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The fourth round of the DWT NORA MX Quad Championship was staged at the legendary Foxhill track in Wiltshire on Sunday where 250 Youth rider Daffyd Davies was the standout performer in a trio of Davies family winners.
Daffyd won the packed 250 Youth category, while his dad Ed dominated the Masters series and sister Catrin took her second win on the trot in the 100 Modifieds.
However, Daffyd’s victory on his 250 Modified machine against seven more powerful 250 Open machines, was the most impressive.
In the first race the Open machines looked set to dominate as usual, with four involved in fierce four-way battle at the front which ended with less than a second splitting Jamie Smith (who used the backmarkers best in the dying moments to snatch victory), Connor Fitzgerald, Joe Ruby and Harry Walker. Davies was back in seventh some 44 seconds adrift.
In the second he battled up to fourth, behind Fitzgerald, Ruby and Smith.
However, in the final race the weather and some luck played into Davies’ hands. First a heavy rain squall, on an otherwise dry and windy day, left the now hard packed chalky track slippery and ruled out much of the Open machine’s power advantage.
Plus, after a restart, when Fiztgerald’s gate did not drop, all his main rivals hit problems – Ruby’s machine stalled at the line, Smith span at the second corner and Fitzgerald hit problems further into the lap.
That left Davies to pick his way neatly home, some nine seconds ahead of fellow Modified rider, Jack Naylor, with Bailey Edwards the first Open machine in third. It was enough to give Davies victory by a point!
In the individual classes run within race, Davies was unsurprisingly the Modified winner, Smith won the Open class, Declan McKenna the Stock and Kieran Heath the Standard.
While Daffyd’s winning margin was the one of the smallest of the day, his dad’s, at 11 points, was one of the biggest.
Davies won every Masters race – at a canter with his smallest winning margin being 58 seconds!
The only rider close to his qualifying time, Ant Barrett, had finished second in the first race after staging a comeback all the way through the field after a first lap melee. However Barrett’s hopes of taking the remaining races to Davies ended in one of the Expert races, in which he was also competing, when a collision with another rider left him with a suspected broken wrist.
That left the way for Darren Bridge to take two seconds, following third in the opener, and second overall. Clint Eagle took third overall, with his best result a third place in the final race.
In the other adult categories those people that hung around for the final race of the day – the combined Expert/Inters race – were treated to an exhibition in race craft from two of UK quad scene’s elder statesmen – Linsey Duke and Paul Winrow.
The pair were part of a superb and race long five-way battle at the front involving Luke Cooper, Sheldon Seal and Oli Sansom.
Of the quintet only Cooper, the winner of race one, could not take overall victory after a broken tie rod ruled him out the race two. And, with him at the front and just stretching out the tiniest of margins, the rest went at it hammer and tongs all the way to the flag.
If Duke, still in pain from his massive Milton Park crash two weeks before, could remain in second ahead of third placed Winrow, he would take overall victory. If the positions were reversed Winrow would be overall winner.
Winrow experimented with unorthodox lines, sold dummies, and all the every time Duke covered him. The deciding move came down to the last corner with Winrow mounting a small bank on the inside of the corner to try jump ahead on the exit. Predictably the pair collided, with Duke just winning the scrappy sprint to the line.
In the Inters class, Harry Hinkley, who has not been close to a podium finish this year, clicked with the track and the slippery conditions to take a well earned overall win, including race two race victories.
Jake Smith took second overall after a win and second, but a big uphill crash in the third that ripped off his race boot left him out of overall contention.
In the Clubman class Jack Rowe looked odds on to repeat his maiden win from the previous round with two wins from two. However, a problem in race three left the gates open for Ryan Griffin to take his first win after two thirds, which gave him overall victory. Nick Tucker took the Rookie category.
In the 100 Youth class Joshua Birch, in his first season on a 150 Geared machine, came good to secure his first overall win of the year, thanks to a third and two race wins.
Second went to the ever improving Marcus Sprason, who took his maiden class race in the first outing, followed by a second and third.
Catrin Davies gave both a run for their money with a two seconds split buy a third, which gave her third overall (and victory in her Modified class).
Josh Talent won the 100 Standard class, while Woody Jackson notched up his second win of the season in the 50s.
The championship now moves to Grittenham (SN15 4JW) on July 7.
RESULTS:
Expert/Inters Overall: 1. Linsey Duke, 2 Paul Winrow, 3 Sheldon Seal, 4 Luke Cooper, 5 Oli Sansom, 6 Harry Hinkley
Expert: 1. Luke Cooper, 2 Linsey Duke, 3 Paul Winrow, 4 Sheldon Seal, 5 Oli Sansom, 6 Carl Bunce
Inters: 1. Harry Hinkley, 2 Jake Smith, 3 Nick Wright, 4 Kieran Power, 5 Bradley John, 6 Aaron Pole
Clubman/ Rookie Overall: 1 Ryan Griffin, 2 Jack Rowe, 3 Nick Tucker, 4 Jordan Hickman, 5 Connor Taylor, 6 Luke Ryan Davies
Clubman: 1. Ryan Griffin, 2 Jack Rowe, 3 Luke Ryan Davies, 4 Connor Taylor, 5 Phillip Munday, 6 Charlie Harrison
Rookie: 1 Nick Tucker, 2 Jordan Hickman, 3 Callum Bates, 4 Joe Hurley, 5 Thomas Yates, 6 Jordan Howell
Masters: 1. Ed Davies, 2 Darren Bridge, 3 Clint Eagle, 4 Mark Stepney, 5 Chris Murphy, 6 Robert Swann
Masters B: 1 Barrie Dennis, 2 Lee Waring, 3 Trevor Humphris, 4 Richard Clark, 5 Pat Carr, 6 Doug Lightfoot
250cc Youth: 1 Daffyd Davies, 2 Jamie Smith, 3 Joe Ruby, 4 Jack Naylor, 5 Bailey Edwards, 6 Harry Walker
250 Open: 1 Jamie Smith, 2 Connor Fitzgerald, 3 Joe Ruby, 4 Bailey Edwards, 5 Harry Walker, 6 Jack Holmes
250 Modified: 1 Daffyd Davies, 2 Jack Naylor, 3 Dean Porter, 4 Miles Woodward, 5 Alex Bethell, 6 Jack Norris
250 Stock: 1 Declan McKenna, 2 Shanice Mott, 3 Bradley Lightfoot, 4 James Verity.
250 Standard: 1 Kieran Heath, 2 Joshua Crane, 3 Kieran Taylor, 4 Harry Ruby, 5 Daniel Hares, 6 Oliver Martin
50cc/100cc Overall: 1 Joshua Birch, 2 Marcus Sprason, 3 Catron Davies, 4 Joseph Jukes, 5 Jack Evans, Shelley Smart.
100cc Modified: 1. Catrin Davies, 2 Dylan McKenna, 3 Jack Evans, 4 Shelley Smart, 5 Thomas Fitzgerald
100cc Geared: 1 Joshua Birch, 2 Marcus Sprason, 3 Joseph Jukes, 4 Vassna Wilcock, 5 Liam Griffiths
100c Standard: 1 Josh Talent, 2 Charlotte Swanson, 3 Dillon Stepney, 4 Lewis Humphris, 5 Reece Swann
50cc Youth: 1 Woody Jackson, 2 Alfie Walker, 3 Logan Paxton, 4 Elis Humphryes