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Round 1 Matchams Park
PRIZE MONEY is £’s and per Championship race, not overall
EXPERTS JUNIORS
1st 150 50
2nd 100 35
3rd 75 25
4th 50 15
5th 30 10
6th 20
7th 10
The first 125 start of the 2006 series
Chris Bexton gets ready for his 1st DEP race flanked by 107, Dan Grove and 22 Adrian Jessop
Stuart Dyerson had a great day at Matchams, making this mega start in race 2
Luke Dowsing rails a berm on route in the 2nd moto
Expert winner Richee Leech prepares for his 1st moto, with 96 Rowan Hill and 112 George Walton
Matt Ridgeway hauls out of the final corner
Steve Bixby sails over the big step down on his way to a fine qualifier win
Round 2
Blaxhall Pits
The Woodbridge Club had prepared the circuit to perfection, Blaxhall was prime for some classic 125 racing and the DEP guys did not disappoint anyone.
JUNIORS
The Juniors were ready and willing to commence battle at this fine venue, which many had never ridden before, they did the DEP 125 Series proud with competitive racing right through the field, their first race was a
The second moto was full of incidents and it was a flying
Some points of interest in the juniors must be
Experts
The day was perfect for some seriously fast expert bar banging
Their first race entertained the crowd for sure and set the crowd alight, from the start it was
The second expert race was to be as wild as the first, first race leader
Also within the experts class we were sorry to see East Anglia’s
Start Action from Blaxhall
Tee Bee Racings Paul Shires rode hard all day
Series newcomer, young Lewis Rawles really enjoyed his 1st event
Steve Bixby nails his KTM out of a Blaxhall corner
Luke Dowsing leads the chasing pack
Ryan Groves is back again for 2006, producing one of his best riders at the DEP
Motovision Suzuki rider Ben Taylor took big points from round 2
Somerset's Carl Luke won the ''Full Travel'' award, and ripped all day
SERIES TOP 10 OVERALL AFTER ROUND 2
EXPERTS JUNIORS
LEECH 393 MEADS 384
TAYLOR 387 BENSTEAD 378
BIXBY 374 RIDGEWAY 372
FLETCHER 358 DEELEY 369
CAMERON 357 WALTON 360
STEVENS 347 TRANAH 353
COLLINS 344 SHIRES 352
OLIVER 342 GABRIEL 346
LUKE 339 HEALEY 345
POTTER 324 WHITWORTH 338
The third round of the series went to Wakes Colne, Colchester Essex This round was supported by The track had been revamped by Renowned circuit builder 'Jonny Hamilton' and was prime for some serious 125 racing, unfortunately the extreme weather and the lack of watering caused it to be a dust bowl lottery. If you had a bad start you was not coming through the pack at this round, dust and a very one line track made this a round of survival. Points of interest were the fact that Juniors lead both A group races for ages, young Matt Ridgeway held of the Motovision Suzuki of Ben Taylor until the last corner, and in the second race the flying Luke Benstead ran away with the race until he came across backmarkers and was caught and passed by the Chris Fitch KTM with Jon boy Barfoot on board Qualifying was hectic as normal with many incidents, the top juniors in the series are now establishing themselves and the experts now have make sure they get through ! Heat one saw a few nasty crashes and one inparticular caught out top experts, Gary Fletcher, Jim Davies and Steve Bixby, Bixby did remount but well down the pack and rode through to get some decent points but could never expect to catch the front runners, Jim had to take a trip to the medic and Garys bike was a write off ! At the front Things were on the edge with Matt Ridgeway heading the pack in fine style but he could never settle as the Motovision Suzuki with Ben Taylor onboard was only a few metres behind, these two also had some attention from Young Luke Benstead who in turn was pressured by Jon Barfoot who was supplying the crown with some nac-nac's over the finish step down. Heat two saw a slight change in fortunes as it was Benstead who took the holeshot from Ridgeway and Taylor, after a few laps Ridgeway went missing and Barfoot had come through a few riders to take Taylor and set his sights on the Yamaha of Benstead, it was a fine ride by Bavin Yamaha's entrant young Richee Leech who rode a hard 1ts race, and produced a calculated ride in this one, he did not push to hard at any time due to the slippery and dusty surface, this was one round he wanted to just finish and with some good points to boot, Barfoot had caught Benstead with a lap or so to go and pounced when the youngster hesitated in backmarkers, with Taylor and Barfoot sharing 1st and 2nd places the overall went to Jon Barfoot with the last race win, Benstead took 1st overall in the Juniors Holeshot awards this week went to Daniel Lunt and Luke Benstead Lazer winners were Richard Dixon, Luke Dowsing, Dan Groves, Sam Nicholls, Craig Daffin and Craig Duffill Juniors Overall Jason Meads 190 Matt Ridgeway 188 Micheal Deeley 181 Eddy Carr 180 Anthony Healey 168 George Walton 168 Experts Overall Jon Boy Barfoot 197 Ben Taylor 197 Joe Stevens 184 Nicky Henry Cameron 177 Craig Daffin 171 Dan Haswell 168 Joe Stevens comes into land on the big tabletop Jim Davies was on form at Wakes Start action with 190 Luke Benstead just getting the lead from 177 matt Ridgeway This was one of many shots of Richard Allen jumping the uphill double
