The original 125cc website

Matchams was the first round of the series and was all we had hoped for, a well prepped circuit greeted riders and the weather was perfect, both groups had full line-ups and riders were excited, many had come from retirement to race in a dedicated 125 class again. We got practice underway spot on time and it was soon clear that everyone was enjoying the circuit, but after 4 laps of practice many were beginning to wish they had only done 3 laps ? The circuit has a surface that makes the riders work hard, and its a non-stop attack layout with very few places a rider can relax, that coupled with the way the circuit changes throughout the day made sure that the fittest would benefit from their on bike time this winter. And as normal the track got real knarly and rutted, with many race lines to choose a rider had to be alert to every one and pick the right ones to give a smooth energy saving lap.

 

In the juniors we had a runaway winner with young James Dodd, he won all 3 of his races in convincing style, James is not going to be in the juniors long with that style and speed he should be one to watch at British level soon, his starts were perfect and he set about getting a good lead fast, and settling down and controlling the gap to second place, which was Nicky Watts who was looking real good on his POPE KTM

His all out attack style gave him three 2^nd places and was good for the spectators especially over the finish Tabletop, Danny Veal took 3^rd overall with some hard and determined riding and showed some of his experience from years back.

Right down the pack there were battles every where for every position, some riders had more than one crash per race but still battled on for those all important series points.

 

The expert class was a mixed bag of fortunes for a lot of riders, the overall winner Gary Hoptrough showed exactly why his training schools are a great success by riding 3 real good motos, Gary won the 2^nd and 3^rd races and followed Richard Fitch in for a second in the first, Fitch was gone in the 1^st race and lead the second until a mechanical problem forced him to quit whilst in front ! Then in the 3^rd race Fitch had a ding dong battle with Jonathon Petit who took 2^nd place from him, and both followed Hoptrough home. Jonathon was a firm favorite for the win and he was strong all day with a 3^rd and two 2^nd  places nailing second overall. Terry House looked good and had settled on a 125 again after racing a big 4st, he put three good motos together with a 6^th, 3^rd and a 4^th  for a solid 3^rd overall narrowly edging out Paul Cowshall and Darren Redman

 

The Holeshot awards were won by Paul Cowshall and James Dodd.

 

RESULTS

Juniors Overall

1                    James Dodd

2                    Nicky Watts

3                    Danny Veal

4                    Henryk Cameron

5                    Joe Kennard

6                    Neil Watton

 

 

Experts Overall

1                    Gary Hoptrough

2                    Jonathon Petit

3                    Terry House

4                    Paul Cowshall

5                    Darren Redman

6                    James Davies

 

1st Expert line up of the DEP 125 Series

 

Paul Cowshall railing a berm - Paul also won the expert holeshot award

Nicky Watts and Henryk Cameron battle it out

Photos from Matchams can be obtained from http://www.sports-image.co.uk/

The second round of the DEP 125 series took place at Winchester MCC’s Owslebury circuit, the club had prepped the track well and were expecting some real good racing to take place, they were not to be disappointed, this fast and flowing track had the 125’s battling for every place. Practice took place spot on time and soon the 125 riders were changing gearing, pipes and jetting not wanting to give a competitor any edge.

 

The juniors were first to race and they certainly kick started round 2 off, Nicky Watts took control early on and never really had to look back Nicky won all three motos and his Pope KTM was looking good all day. He was kept honest by the hard charging Danny Veale wringing his DEP Suzuki to the max, Danny rode hard in each race but had to pass a few riders each time before he could see Nicky, by then it was a little late he settled for three 2^nd places. Then came a group of riders that all looked like they wanted 3^rd, this group constantly swapped positions in each race and there were some strange lines being used as riders just did’nt want to shut off anywhere, Lee Hudleston Nathan Preece Steve Gesner and Ricky Roper had this battle royal in all three races, well done guys it was great to watch. There was paint being swapped right down the field and this was just what the crowd had wanted, many spectators were even applauding riders past the finish flag.

