Monday March 26, 2012 at 11:11am
The first round of the new SMCA Open Sidecar Series didn’t quite go according to plan! The Series, which incorporates the SMCA Championship supported by Wizard Wash, is designed to be open to any sidecar team with the only condition being to score points drivers and passengers need to belong to the SMCA. Round 1 was to be part of the Southern Centre Championship and the meeting at Swanmore was hosted by Eastleigh DMCC. The weather however rather than being normal for March, cold and wet, was dry and sunny. Good you might think but not so; it was so dry that dust proved to be a problem even in practice! It was decided that thirty sidecars all out together was probably an accident waiting to happen and so the line up was split loosely into experts and juniors. This meant that it was now not possible to hold it as either a SMCA Championship or a Southern Centre due to the difficulties in scoring the points correctly.
Seemond Stephens/Mike Curnow took the holeshot for expert race 1 closely followed by Rob Oldfield/John Murch, Jack Etheridge/Ryan Humphrey, Daniel Millard/Joe Millard and Andy Breacher/Tim Breacher Oldfield/Murch took over at the front and the Millard brothers got themselves up into second. Etheridge/Humphrey slipped back down the field to eighth and had to start working hard to catch back up. The Millards then had a moment and they too found themselves back in eighth. Oldfield/Murch began to pull away from Stephens/Curnow and both teams had quite lonely races. By the flag Etheridge/Humphrey had moved back up into third but Millard/Millard could only cross the line in sixth.
In race 2 Breacher/Breacher rounded the corner first but almost immediately Millard/Millard swept passed and didn’t look back. They pulled out a big gap showing why they are second in Britain and tenth in the world. Breacher/Breacher held on to second until lap 4 when Etheridge/Humphrey took over and began to chase the leaders. Stephens/Curnow were missing from the race with suspected big end problems after race 1 and had called time on their day. Once again the dust and hard packed conditions led to the field splitting up and nearly everyone maintained their position. The only change came in the penultimate lap when Ross Bowers/Guy Eastman took Dave Goddard/Ian Sheppard for fifth.
Race 3 and the conditions and bike problems saw the field down to just ten. The holeshot was taken by Oldfield/Murch who began to build up a gap to Goddard/Sheppard, Breacher/Breacher, Etheridge/Humphrey and Millard/Millard. Oldfield/Murch saw their lead shrink when Etheridge/Humphrey moved up into second. And on lap 4 they took over at the front. The following lap Millard/Millard got up into second and the race was then all about seeing if Etheridge/Humphrey could keep them behind. The gap came down but time ran out and Etheridge/Humphrey crossed the line as winners.
The juniors were dominated by Stephen Parr and his new passenger Josh Haynes who took a hat trick of wins and they started with the holeshot for race 1. They looked strong out front and weren’t troubled until near the end of the race when their bike certainly sounded like it might not make it to the line. They held on for a win with the bike waiting until they had taken the flag before dying! They were followed out of the gate by Shane/Paul Horton, Matt Avis/Peter Logan, Mark Banks/Steve Randall, Jon Pannell/Rob Eastman and Carl Kirwin/Jo Reynolds. Pannell/Eastman moved up into third and the top four began to pull away. By the end of the race the field had spread out and Parr/Haynes took the flag with Pannell/Eastman in second.
Race 2 and once again Parr/Haynes took the holeshot and lead from start to the chequered flag. This time they were followed out of the start gate by Kirwin/Reynolds, Avis/Logan, Blackman/Maguire, Pannell/Eastman and Banks /Randall. Kirwin/Reynolds kept the rest behind them until lap 3 when Avis/Logan and Pannell/Eastman got by. Banks pulled in after his passenger’s shoulder popped out having being jarred by the hard conditions. Lap 5 saw another casualty when Avis/Logan were forced to retire. Bret Coyne/Darren Caws made the most of the diminishing field and got themselves up into fourth with Kirwin/Reynolds eventually crossing the line fifth.
Banks/Randall, who had sorted out his shoulder, took the holeshot with Parr/Haynes close behind and Malcolm Collins/Chris Huntley, Blackman/Maguire, Coyne/Caws and Pannell/Eastman following. Parr/Haynes quickly took over at the front and Banks/Randall were once again forced to retire. Parr/Haynes left the rest of the field to their own battles and it was down to Pannell/Eastman to take second spot with Coyne/Caws finally taking third.
The two solo classes, MX1 and MX2, were able to compete for the Southern Centre Championship.
MX1 saw Chris Southcott take a hat trick of wins with three second places for Chris Wratten. MX2 also saw two riders dominate with three wins for Liam Garland and three seconds for Neal Paddington.
Overall Results
Experts:
1. Etheridge/Humphrey
2. Oldfield/Murch
3. Millard/Millard
4. Breacher/Breacher
5. Goddard/Sheppard
6. R Bowers/G Eastman
7. Williams/Rogers
8. N Bowers/Batt
Juniors:
1. Parr/Haynes
2. Pannell/R Eastman
3. Coyne/Caws
4. Blackman/Maguire
5. Kirwin/Reynolds
6. S Humphrey/Heath
7. Hancock/Mossman/Gale
8. Gingell/Hillier
MX1:
1. Chris Southcott
2. Chris Wratten
3. Joe Wyse
4. Marc Popperwell
5. Ashley Senior
6. Matt Ward
7. Trevor Edwards
8. Paul Moyes
MX2:
1. Liam Garland
2. Neal Paddington
3. Shaun Curley
4. Ryan Towells
5. Cameron Mc Donald
6. Jason Bowen
7. Conner Davis
8. Ricky Humphrey
Report and Photos Ann Reynolds