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Frome Hardcore Racing Products Round | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Frome and district MCC had reworked the circuit with many changes, and the picturesque venue was in prime condition. Many of the DEP guys had never raced here before and were in ore of the hills, with some overnight rain soaking the surface, the morning brought us some brilliant sunshine with a brisk wind leaving the track perfect. The 1st qualifier was entertaining for sure with Bavin Yamaha's Richee Leech having a race long battle with the Motovision Suzuki of Ben Taylor, these two were never more than a few bike lenths apart, 2nd qualifier was dominated by Steve Bixby who holeshot and never looked back taking a fine win, luck had run out for James and brother Paul Watts as they went down together in the first corner. 1st Championship race was lead by Bixby into the corner with Taylor sliding past to take the lead right away, these two pulled a decent gap in just two laps when Bixby lost the rear brake on the Fatboyz KTM, and with those hills he struggled to keep Taylor in his grasp, meanwhile Leech had started to recover from a bad start and had found his way to the top 6, then things became hard as everyone was on the gas around here today, again we saw some brilliant riding from our top juniors who have given warning to the experts that they are coming, it was old timer Matt Bates up front with Luke Benstead and the flying Matt Ridgeway hounding him all the way, Eddy Carr put in one of his best rides in so far this year and was beating plenty of experts and getting the better of the fast starting Michael Deeley and young Paul Shires.
The 2nd was again Taylor and Bixby out front for a few laps when Bixby suffered teribble luck and landed on a rock which smashed his rear brake pedal and cylinder, again he was without a rear brake and dropped back to 6th, Taylor had worked hard at the start and had a few seconds lead over the chasing pack, this time Matt Ridgeway was heading the chasing juniors and had Bates insight for a while but just could not hang with the DEP Yamaha, Richee Leech had a spill early on and again had to battle back on his Yamaha, we also saw some spirtied racing from last years Junior Champ Nicky Watts at this round, Nicky has been plagued with bad luck this year and it was nice to see him on the gas and running up front, whatever the Pope MX crew had done to that bike it was hauling around the circuit, Jon Barfoot had a good ride as well this race finnishing in 2nd place, he was allways in the top 6 and kept a watching breif on proceedings and when others were either having mechanicals or crashes Jon left a little bit in the locker and pounced with a lap or so to go. Overall junior winner on the day Matt Bates has asked to be moved up to the experts and will be included in their scores from this round on and also asked if the younger guys could be given the overall today as he joined the series late and felt it would be fair, nice one Matt
Top 10 overall Experts
Juniors
821 Matt Hopkins battles with Steve Wright
321 Richee Leech
89 Joe Stevens leaps out of the valley
A typical mid-race battle with 28 Highway Oliver leading the charge
No 22 Adrian Jessop on the gas around a Frome sweeper
Somerset's Carl Luke
Motovision's Ben Taylor destroying a berm
55 Steve Bixby slides inside of 117 Matt Ridgeway followed by 1 Nicky Watts
1st corner action with 777 Sean Stevens taking the holeshot
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Landrake Moto Park, The MOTUL OIL Round |
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Landrake was perfect and with 2 bowsers working non-stop saturday afternoon and sunday morning ensured that the circuit was going to produce some terriffic dust free racing, Phil Congdon works magic down here at the venue and guaranteed us a good day, he did not let us down. This round was supported by MOTUL and they had product and rider support up for grabs With many of the riders here for the 1st time practice was a chance to find lines and check take off ramps round this fast and undulating track, the 1st qualifier got underway Richee Leech leading with series leader Ben Taylor hounding him in every corner, this was a copy of their last round battle at Frome, Ben waited until a lap or so and then pushed to make the pass, 2nd qualifier saw Steve Bixby holeshot and lead all the way from a hard charging Steve Collins.