 

The experts were not going to be out done with the show and we were treated to some of the best racing the Oswlebury circuit had seen for many a year, the man on a mission was Halstead’s Richard Fitch, his Racer MX SXS was hauling, and it was good to see Richard getting back to his old self, he was super aggressive and was destroying some Owslebury berms.  That said he could not afford to put a wheel wrong as round 1 winner Gary Hoptrough was only a few yards back and seemed to be catching for a while, Gary has plenty of experience and rode like a series leader, never really making mistakes and being very consistent.  Jonathon Petit was charging all day and if he could of avoided a 1^st race problem and a 9^th place finish in the 2^nd moto he would have been challenging for second overall, that really gave it to the smooth Hoptrough.  Jonathon really did set the place alight with a third moto win; he gated perfectly and eased his TM125 into the lead.  Once there he got a fair amount of pressure from Fitch, but held his lines and kept him searching for a place to pass, then with a small mistake from Fitch Jonathon had the gap he needed and broke the tow he was giving, then he crossed the chequered flag with a well deserved win. Jim Davies and Paul Watts were never far away and mixed it in the top 3 for quite a few laps, but the odd mistake just dropping too far back to get and mix it. The second expert race was a classic 125 race, with 6 riders glued together for ¾’s of the race, there was passing and re-passing going on, Jim Davies looked good for a top three place with a mega pass on Fitch on the second lap but he just left the door open mid corner and Fitch was back up the inside and making the pass on Hoptrough, it really was a barn burner and lets just hope we see more of that this year!

 

Please give a BIG thank you too the Winchester Club and especially Dave Hamer for helping us with the DEP 125 series

 

 

 OVERALL RESULTS

EXPERT 125

1^ST RICHARD FITCH

2^ND GARY HOPTROUGH

3^RD JONATHON PETIT

4^TH JIM DAVIES

5^TH PAUL WATTS

6^TH JON BARFOOT

 

JUNIOR 125

1^ST NICKY WATTS

2^ND DANNY VEALE

3^RD STEVE GESNER

4^TH LEE HUDDLESTON

5^TH RICKY ROPER

6^TH NATHAN PREECE

 

 

 

After a 4 week break the DEP Series made its way to the Championship circuit, Landrake just outside Plymouth, the circuit which is run by Phil Congdon was prepared to perfection and it is a top class race venue, it has everything for a racer right down to the start line speakers which blast out rock music to add to the excitement of a motocross event and the atmosphere is brilliant. Landrake is a fast wide circuit with lots of lines to chose from, overnight rain had left it a little soft for practice but as soon as the DEP guys were due to race the sun was out and we looked forward to a great days racing. Just before lunch the heavens opened and the circuit was beginning to rut out and it was real hard going. With the steep hills and mud weighing down the machines it was claiming a few riders and even some of our front runners failed to finish, this was an event that was going to be won by a experienced racer who did not take too many chances and survived

The Experts were first out and with the motivating music blasting out on the start it was Jonathon Petit who lead the way up the hill and he set about getting a lead as the pack were 4 or 5 wide at most places, after a few hectic laps we had seen so many positions being swapped  it was Richard Fitch who had started in 5^th place eventually work his way up to Petit and then it was a small mistake that gave the lead to Fitch who then took control and the win, Terry House had a great ride battling with the super aggressive Ben Millwood, Ben was jumping further that anyone on the big step downs often landing a little out of shape but still held his IN CHAINS TM 125 wide open. The second and third races were to be demanding for everyone as they condition described above and again Richard Fitch took his RACER MX SXS125 to the top in both followed by Petit and House, The second race saw some of that old sparkle from Jon Barfoot who had a terrible start and was way down in the low 20’s, Jon set about finding new lines and soon was chasing down the top 10 and with some classic Barfoot jumping he finished a remarkable 5^th place, the hard charging Millwood hit the floor 4 or 5 times in that race and still finished a creditable 11^th, James Kensington pulled it of of the bag with a fine 3^rd in the last race as did Luke Mellows with a fine 4^th place closely followed by Carl Luke.

 

The Juniors were just as exciting with a full line up of screaming 125’s they took off on the first race of the day and what a race, the lap scorers were having to work hard a riders changed position every lap, but it was Nicky Watts who took the win from the stylish Danny Veale who charged from a real bad start to the runner up slot, it was a new kid on the block that took 3^rd Leigh Hodgson, the Juniors always have incidents and that was the case for Dean Thexton, after chasing down a gaggle of riders he tried his move only to be ‘fed the ropes’, remounting he was collected by a wayward machine, then restarting near last he left the circuit  at speed and damaged his clutch, better luck next time Dean. As the circuit changed it was Leigh who shone and took two wins to finish of the day overall winner, there was plenty of hard riding and Kevin Finch was showing some real good moves, staying smooth and finishing a very nice 4^th overall on the day, Kevin has just joined the series and looks well comfortable on a 125, another rider who kept it all together in the tricky last two races was Rob Fox,  he had his Kawasaki finding ways past other riders were there seemed no way round , we have yet to find out if these were planned moves by Rob, I will ask him at the next round, but he battled hard all day and took his first trophy of the series

