MC Lille was the centre of some great 125 racing last Sunday, the club had attracted many of the DEP 125 riders to this fine venue, with its massive clubhouse & restaurant block towering over the start area. The surface was pristine and so well maintained it was a joy to ride. Deep sand but not bottomless like Lommel and other Belgian tracks, this was going to provide a great days racing, practice was underway at 8am and riders were queuing up for extra sessions as you can get 2 or 3 if needed ?
The 125’s went to the line which is perfectly block paved and swept before each start ! and the crowd gathered to see a full line up of 125’s again, even the local’s were impressed with the crisp sound of the bikes and the general comment was we should have more 125 only races ? As the gate dropped it was Henryk Cameron who took the holeshot closely followed by Jason Meads and Steve Bixby, with what can only be described as a charging pack of riders hot on the heels, with the tracks fast straights and technical corners all having to flow perfectly to maintain a riders speed it was going to be hard to pass and make it stick, because if you messed a corner or berm you would always get passed down the next straight. The opening laps were real busy with riders pushing to the limit, there were plenty of riders making themselves ‘wide’ the inevitable hard passes and ‘love taps’ were to many to count. It was Bixby who took the lead on lap 3 and set about pulling a comfortable lead, he had that FATBOYZ KTM screaming as he began to open a gap, Ben Taylor and Michael Deeley put good rides in, Taylor had a poor first lap and had to eat roost for to many laps, he did charge with his normal gusto and pulled the leading gaggle of riders in, Deeley on the other hand had just sold his CR and turned out on a new KX which did look real fast, he held position in the front group fending off many an expert, just behind him Paul Watts had his POPE KTM on song and followed waiting for a good clean chance to pounce, Young Rowan Hill had been practicing in Belgium for a few days and it showed, he was hammering around the Lille track he had the YZ wound wide open. There was plenty of action right through the pack and another young gun to impress was Justin Penty, he put in a good solid ride and there’s a lot more to come from this lad. Things were never settled for any position and on the last lap it was panic stations for Bixby who had over jumped the step down by about 10 foot breaking his rear wheel, he was able to nurse his bike around but three corners from home his chain jumped off, while he fought to replace it Cameron and Meads got by, he still finished third though.
The second race was just as hectic and I wish we could have videoed it, it was Bixby who had control before the second corner with Watts in real close proximity, going into the third corner Paul Watts see a gap and looked to pass for the lead but got shut out at the very next corner, Taylor had sorted his starts out and was looking to get past a couple of riders and chase the leader, he made short work of Meads and then Watts but he could do nothing to haul Bixby in, just behind came a mega group all battling hard and entertaining the large local crowd, it was Deeley again wide open with Ryan Hamblin, Cameron young Rowan Hill and Kevin Ranton all could have been covered with a blanket, Cameron knew he had to get through to salvage the win but no-one would give an inch, these swapped places 3 or 4 times a lap it was Great ! Deeley and Hamblin had swapped paint a few times when Hamblin had to remove his goggles to see and that ended his fight for a top 3 position, then Cameron got close to Deeley and he was having none of it and suddenly Cameron was gone, only to return with a sad looking bike with bits of plastic flapping around, but charge he did and rode well to take 7th Paul Watts had another solid ride with a 5th closely followed by Meads.
The general feedback from everyone was, what a great weekend it had been with riders meeting up for practice midweek and some light-hearted fun, this was one great weekend with everyone having FUN and the good news is that we will be doing again soon.
1st race
1 Cameron 2 Meads 3 Bixby 4Taylor 5 Watts 6 Deeley 7 Hill 8 Hamblin
9 Potter 10 Dixon 11 Dowsing 12 Ranton 13 Penty 14 Haswell 15 Steel
2nd race
1 Bixby 2 Taylor 3 Deeley 4 Hamblin 5 Watts 6 Meads 7 Cameron 8 Hill
9 Potter 10 Dowsing 11 Penty 12 Steel 13 Whymark 14 Dixon 15 Haswell
overall
1 BIXBY 2 TAYLOR 3 MEADS 4 CAMERON 5 DEELEY 6 WATTS 7 HAMBLIN
8 HILL 9 POTTER 10 DOWSING 11 PENTY 12 DIXON 13 STEEL 14 HASWELL
1st Race Start Action
Dan Haswell on the gas
Kev Ranton Entertained The Spectators All Weekend
Young Gun Rowan Hill Rode Hard All Weekend
Grant Griffin Raced The Pro-Open Class As Well
Justin Penty Leads Guy Whidett and Henryk Cameron
Michael Deeley was Hauling All Weekend, Just In Front Of Michael Cowan