1st Championship race was looking to be a battle royal with the fastest riders from each group, as the gate dropped it was Richee Leech taking the lead, with Bixby, Taylor, Ridgeway, Meads, Collins stuck together, on the first lap bixby went down trying to tuck under Collins, then Leech span out dropping back to 10th or so ! Ben Taylor just cant seem to do any wrong at the monment and he took control from that point, riding the Motovision Suzuki flawlesly, Bixby had mounted one hell of a charge and found his way to 2nd right behind Taylor, with 2 laps left he tried to pass the leader but was simply out of energy and settled for 2nd, steve Collins put some good moves in the moto and came home 3rd. The leading junior was that old schoolboy rider come back just to race the DEP, Shaun Stevens riding a Eastwood Honda now showed he has still got some style and took the win from Jason Meads and Matt Ridgeway, Gary Fletcher had a bad luck day, travelling all the way down from Liverpool, he qualified very well only to have engine problems in this Championship race whilst in 6th place 2nd Championship race was just as hectic with Highway Oliver taking the holeshot award closely followed by Ridgway, Leech, Collins, Barfoot, and Warren Edwards, then there was just a mass of riders swapping positions every corner, on the second lap Taylor had the lead over Leech but it was only a bike lenth ! These two then had a brilliant battle with some of our fastest laps ever around the Landrake circuit, bixby had been 'stuffed' in the first corner and came around 15th, he then put in ride of the day coming right back to 4th just behind Jon Barfoot who had 3rd place nailed from a good start, Last years junior winner Nicky Watts put in another good ride and took 5th with Edwards 6th, junior winner of this race was the flying Matt Ridgeway who battled with Jason Meads and Sean Stevens, Paul Shires earned more decent points taking a well deserved 3rd at the flag with Suzuki mounted Eddy Carr chasing him all the way.
Holeshot winners were, Highway Oliver and Anthony Healey Motul winners were Expert, 28 Highway Oliver & 128 Daniel Haswell Junior, 22 Adrian Jessop, 54 Rob Clark, 79 Anthony Healey & 90 Mark MacDonell
Kevin Ranton wide open !
Ben Taylor had fun on the tabletop !
Another perfect start from 117 Matt Ridgeway
And on the first lap pulled this whip over the finnish tabletop, nice one Matt
181 Eddy Carr had crashed in moto 1, but came back with a fine ride in moto2
Paul Shires looks for the down slope !
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Round 6 Lyng Norfolk |
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The DEP 125 Championship went to Lyng this Sunday (20th August) for round 6 of this year’s series The Norwich Vikings MCC had prepared the circuit to perfection and with some overnight rain and a bright morning things were looking good for a perfect days racing, the qualifiers were hectic as always with some surprise results, the 1st qualifier saw Henryk Cameron grab the holeshot from teenager Once we had our qualifiers the A group were called up to the line, just as they were about to go to the gate the heavens opened and it poured, as the gate dropped there were two KTM's out front and just getting the holeshot was Matt Ridgeway from We would just like to thank ALL the riders and their families for supporting the organising clubs decision to cancel the second block of racing, obviously it was disappointing but the safety of the riders is the most important thing to everyone organising these events. Many thanks to all those guys riding at their first DEP event we hope despite it being cut short they all enjoyed themselves and will be back next year to ride the Series!!!! Thanks also to the Norwich Vikings MCC for another well run event and excellently prepared track!