 

3^rd Round OVERALL RESULTS

 

JUNIORS                                                  EXPERTS

1       Leigh Hodgson                                            Richard Fitch

2       Nicky Watts                                               Jonathon Petit   

3       Danny Veal                                                Terry House

4       Kevin Finch                                                Jim Davies

5       Rob Fox                                                    James Kensington

6       Shayne Fay                                               Luke Redstone

7       Joe Pyke                                                   Luke Mellows

8       Dan Whitworth                                           Ben Millwood

9       Henryk Cameron                                        Jon Barfoot

10     Steve Whapshott                                        Carl Luke

 

 

The Putoline holeshot awards this round were won by Terry House in the experts and Leigh Hodgson in the juiors

 

 

Juniors                                                                        Experts

N WATTS                                 389                               PETIT                                       367

VEALE                                     362                               FITCH                                       352

FAYE                                       280                               DAVIES                                    325

PYKE                                       273                               HOUSE                                    283

ELWELL                                   266                               WILLIS                                     267

EXPERTS

 

Early morning rain made circuit tricky in practice, the sun came out about 10.30 and left Blaxhall in near perfect conditions, the experts had Brad Anderson as well as team Suzuki’s John May and Lewis Gregory among others battling it out with the series leaders. In the first race it was Richard Fitch on his Racer MX  KTM grabbing the holeshot, Fitchey set a real fast pace and it was only Anderson that could match it but he was battling through riders, Jonathon Petit , Jim Davies, Lewis Gregory and Gary Hoptrough  had a battle royal for quite a few laps with Barfoot chasing them from a 2^nd corner incident, Anderson made a small mistake outback and that let Petit and Gregory take 2^nd & 3^rd respectively, Brad rode well for 4^th  followed by May and Hoptrough, that old supercross star Warren Edwards rode with some style to move through the pack and finish a fine eighth place.

 

The second race see Fitch once again ease his 125 sxs over the gate and take the holeshot with Gregory, Petit and Anderson in close attendance, there was some real old school bar banging during the first few laps and it was Anderson who set about Fitch and took the lead, Matthew Barker had at last got a good start and was battling with Jim Davies and Edwards. Fitch never let go of Andersons rear wheel and just as Anderson made a small mistake Fitch looked like he could of made the pass but  just could not move Anderson off his line, these two treated the Blaxhall spectators to some of the best racing seen here for a long while, it was Brads HARD charging style that moved some lappers out of the way and that gave him the tiny gap he needed to break Fitch’s tow, Gregory got the better of Petit and these two were followed in by John May and a rejuvenated Matty Barker

 

Race three has the Putoline Holeshot award and it looked like all of them wanted to win it, but it was Matthew Barker who had a flyer and grabbed the start, very closely followed by Anderson who on the first tabletop looked to have taken off far to sideways but  typical Brad style muscled it down and powered past Barker, Fitch had slipped into forth with Davies and Petit  snapping at his rear wheel, Gregory had May intow with Barfoot  and Paul Edge keeping them in sight, Anderson set about getting a gap so as to drop Fitch who was trying to pass Barker, and on lap 3 he did so as Barker began to settle he soon dropped into the clutches of the two Team Suzuki riders who past him but not without a battle, Petit had gone out on lap 3 and  Davies had his best ride of the day, keeping just out of reach of Barfoot who had Edge to think about with Edwards following.

 

JUNIORS

 

The juniors also had a few new guys today and it was of those who took the 1^st race holeshot, East Anglia’s Ritchie Leech on his Bavin Yamaha scorched away from the start and set about getting a good lead from series leader Nicky Watts, rapidly improving Henryk Cameron and local rider Luke Copping who also had company in the form of James Watts and Shayne Fay, Leech was setting the place onfire and the following pack had to let him go and concentrate on the battles in hand, Copping came through to 2^nd with Watts who had to hold off the flying Cameron and from nowhere a charging Craig Palmer, who if he could get a good start would surely be a top 3 contender, Sam Arbon had tangled with a few riders on his way through the pack to a well deserved 9^th.

