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Reports and Images from Rounds 4,5&6

Round 4 Whitby

supported by Lazer Helmets

It had taken me 2 years to get a round of the DEP to Whitby and it was well worth the wait, the Whitby club had prepared the whole circuit and given us the full layout to ride including the rhythm section. A big thanks go to John Noble and all of his crew who worked all weekend, Cheers Lads. Also I had secured sponsorship from Lazer Helmets for round 4, the awards were to be presented to finnishing position chosen by the Lazer Company.

125 Qualifying was away early and infact so early we still had quite a heavy cover of mist which John said would clear real quick, and hey presto no sooner had the 1st group hit the track the mist just lifted, the sound of all those 125 on the gas around this place was good !  Fastest in qualifying was Jonathon Pettit, very closely followed by another screaming TM ridden by Stuart Edmonds then came the fastest 125 Honda out there in the hands of Dave Willet who pipped the Relentless Suzuki of Jim Davies for 3rd. The juniors were even closer and fastest was title contenders Paul Shires and Sean Stevens with George Winn third, all split by just over half a second, qualifying was good so we knew we were pumped for the days racing.

The first race holeshot in group C went to DEP regular Matt Hopkins who giuded his RM into a 2 second lead by half way round the 1st lap, hot on his heels was Steve Harris, Arron Bruce and Michael Randall, Matt must of made a mistake as on the 3rd lap it was Harris leading. Young Lewis Rawles was in fine today, suffering from mediocre starts he wheeliedand jumped around the track to work his way into the top 10 every time, if only he could get a top start this lad would be gone ! Craig Duffil was back after missing a round and was looking a little 'rusty', newcomer Neville Powell had made the trip all the way from deepest Cornwall and had a smile on his face all day. The second race battle between the leading KTM of Randall and the chasing Harris and Bruce was brilliant, these riders were banging bars all day but when Bruce had gone wide on the lower whoop section to get a run at them Harris took his chance and ran through the corner to block the KTM of Bruce, seeing what was happening Bruce just checked his speed and Harris went down handing that win to the very happy Bruce, Michael Randall had dropped to third and just could not get the job done to take Harris as he was picking his Yamaha up off the floor.

The B group is always hectic, as I have said before it the mad axe mans class with juniors and experts mixed, the rider who showed some consistency was East Anglia's James Potter, James has changed from Honda to Kawasaki this season and has adapted very nicely thank you. he had such a battle in the 1st race with fellow expert Lee Baggs, Dave Rawlins and theTEE BEE Yamaha ridden by the flying Ashley Crossley. James rode with a cool head as the fastest juniors were out to win and they want expert scalps ?  James took the win with Crossley close by with Baggs 3rd and Rawlins in 4th.  There were quite a few riders making their first appearance in B group and all had done well to qualify, Rich Allen was one, but he had company of travelling buddies Mark Macdonell, and Guy Whidett. There was some serious bragging rights going on under their awning !   Matt Verbeten had the lead in one race only to disappear from the front, Ashley Crossley wiped out on the first lap of race 2, the watered lower section at the far end was were he went down while looking to take 2nd place, Ashley got caught up with his bike and suffered some nasty looking burns, but was patched up and out for his last race taking a fine 7th, proper little pit bull he is. Michael Deeley finally got in the groove and had a good day taking top 10 in each race as did Bradley Howlett.