Results top 10 on day EXPERTS 1st Steve Bixby 2nd Jon Barfoot 3rd Ben Taylor 4th Steve Collins 5th Warren Edwards 6th Henryk Cameron 7th Highway Oliver 8th Daniel Haswell 9th Lee Baggs 10th Kevin Ranton
JUNIORS 1st Matt Ridgeway 2nd Sean Stevens 3rd Luke Benstead 4th Anthony Healey 5th Michael Deeley 6th Stuart Dyerson 7th Eddy Carr 8th Dan Whitworth 9th Craig Duffil 10th Rob Clark |
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Hawkstone Parc |
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Round 7 Hawkstone Park Supported By
This, the final round of the 2006 series was a special event for many reasons. We had both of our Championship classes to be decided and it was the first return to the circuit since the shocking and sad loss of a friend and fellow racer Richard Fitch while racing this event last year. We ran a sponsored event on the Saturday where one of Richard’s friend James ran a lap of this famous circuit, with all proceeds going to the Richard Fitch Memorial Fund
The racing was always going to be hectic here at the sandy Shropshire circuit, with its deep and ever changing surface, and this round did not disappoint as there was some of the best racing we have seen all year, to make this more exciting we had a handful of British Championship riders enter this event to get a feel for the series, and to add to the anticipation there was a meagre 1 point separating the top two juniors, both classes could have been won mathematically by a dozen or so riders ! Practice got underway on a bright and sunny morning with a perfectly prepared track, riders were soon finding out how demanding this place is with the sand changing lap by lap, Somerset’s Matt Ridgeway who held second in the series kept a watching brief on leader Our first heat race saw these top riders battle for qualifying positions and it was the KTM of young Matt Ridgeway take the holeshot and lead for a while, Benstead had had a poor start and was stuck midpack, Taylor was in third and was hauling with Bixby 10th, the junior battle went in favour of Ridgeway in this race and in the expert class Bixby caught and passed everyone including Taylor, so the two second place riders had made there intention’s clear and the scene was set for some brilliant 125 racing. The second group qualifier had the benefit of watching the first and some race lines and passing places, the gate dropped and it was Kevin Ranton taking the holeshot on his new 07 Yamaha, he was closely followed by Glen Phillips, Highway Oliver, Ashley Wilde and Dave Willett and then the charging through the pack, Phillips took control at the front and headed off for the win, saying after the finish ‘’ this is fun, I had forgotten how good these are’’ although he did admit it was hard work keeping the small engine on song. The first Championship race went to the line and the atmosphere was electric with anticipation, this race could decide the 2006 Championship, could both second places do as they had done in qualifying ? As the gate dropped it was Highway Oliver getting the holeshot on his superfast TM closely followed by Willett who looked real good back on a 2 stroke, Bixby was in third and lining up the front two for a pass only to crash trying it ! He was having trouble picking his KTM up as the pack blasted past the stricken rider, this seemed to have dashed any chance he had of beating Taylor but he gallantly battled back to top ten, Phillips had taken control up front and an impressive Ashley Wilde had rode a very clever race keeping out of trouble and was in the top five. Series expert leader Ben Taylor had obviously seen Bixby on the floor so set about gaining as many points as he could and made it through to third place with Willett just in front of him in second, another rider playing his trump card was Henryk Cameron who could take second from Bixby getting a solid fifth place and getting that bit closer to the 2nd place man. Jon Barfoot had rode very well coming from a mid-pack start to take sixth at the flag and earn some well deserved points, Highway Oliver had made a few mistakes in this race and dropped from first at the start to follow Barfoot home. The Juniors were not going to be overshadowed by the experts with Matt Ridgeway taking the lead in their race and series leader Benstead stuck around the mid-pack area, Ridgeway seemed to float around this track and was impressive and looked to dominate this heat taking many points from Benstead, unfortunately for Ridgeway his KTM developed a gearbox fault and he lost gears only having 1st and 4th left to use, this was bad news for the Somerset rider as Benstead had been coming through the pack and