they would have caught Callaway anyway, as he tailed Murphy throughout the race, never quite being able to mount a meaningful attack, but only finishing 0.7s behind.
In the Inters class (which is integrated with the Expert race) Scott Linley secured first overall, after Mark Roberts (his most serious rival) went out of race two with a puncture. Roberts missed the opening two rounds of the championship but had been undefeated since then.
In the Clubman class adult season debutant Joshua Waring stretched out his championship lead with a fine maximum. Only two men looked a threat to him. In the first Tom Claireaux gave chase for much of the race with his Yamaha belching smoke, before it gave up the ghost and he did not appear again all day. Then in the final two races Tom Downes put in some spirited challenges, the best being in the second race when he as just half a second behind.
Ed Davies, as usual, dominated the only other adult class, the Masters for Over 35s.
With entries a little thin in a couple of categories, the four youth 250 classes were all lumped into one group, but the result was a packed grid and lots of superb inter-class battles.
Adding to the spice was a new timed qualifying system, being trialed for the first time at the club, with riders going to the line in time order, irrespective of class.
Unsurprisingly the only two Open 250s entered headed the times, but the 250 Modifieds, headed in qualifying by Josh Coombs were just behind.
However, Coombs could not covert that form into overall victory. Instead that went to Sam Bailey on the only Honda in the Yamaha dominated class, thanks to wins in the first two races (his first victories since March) and a third in the final race behind Coombs and Frazer McFadden. The trio’s titanic battle was easily the best race of the day with under a second slitting all three at the line!
McFadden’s hat-trick of runner up spots secured him second, while Coombs effectively blew his overall victory chance with a small crash in the second race when he mis-timed a berm.
The biggest entry was in the 250 Standard class, which saw series leader Luke Davies, and Connor Taylor battling in close proximity all day. Taylor clinched his first overall win of the season with a 1-2-1 against Davies’ 2-1-2. Just three tenths of a second split them in the final race, the closest finish of the day.
Anna Dawson notched up another win in Stock class and has now moves to the head of the championship for the first time.
In the 100cc Geared class, Bailey Edwards continues his total domination with another a maximum (bringing it to 15 moto wins in a row going back to April). His smallest winning margin was over 12 seconds, all ahead of the consistent Harry Walker.
The biggest winning margin of the day came in the 100cc Modified class, where unbeaten Dafydd Davies (son of Ed) won the last race by just shy of a minute!
Harry Ruby won the 100cc Standard class with two wins, Shelley Smart cleaned up with a maximum in the 50cc Modifieds, while Josh Talent sneaked victory by a single point in the 50cc Standards with a super-consistent 2-2-2.
Results:
Experts: 1 Stefan Murphy (Honda), 2 George Callaway (Yamaha), 3 Jason McBeth (Honda), 4 Giles Davis (Honda), 5 Tom Silvey (Yamaha) , 6 Oli Sansom (Yamaha). Points: Murphy 363, Davis 307, Sansom 269.
Inters: 1 Scott Linley (Suzuki), 2 Luke Sanfillipo (Yamaha), 3 Mark Roberts (Yamaha), 4 Jamie Clarke (??), 5 Kieran Power (??), 6 Aaron Pole (Honda). Points: Linley 295, Clarke 285, Roberts 242
Clubman: 1 Joshua Waring (Yamaha), 2 Tom Downes (Yamaha), 3 Luke Davis (Yamaha), 4 Ryan Turner (Suzuki), 5 Sam Payne (Honda), 6 Bradley John (Honda). Points: Waring 338, Turner 303, John 298
Masters: 1 Ed Davies (KTM), 2 Ant Barrett (Suzuki), 3 Darren Bridge (Yamaha), 4 Mark Smith (Honda), 5 Brian Rodwell (Honda), 6 Chris Murphy (Honda). Points: Davies 424, Barrett 366, Bridge 323
250 Open: 1 Callum Bates (Yamaha), 2 Matt Payne (Yamaha). No other finishers. Points: Payne 283, Charlie Harrison 222, Daniel Lewis 215
250 Modified: 1 Sam Bailey (Honda), 2 Frazer McFadden (Yamaha), 3 Josh Coombs (Yamaha), 4 Connor McKenna (Yamaha). Points: McFadden 378, Coombs 373, Bailey
250 Standard: 1 Connor Taylor (Yamaha), 2 Luke Davies (Yamaha), 3 Tommy Pittaway (Yamaha), 4 Jordan Harris (Yamaha), 5 Jordan Hickman (Yamaha), 6 Leon Patmore (Yamaha). Points: Davies 418, Pittaway 348, Taylor 334
250 Stock: 1 Anna Dawson (Yamaha), 2 Brett Herring (Yamaha), 3 Joshua Freeman (Yamaha), 4 Kieran Heath (Yamaha). No other finishers. Points: Dawson 365, Heath 363, Joe Sharp 252
100cc Geared: 1 Bailey Edwards (KTM), 2 Harry Walker (KTM), 3 Kieran Taylor (Dolphin), 4 Callum Carter (Cobra), 5 Joshua Tanner (Cobra), 6 Laughton Spooner Honda). Points: Edwards 444, Walker 398, Ryan Spratt-Wyatt 334
100cc Modified: 1 Dafydd Davies (Apache), 2 Thomas Chell (Pro Shark), 3 Aled Davies (Pro Shark), 4 Connor Fitzgerald (Apache), 5 Ryan Hickman (??), 6 Jack Dean (Apache). Points: Davies 357, Fitzgerald 338, Chell 321
100cc Standard: 1 Harry Ruby (Pro Shark), 2 Bradley Lightfoot (Pro Shark), 3 Elysha Crane (Pro Shark), 4 Jake Bashford (Pro Shark), 5 Reece Swan (Suzuki), 6 Daniel Hares (Pro Shark). Points: Crane 399, Ruby 357, Bashford 345
50cc Modified: 1 Shelley Smart (Pro Shark), 2 Catrin Davies (Apache), 3 Marcus Sprason (Pro Shark), 4 Dylan McKenna (Dolphin), 5 Liam Griffiths (Quadzilla), 6 Alfie Walker (??). Points: Davies 402, McKenna 361, Smart 334
50cc Standard: 1 Josh Talent (Apache), 2 Woody Jackson (??), 3 Dillon Stepney (Pro Shark), 4 Toby Boothroyd (Apache). No other finishers. Points: Talent 386, Boothroyd 378, Jackson 373.