A group was simply mental, Matty Ridgeway took a fine holeshot only to run wide on the third corner, Brett Wheeler tasted some front runner action as he nailed his Yamaha around Whitby, he was in some decent company with series leader Willet, 05 Champion elect Pettit, Bixby, Scrafton, Ridgeway, Watts, Collins to name a few all so close it was looking scary with them 3 or 4 wide in and out of corners. Jim Scrafton was on a mission, he has allways shown signs of how fast he is and today he came right out and said it. He was finding and riding some trick lines and his KX was on full chat everywhere, he was passed by Bixby who had taken  a while to settle with all the bar banging going on it was easy to go down, the A group is not for the faint hearted ! Jim then re-passed Bixby who had just set Wheeler up for a pass and left a gap. Willet had passed Pettit through the whoop section, Dave was a clear second faster than anyone else through that lower section, but had to battle against some seriously fast bikes, in this class every gear change is important. Dave had done enough on the technical sections to keep a smalll but safe lead with Pettit, Edmonds and Bixby all there ready for a mistake, Edmonds had DNF'd the 1st race, Pettit rode well in every moto, Jim Davies had one bad start but rode mega to break into the top 10, Nicky Watts had a fair day earning some decent championship points but just lacked that extra something which he normally has. Steve Collins was back in action after we lost him due to an injury at our 1st round, Steve was on the pace right away although he said it will take him a couple of rounds to get fully sorted but still took 11th overall on the day. Steve Bixby finally had a trouble free day and had that SXS sailing over that triple every lap.

The top juniors in group A are allways performing 100% they benefit from racing with the experts and getting towed along, which is no bad thing as these riders are clawing their way to the front of the class ! Paul Shires has just hauled this year, Paul did well last year and said he would 'up' his game as he wanted to win the DEP in 07  Well dont bet against him just yet, and it's another Motoshack Yamaha that has been kicking ass. Adam Reynolds is also a contender who takes plenty of junior wins along with Sean Stevens, Reynolds had made a mistake in the 1st race of the day and that made getting the overall hard and the same for Stevens who face planted bigtime on the last lap of the same race, Chris Glover has shown some improvement at every round and steered his Suzuki to a fine 3rd overall on the day, Reynolds made up for the 1st race with two fine finishes taking 2nd and Shires a well deserved overall win. A few riders who stood out today were John Butler, Sam Holloway and Lee Holland, all these riders are moving forward each week and grabbing those all important championship points

Lazer Helmet Winners

Anthony Healey, Darron Mills, Lewis Rawles, Ady Peedle, Duncan Brown and Rod Heald 

Junior Overall  Shires, Reynolds, Glover, Butler, Holloway, L Holland, Winn

Experts Overall  Willet, Pettit, Bixby, Davies, Scrafton, Ridgeway, Edmonds

 

It was a foggy start to practice !

 

#288 Anthony Misslebrook gets some attention from Adam Reynolds

 

Tom Holland powers out of the whoops

 

 3rd corner action from B group

 

 Shaun Stevens hauling on his CJP Honda

 

 A group attack the lower whoop section

 

A group start action with #162 Edmonds in front

 

C group in full flow

 

This shot shows how close the racing is at the DEP

 

Round 5 Finningley

 

The weather was not being kind to us at all on the approach to this round, the midlands had seen some of its heaviest rainfall for years with plenty of areas flooded, the MET office stated 3inches of rain in 24hrs!

 

On arrival to the circuit we could see 50% of the track under water and no chance of getting machines to work as it was so soft and deep, step in track owner Ed Bradley. The track team he has surely did work a miracle this weekend, not only did we get racing on Sunday the surface was near perfect.

 

As the first group of 125’s went out for qualifying the surface was heavy but lines soon appeared and it was clear that Finningley was going to produce some good racing, after 3 groups of qualifiers we had a track, plenty of options around this sand track and the sun was breaking through, perfect.

 

Fastest in qualifying was Dave Willet with a remarkable lap of  1.52.75

A clear four seconds faster than anyone else, but he was in the 3rd group and the track had developed some lines and dried a little by then, fastest from group 1 was Steve Bixby closely followed by Stuart Edmonds who were the closest to Willets times, the fastest junior from qualifying was Jack Rowland who had a very slim advantage of  0.35 over series contender Adam Reynolds.