 

The second race was again lead by Leech who gated perfectly and wheelied nearly half the start straight, he even had time to check around him as they swooped into the first corner, Coppins had no one in his way and seemed to hang onto Leech for part of the first lap, Cameron, Ricky Roper,Palmer and Kevin Finchwere swapping places every corner until Cameron tokk control of the chasing pack, Sam Arbon was again chargingthrough and James Watts was in tow, Craig Elwell was beginning to show on his DEP Suzuki taking places every lap, this race was dominated by the super smooth Leech, followed by Coppin, Watts, Cameron, Roper and Palmer. Ride of the day in the juniors was Joe Pyke with a real bad start in this race he then had 3 crashes but still stuck with it and with some clever passes late on claimed a bag full of series points, another rider gradually stepping up the points table every week is Steve Whapshott who finishes just around the top 10 and looks soon to break in and snatch a series trophy on the day.

 

 The juniors now lined up for race 3 and their shot at the Putoline Holeshot award, it was Richie Leech who put his YZ over the line just in front of Coppins from Watts, Finch and Roper. Coppin seemed to tire and it was a flying Cameron who took charge of second place keeping Leech in sight and when in the woods Leech seemed to bobble Cameron had him in full veiw, even pulling him in over the lap or so, we all thought that this would be Camerons first win of the series but Leech showed some real clever riding wheeleing over holes and ruts and keeping a calm head he started to pull out of the clutches of Cameron, by now Watts had passed Coppin and Finch was not far behind, Ricky Roper on his GH Suzuki125 had a good ride with a fine 5th place and Finch claiming 6th with James Watts proving he liked the Blaxhall circuit upon his first ever visit claiming a good solid 7th at the flag

 

 

Overall

Junior                                            Expert

1       LEECH                                              FITCH

2       COPPIN                                            ANDERSON

3       WATTS                                             GREGORY

4       CAMERON                                       MAY

5       ROPER                                             BARFOOT

 

 

 

Results from Hawkstone (Confirmed)

Juniors   1st Cameron     2nd N Watts     3rd Kennard     4th Fox     5th Roper                                          6th Watts     7th Finch     8th Huddleston    9th Elwell     10th Smith

Experts   1st Coloum     2nd Barfoot     3rd Fitch     4th Pettitt   5thDavies                                                     6th Limes     7th Barker     8th Edge     9th Smith     10th Willis

The DEP 125 Series arrived at a pristine Lyng circuit, with the Norwich Vikings mcc grading and watering all Saturday afternoon and early evening the circuit was as good as its gets, and with a sprinkling of overnight rain the surface was just right, practice got under way bang on time and the 125 racers had a 20 minute session around this awesome circuit. Many of the DEP guys had never been here before so there was plenty of gearing and jetting changes going on, all were trying to get that perfect balance of pull up the hills and speed down the straights.

The DEP Series was trying something new out at this round in the form of A + B groups, each rider was balloted and sent to a qualifier, then he had his Championship rides, this proved a success with riders and also gave the fastest juniors a chance to race with the experts and did show just how fast the DEP juniors are, there were 6 juniors in that made it into that group and all did very well, some like Nicky Watts were determined to stamp on a few toes and get noticed and others wanted the chance to ride with and learn from those faster expert guys. Henryk Cameron did in fact lead race one for a while until he made a little mistake out back and dropped back a little from race winner and series expert Jon Pettitt.

race one qualifier top 3       1       Jonathon Pettitt    2    Henryk Cameron    3    Jim Davies
race two qualifier top 3    1    Jon Barfoot    2    Steven Bixby    3    Richee Leech

Juniors overall 1st N Watts   2nd Cameron    3rd Huddleston   4th Stevens   5th  J Watts

Experts overall  1st Barfoot   2nd Pettitt    3rd Bixby    4th Davies    5th Leech
Holeshot awards were won by Richard Dixon and Jim Davies

The juniors were dominated by James Watts who has one hand on the series trophy already, he proved he will be a force to reckon with when he moves up to expert class for 06, Henryk Cameron had a good day with 2nd overall albeit with a hefty crash in the 3rd race which left his KX sounding a little worse for wear, he had crushed his pipe flat to his motor and did well to finish, lee Huddlestone was at last enjoying the deep sand and had 2 great races and he had never been to the track before which surprised a few 'younger guys' Lee battled all day on his MX BITS Ktm and earned a well deserved 3rd overall. 4th overall was taken by a series newcomer but on time British schoolboy racer Sean Stevens, out of retirement Sean had borrowed a DEP RM 125 to see if he was still on the pace, well he went home very happy with 3 good rides on the day and some well timed passes he came through riders with ease as he began to get in the groove again. It was very close for the remaining positions with riders swapping positions 2 or 3 times a lap which gave the lap scorers plenty to do, we saw some determined rides from Kevin Finch and James Watts with Kevin having a tumble in the second race. In the B group we had a Junior rider that stood out and even beat a few experts that did not qualify for A, that was an on form Ricky Roper, he raced his GH Suzuki hard all day. Joe Pyke and Dan Whitworth also did well in the deep sand and have started to improve consistently

