Last Sunday saw the 3rd Dave Roper Memorial Moto Cross at Tye Farm Great Cornard near Sudbury organised by the Sudbury Motor Cycle Club. There was a mixture of weather during the day, sunshine in the early morning, then rain more sunshine, strong north wind, hailstones and more sunshine and none of this deterred the riders or the organisers in fact it helped to keep the dust down.
With the track in ideal condition it lead to some very good racing and the bog did catch a few riders out. The meeting started with the first NGR Championship race and this was dominated by Jake Morphey with Paul Hubbard second, Steve Bottoms third and Mark Sandie fouth. The second NGR race again saw Morphey take to lead and held onto first place at the finish, Sandie came second, Luke Dowsing third and Paul Hubbard fouth. The third and final race for the NGR class saw again Morphey take the lead and outclassed the opposition and took the chequered flag with a clear win from Hubbard with Dowsing third and Sandie fourth. The first three overall placing were Morphey first, Hubbard second and Sandie third.
The rest of the meeting was for Experts and Juniors being split into two Groups and the first twenty finishers from the first race of each group qualified for the Allcomers Final while the other finishers rode in the Non-Qualifiers race. First up Group A race one which saw Sam Arbon take an early lead and holding onto this to the end followed by David Frankland second, Jason Morland third, Sudbury members Glenn Walsh fourth and Sam Toy eighth. Race 2 in Group A again saw Arbon in the lead but this time he could not hold back Frankland who took first place with Arbon second, Morland 3rd and Julian Harvey fouth while Toy finished 7th.
In race one of Group B was last year’s winner Brad Tomlin who has not had a very good start to the season but he was not deterred and showed his fighting spirit by winning the race with Matthew Skeet second, Luke Parker third and Sudbury members Craig Roper fouth and Steve Mason sixth. Race 2 Group B again saw Tomlin in the lead taking the chequered flag from Bradley Howlett who could only finish seventh in the first race. Third place was Parker, Skeet 4th, Roper 5th and Mason 7th. There was some good racing in the Non Qualifiers race James Newstead manage to hold off 1980 British Moto Cross Champion with Steve Cadd 3rd, Thomas Farthing 4th and Andrews Cattermole 5th. Positions 6th to 10th were filled by Sudbury members with Kevin Webb leading the pack followed by Stevie Roper, Danny Street, Matt Rampton and Jeff Turner.
The final race of the day the Allcomers final had a very strong line up, Tomlin had two wins, while Arbon and Frankland had a 1st and 2nd between them while lack lusted Moreland had two 3rds. First out of the starting gate was Tomlin who seems to be at home with the Tye Farm course and he was challenged by Moreland who was riding at his best but Tomlin showed his determination and after Moreland on the last lap had a slip took the chequered flag for the second year running while Moreland finished 2nd. In the early stages Frankland was up with the leaders but could not keep up the pace and finished 3rd. Best Sudbury member was Mason in 7th place.
It was a very successful day for the Club, the cake stall took £400 and five of the eleven sponsored riders for the 2012 Dave Roper Fund wore the new Team Dave Roper shirt. Bev Roper thanked everybody for their help and support.