 

Junior action as always was split into 3 groups and the fastest riders get to mix it with the experts in A, with B and C groups full of the same hectic bar-banging action, the first 125 group to the line were the C group and the track had cleared and there were plenty of lines around the drying Finningley circuit, out of the gate Steve Harris, Ryan Matthews and David Patterson had a ding dong battle with Matthews riding 110% and showing he wanted to take control of this race, Patterson had made a mistake and dropped a few places, Neville Powell made the journey from Cornwall worth the trip as he was putting some consistent lap times in, as was Richard Bryce. No quarter is given in this group and riders don’t give an inch, just ask Stuart Duffill who was having his first ride back after an injury, Stuart and his brother both ride the DEP for fun and by the smiles on their faces at the end of the day, they had some serious fun, welcome back lads. Josh Chilvers was hammering around the track showing how fast he can race, Josh does seem to suffer with starts and has always worked his way through, today he seemed to like to track and was on the gas, another rider who was hauling was young Steve Sapsford, the Kent rider was up front every moto and looking good, his battle with Ben Lilley in the second race was great, these two passed and re-passed for nearly the whole race, nice one lads. Ryan Matthews set fastest lap in two moto’s and was looking as he would take the C overall, but a second race crash robbed him of that, it was the flying Josh Chilvers who took the C class with 3 good moto’s from Steve Sapsford and that man Steve Harris who screamed his YZ around this place today.

 

The mad axe mans class or B group was a full on mix of experts and juniors as the sandy track had caught out many in the morning qualifying and some experts had not got through, so there was some scalps around for the juniors to claim, its always a hard place for an expert to be as the juniors want to prove themselves, this group was going to be fun today, out of the gate in the first moto was Jamie Wilson pulling a decent holeshot and wanting to get away from the screaming pack, in tow was another Expert, Glen Bixby who pushed Jamie everywhere as he had the flying KTM of Junior front runner Warren Field all over him, Warren was seeded through from our junior qualifiers and has proved he is one of our faster juniors, another guy who rip’s and just needs to deal with the morning qualifying better is Tee Bee’s Ashley Crossley, young Ash has recovered from a serious burn at our Whitby event after getting trapped under his Yamaha, it was good to see normal service resume at this round and he was out to beat as many experts as possible, his Yamaha is lightning fast out of the gate and he will always give 100%  Norfolk’s Justin Penty looked on form and was ripping around the track on his Lexicon Yamaha, the experts had to work hard all day as these young guns were ‘on it’ today and every point earned was going to be well deserved, the experts were taken by Glen Bixby,  Jamie Wilson and  Brad Tomlin, with top junior being Warren Field, chased all the way by Ashley Crossley and Luke Dowsing. Today was one of the best ever for the B group, plenty of battles and passing all day and lap times just off the top of the A group!

 

Now the fastest riders on the day made their way through to the A group and series leader Dave Willet had set a scorcher of a qualifier and was well clear of all others, but there is never an easy ride at the DEP, Dave had made a decent first moto start in 5th place but the flying TM’s of Stuart Edmonds and Jon Pettit were in front as well as the rejuvenated Steve Bixby who has finally started to get some good luck run his way and the Suzuki of Matt Ridgeway all over him and they were not letting him have it all is own way today, Willet did move to the front due to a mistake from Edmonds and just as he had taken the lead he went down hard under pressure from Bixby, with an open track in front of him Bixby must of  thought this is going to be his day, but he too went down and as there never is more than a second or two between these guys Willet, Edmonds and Pettit went past, new guy James Dodd was having fun and showed he can ride a 2stroke, a constantly improving Luke Kennet was hounding Jim Davies who was battling with the ever smooth Highway Oliver as well as Roy McConnachie, James Kensington, Darren Redman and Steve Collins.