The experts were on form again and the racing was the best Lyng has seen for a while, the 125's are so close now its hard to pick a winner as one missed gear change can lose you a position, the first race was a ding dong battle between Pettitt, Barfoot, Leech, Davies and expert newcomer Bixby, these 5 entertained the crowd all day, with some hard passes and balls out riding, but it was pettitt who took the honours in that race from Bixby who had to swap paint with Barfoot who was more interested with the series Championship than risk a crash and settled for 3rd, Richee Leech had been in the top 3 and had given the series leaders something to think about, Richee is just up to expert and still only 16 but he shows signs of a very bright future throwing his Bavin Yamaha into berms and making impressive downhill passes, he can ride a 125 so well he's lying top 3 in the British Schoolboy 250f class Jim Davies rode hard to come from a mediocre start to hound the top 10 and work through to a fine 5th at the flag. There were battles right down the field and the lap scorers did well keeping up !  The second expert or A group race was a classic and has Pettitt down for ride of the season ?   Jonathon had gated well and was in the lead by the end of the 1st lap, Bixby had a fair start in 10th, Barfoot was 3rd and Leech 4th, with a brave move on the uphill near the Finnish line Leech was thrown over the front of his YZ in what looked like the most spectacular crash of the day, no sooner had he hit the dirt young Richee was up running for his bike and not wanting to lose anymore time took off in chase if the top 10 again, Barfoot had got in the swing and was feet up round the whole circuit and was catching Pettitt in typical 'Jon Boy ' style, with a lap and a half to go Pettitt's handlebars snapped on the big uphill and he collected the marshals pallet which sent marshal, machine and Pettitt skyward, that was most spectacular crash of the day ?  Pettitt was trying to get his bike out of the mess as Barfoot jumped passed for the lead and some well earned series points, before Bixby had come passed Pettitt remounted and rode of but was having ''trouble'' with the TM as it had lost the clutch side handlebar, most of the rear end and a left footpeg that had wood trapped and was stuck in the up position, so he could not even stand up and he still raced off so as not to lose series points, that last lap was a testament to Jonathon Pettitt's desire in this 125 Championship, he tried in vain to stop Bixby passing and on the same uphill section the charging Leech was on him, and around the last corner on top of the hill they were side by side right over the downhill jump and amazingly it was Pettitt who held on till the flag, all that on one peg and having to race one handed, even using the clutch in his lap around those all so deep Lyng Berms, spectators right round the circuit were cheering him on.

 

Junior action as number 124 Joe Pyke,100 Rob Fox,170 Daniel Miles,73 Shayne Fay and 45 Dan Whitworth charge into the first corner

 

  Experts Paul Edge(51) and James Potter(12) swapped positions with this mid race battle

  

 

 

WAKES COLNE Non Championship Round

 

Results=Juniors

1st   Lynge    2nd   Finch    3rd   Carr    4th   Rea    5th   Whymark    6th  Lilley

7 th   Whappshott    8th   Arbon    9th   Lee    10th   Banks    11th   Minton   12th Wright

13th   Moulds    14th   O'Flynn    15th  Dowsing    16th   Orwood    17th   Burden   18th  Allen

19th   No 41 ?   20th Reynolds 

 

The Halstead club had prepped the Wakes Colne circuit perfectly and this British Championship venue was at its best for this DEP 125 event. As the 125’s gathered for practice the sun came out and continued to shine all day, so all the watering days previous were going to pay off, as practice took place there were some riders trying certain sections of the track for the first time, as a good percentage of the entry had never rode Wakes before, that was evident in the amount of crashes as riders attempted step up jumps and the tricky downhill section, there were no real problems and all riders lined up for their first race.