caught and passed him, Benstead had settled up front and did no more than was needed to take the win and make himself near unbeatable for the series win. This left us at Lunch with plenty of machine change’s and work being done, riders where queuing up at the DEP control to get the updated positions hot off the laptop after the first race, all trying to workout where they had to finished in the last race of the day to beat a rival ‘or to keep that rival at bay’. Lunch had another important duty and that was to draw the raffle which had been organised by Karen Barker with all proceeds being split between the Richard Fitch memorial fund and the Shropshire Air Ambulance Service. With many of our sponsors forwarding items as well as world number 1 Stefan Everts, along with riders like Tommy Searle, James Noble and Tom Church to name a few. Chris Fitch made the journey back to Hawkstone which must have been hard for him, but he wanted to return to this venue and thanked everyone for all they have done for him and his wife Jill over the past year as well as to take time to speak to as many as he could during the day. He also was able to make the first draw of the raffle which everyone applauded. There will be a memorial bench placed at Hawkstone as well as Richard’s home track Wakes Colne soon. As riders had all gathered around the DEP control area, the raffle had been made and the photographs taken, there was a real warm and welcome atmosphere as all our riders stayed and chatted with each other, in fact we had to announce on the tannoy that we need to get back to the racing. So refreshed and ready to close this season riders made their way to the start, there was just slight possibilities that there could be an upset and nerves were jingling. The 15 second board seemed to hang for ages as the riders waited to blast out of the start gate, the gate dropped and it was that man Ridgeway taking the holeshot from Phillips, Oliver, Willett, The juniors however looked to be developing quite differently, Ridgeway had borrowed a bike for this race and was leading the juniors by a mile as Benstead had another mid-pack start and as the Suffolk based rider tried to catch and pass as many juniors as he could his Yamaha sounded to be having problems, was this the opportunity leader Ridgeway needed to snatch the title ? Mechanics and teams were working out just where riders had to finish and the pit board area was buzzing, Benstead was still circulating albeit on a sick bike but could the position be enough to hold off Ridgeway, this is where fate dealt a stinker to leader Ridgeway as the borrowed machine stopped with a problem, Benstead’s crew soon made it clear on their board and young Luke seemed to up his pace, Ridgeway had restarted but had a terrible misfire and was only just circulating, Benstead did catch Ridgeway with a couple of laps to go and passed him knowing the title was his. So with the titles won it was it was back to the lap top to work on the final series positions for all riders, this year a rider was allowed to drop his worst round, giving the opportunity for a failure or injury not to effect his chances, the DEP area was again a mass of riders all wanting to see where they had finished, it was fun as riders checked they had the right score and had beaten their rival or friends, these guys have had battles all year with each other and a brilliant felling of comradery was in the air, with plenty of jokes and ‘’if only’’ stories it was a fitting end to this 2006 season After racing had finished we had organised some laying of flowers for Richard where DEP riders attended, especially those who raced with Rich in this series last year as well as friends & racing buddies. A minutes silence was respected which gave time for all to reflect and remember a true racer.
The DEP control area as the raffle is drawn by Chris Fitch
Dave Willett wheelies around a rutted Hawstone corner to a well deserved second overall on the day
Last years junior winner, Nicky Watts comes into land on the big table top jump
DEP 125 Championship Expert Champion 2006 Ben Taylor in action at Hawkstone
DEP 125 Championship Junior Champion 2006
Series standings for the 2006 Championship Top 20 in each class
Junior Class Luke Benstead 1153 Matt Ridgeway 1135 Michael Deeley 1089 Paul Shires 1081 Dan Whitworth 1013 Anthony Healey 992 Luke Dowsing 977 Jason Meads 931 Stuart Dyerson 919 Craig Elwell 917 Rob Clark 868 Steve Whapshott 849 Dan Groves 846 Sean Stevens 834 Nick Banks 824 Eddy Carr 811 Mark McDonnel 804 Craig Duffil 802 Chris Brocklehurst 799 Adrian Jessop 779
Expert Class
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