Unlucky Jim Scrafton went out with a mechanical as did George winn who had shown some decent form of late, the top juniors among this group sew the normal contenders, Sean Stevens, Adam Reynolds and Paul Shires, and they would have some company from some sand specialists like Anthony Healy, Brad Howlett, Steve Birkinshaw and that man Lee Holland. If you have not been to see a DEP event, please do yourself a favour and come see for yourself, the racing is so close and there’s always a battle taking place right through the field, it’s a joy to watch and hard to report on !   Aaron Wakefeild finally made it to the A group and put in 3 good rides for a decent overall position and grabbed some of those important Championship points, his battle with Sam Arbon and Lucas Harris was brilliant, three wide in the corners and all going for it, Dave Ford, and Lee Holland put in some fast laps as did James Hall. The top 3 contenders had to earn ever point today as they all have one hand on the series Championship trophy and its there’s to win, only problem is that they are all 100% on the gas and no-one gives an inch, the first race battle between these was brilliant, as a blanket could cover them all. It was the Motoshack Yamaha of Shires who edged it in that race, Paul has really improved since joining us last year, he will of course be taking up the expert challenge next year and going on what we have seen this year, he will be one to watch, Adam Reynolds has that KTM flat-out everywhere, a little wild at times and that’s what is exciting about him, and the smoother style of the ‘old timer’ Sean Stevens’ is a total contrast. Sean was a top schoolboy a few years back and has started riding again full time as he enjoys the 125’s so much. Adam took the overall today with 2 seconds and a win, from Paul who took the last race win with the flying Jack Rowlands who just nicked it from Sean Stevens, the junior battle will go to the last round for sure and it could be anyone of them, the bets are on !

 

The experts proved today that the humble 125 can put on such a good show, there were spectators hanging over the fences cheering on their favourite rider for every moto, as mentioned earlier Willet had been hauling around here today but the technical track seemed to bring things close for our front runners, real close !  the first moto had 4 different leaders !!!   Edmonds took that from team mate Pettit, those TM’s just rip, Willet recovered from a crash as did Bixby, Steve Collins was performing again on his Yamaha, Devons James Kensington was enjoying himself and would pick up some more Championship points, a battle to see was the 2nd moto between Bixby and Collins with the swapping places 5 times in two laps, Matt Ridgeway has started to get things right and has guided his Relentless Suzuki to some fine finishes, today Matt had got back his lightning starts and was on a mission as was team mate Jim Davies. Willet had locked horns with Edmonds in race two whilst the TM rider had the lead, Willet put his Honda down the side of Edmonds a few times but that TM just pulled a gap each time down the next straight, then something happened to Edmonds as Willet came round in the lead and the Irishman was down in 10th place, he washed the front end being pushed by Willet and went down, he was up in a flash but lost those places as they were all bunched up, Collins ran Bixby wide and off the track but he didn’t lose a place as he rejoined with track marker flowing from the KTM, Hampshire’s Nicky Watts was dealt some bad luck with a jammed rock in his Pope MX KTM,  Roy McConnachie, Breet Wheeler and Luke Kennet spent all day banging bars with each other, James Potter had the fastest Kawasaki out there and Michael Deeley had blown his KX up for the second time in 3 weeks.

 

The overall today was going to be close as riders swapped places and positions all day, but that man Willet took a well deserved win with 2 wins and a third, TM team leader Edmonds took second with a 1st, 2nd and a 5th with the KTM of Steve Bixby taking another third overall with two 3rds and a 4th just piping Jon Pettit’s charge.

 

My ride of the day was Rich Allen’s second moto, Rich has been steadily improving and has made the B group twice this year and Whitby last week was his first taste, so he went to qualifying with the plan to hook onto a ‘fast’ rider and get that important tow! Well he did it and his second race start must have frightened him silly as he went into the first corner 5th place and top junior!   He was riding a little over head and his YZ was making some interesting shapes, he stuck to it like VAT man on a dodgy account?   at this fast new pace he found some interesting lines and had riders all over him, Rich did not give an inch and they had to find a way past which took some a while, nice ride mate and a well deserved 18th in that race, see you in the B group next time ?

 

 

Dan Minton fettles one of the Relentless Suzukis

 

 

 

Davies, Bixby and Willett (L>R) watch the B group start

 

 

 

Tee Bee's Ashley Crossley looking for lines

 

 

 

The A group 1st race action

 

 

 

Justin Penty and his pit crew ?

 

 

 

A group 2nd race first corner action

 

 

 

Warren Feild in full flow

 

 

 

These two dont let off easy, Willet 16 gets hounded by Edmonds

 

 

 

Pre-race banter with Jeff and Paul Watts advising Bixby on chain tension !  (see report)