Round 7
Marshfeild
This round was going to be touch and go as the area had seen some of the heaviest flooding for decades, the track crew had prepped for days and things looked good, that was until Saturday evening when nasty showers came in and stayed for the night, Sunday morning was bright and fresh and there were no signs of the rain clouds that hung over us the evening before. The track was wet and greasy and with the off camber sections this was going to be technical, the track had a few large puddles left hanging around and these has to be missed in practice, but with the sun shining it was clear the surface was drying fast and as each group completed their timed training it was obvious that the track was going to be real good for racing. The first couple of groups did have a slippery and wet practice but soon there were lines all over the place and lap times dropped quite a bit as it dried out.
This round saw some attention for Maxxis Championship riders as they too wanted to join in the fun at a DEP round, top Suzuki riders John May and Lewis Gregory came, along with the LPE Kawasaki ridden by Scott probert, as well as the rapid Sean Frayne and James Dodd. These riders looked to enjoy themselves on their 125’s and they we here to get a few DEP scalps for sure.
With the track proving very technical we saw some upsets in qualifying as riders fell foul to the slippery conditions, some guys were not going to make their normal visit to A group and vice versa, others were shining and looked to be A group bound for the first time ! One noticeable rider who missed the cut was series front runner Paul Shires and this was going to upset his Championship effort as his two main rivals had got through unscathed. The Juniors today were dominated by the flying Adam Reynolds who claimed some major points here today with three fine wins, his pace was so good today he embarrassed quite a few experts, if he can continue this form for the next three rounds he would surely look favourite for the title. One battle stood out today and that was the first moto battle between Sam Holloway, Lee Holland, John Butler and Goerge Winn, with Winn now on a KTM he sure looks confident and smooth, with Reynolds gating up front and gone these four set about entertaining the large crowd, as the passed and re-passed each other using all the track and more ! Chasing hard was Sean Stevens but he could make no headway on these and looked to settle for some safe points, and even a charging Joe Garrick could not find away around this pack. It was good to see Luke Dowsing, Lee Baggs, Ben Evans and Daniel Grove up in A group and banging bars, nice one lads ! Another good ride today was from Steve Whappshot, Steve is a long serving DEP riders and has just come from a 6 month holiday ? Good to see you back mate but where’s the tanJ
Paul Shires did enough to win all 3 B group junior races and at least put maximum points on the table for were he qualified, the MotoShack Yam was sounding good again today and shows how close the qualifying is, Ady Peedle was ripping around Marshfeild today looking good, as was Daniel Ward again with his flying starts, this lad can get a bike over the gate quick and is normally top 5 every start, today saw that same starts but a crash out back set him back a little although I have never seen a bike so crossed up going down the hill to the bomb hole, how did you get that back dude ?
Expert action was hot today as the new guys wanted to prove how good they are on 2 strokes, series regulars were not going to roll over easy, Stuart Edmonds seemed a little ‘off’ today as did Steve Bixby but both seemed to qualify OK, as the gate dropped for the first race it was Scott Probert slotting the LPE Kawasaki into the holeshot and to be fair he flew off putting in some seriously fast laps and actually dropped the chasing pack for a few laps, it was good to see a Kawasaki out front of the A group and that bike hauled, it was taking a while for the following riders to settle down, stop banging bars with each other and start chasing Scott down. Scott put in 3 decent rides today and proved he can ride a 125 after all, the crowd saw some mega racing today as the 125 experts swept around this venue, it was the cool head of Jon Pettitt who shone through with 3 calculating and positive rides claiming two wins and a third in the last as he knew he had the overall, Jon had good starts, followed riders and passed when and where he wanted, that TM was screaming out for mercy, as was Willets Honda especially in the 3rd moto when it sounded like the motor was just going to make the finish, Dave had to nurse that machine home and did well to even finish that race, John May did actually have a smile on his face all day and looked to enjoy throwing the 125 around, as did Lewis Gregory, Lewis did a workman like job today, never really standing out but working his way through all the time and took a fine win in the last moto where he had a ding dong battle with May. James Dodd put in 3 consistent rides to take 8th overall as did James Kensington, who finished up 11th
Hard luck stories abound on days like this but none more so than our own James Davies, Jim seized his big-end in qualifying but luckily had done a couple of laps so got through, then he borrowed Ridgeway’s spare bike only to suffer two punctures in the first two moto’s,, also Danny Walsh who only scored in one race. With Steve Collins and Steve Bixby both suffering gremlins, Jim Scrafton was off the pace today but did finish all 3. James Potter had his KX wound open and put in one of his best events to date, well done mate good to see you hauling.
All in this was a great days racing for the DEP with some classic battles and scores settled, the racing was 1st class and everyone one seemed to have enjoyed themselves, it was good to see so many spectators and roll on Blaxhall Pits in Suffolk as they host the next round, Blaxhall has always been in tip top condition and one of the riders favourites, so bring it on !
Junior Overall
1st Adam Reynolds 2nd John Butler 3rd Sam Holloway 4th George Winn 5th Sean Stevens 6th Lee Holland 7th Luke Dowsing 8th Ben Evans 9th Paul Shires 10th Jason Wells
Experts Overall
1st Jon Pettitt 2nd Lewis Gregory 3rd John May 4th Dave Willet 5th Scott Probert 6th Stu Edmonds 7th Matt Ridgeway 8th James Dodd 9th Sean Frayne 10th Jim Davies