 

The start at Wakes is uphill into a blind left hand corner, and as the pack charged up to that corner there was a lot of bar banging and five or six riders where left on the floor, every rider scrambled for their machines and were all away very quickly, at the front recently promoted to expert Richee Leech took the holeshot and quickly set about getting a good lead on the chasing pack, things didn’t go exactly to plan a Steve Bixby showed he can ride a 125 after spending 2 years on a 450, he was hauling Leech in for a few laps and then seemed to settle for a solid second place, behind these two there were a pack of riders all determined to grab some glory, the crowd were on their toes as Paul Willis, Ben Millward and James Potter had a battle royal, with Millward hanging it out on the big Wakes jumps and Willis full speedway style around the flat sweepers, Potter had to wait and see who was going were as these two use ALL the track and a touch more sometimes. It was Paul Willis who took third at the flag.

 

The second race saw Ben Millward ease his TM through a tiny gap going into the first corner and it was he who took the lead, closely followed by Willis, Leech, Dixon and Bixby, the now normal battle commenced with Leech taking the lead on the third lap, Bixby found his way into second and this time Ben Millward had held off the ever charging Willis. Potter had some attention this time from Richard Dixon on his new 06 machine but held in there for another good fifth and Dixon claimed sixth.

 

The last race was one of the best races Wakes has seen for many years as the commentator was going non-stop, this time Millward had holeshot again claiming the Putoline Oils Holeshot awards fro the day, this time Bixby had Leech right in his sights and as these two battled they passed everyone else, and had swapped the lead 4 or 5 times, with Bixby edging a small 10 yard gap it looked like he had it in control, then with a couple of laps to go he missed a gear entering the fast run up to the table top and Leech had got the chance he wanted passing Bixby, Bixby was now 10 yards or so behind and as these two battled you could see that Richee had a small advantage on the flat technical part of the track as his lead went to 20 yards or so, the as they entered the hilly part Bixby’s KTM had more power and easily pulled in Leech, then on the last lap Leech pulled off the track with problems, his fuel cap had come off and petrol was splashing over him. That gave the lead to Bixby with Willis riding his best all day and earning a well deserved second with Millward and Potter close by.

 

This event was incorporating a race for DEP newcomers, so as riders could come and try out the 125 class before registering for the 2006 series, happily we can say that there were 22 new juniors enter this and of those 17 had never raced before, although it was evident that they all could ride well, the junior section was dominated by one of these new DEP riders, Garry Linge from Essex had come from a long lay off and wanted to try his luck in the 125’s, he showed that he still has plenty of speed and was duly promoted to expert at the end of the meeting. The juniors again showed just why these guys like 125’s, they were 2, 3 and even 4 abreast in some places and the lap scorers worked well getting them all as they passed in a swarm, Linge had good starts all day and was riding well, he did have to battle with riders like Sam Arbon who has really started to hit some great form and apart from a last race crash would have been on the podium, another rider who had raced well all day was Kevin Finch, he had a couple of poor starts but came through the pack and had some real hard passes to make as no-one would give an inch, he was a few yards behind Linge at the flag in two of the races it was that close. Eddy Carr had another good day and will be happy with his efforts on the day, he had his Suzuki nailed around the circuit all day.

 

We saw newcomers like Gino Rea, Ben Lilley, Graham Lee and Dan Minton mixing it up as these guys wanted beat some regulars, Gino came out best on the day with a brilliant 4^th overall, if he had not jumped the first race start and got jammed in the gate he could of bettered that, he was the smallest guy out there but he sure was entertaining the crowd with some spectacular jumping and he had never raced a 20 minute race before. Ben Lilley made some impressive passes and looked real good for a top position all day, Graham Lee was happy with his 9^th overall and Dan Minton who is series expert Jim Davies mechanic, was trying the racing side of things out as Jim is nursing a broken leg, so Dan was out on the bike Jim was advising, by the look of Dan he could of done with shorter races, but did pass quite a lot of regulars to claim 11^th overall on the day, not sure if we’ll see Dan out again as he may stick to the spanners. Another impressive ride came from the 15 year old Luke Moulds, this was his first adult meeting and he displayed some very clever moves and rode hard for the whole 20 minutes, a small crash in the last race due to a puncture scuppered his overall but he too gained some scalps so to speak, then just behind him there was Steve O’flynn at his first mx event too, Steve is a professional heavy weigh boxer and is using moto x as a training scheme, well he certainly looked like he can ride and enjoyed the whole day.

 

Overall Experts                                  

1   Steve Bixby                                  

2   Paul Willis 

3   Ben Millward                                 

4   James Potter                               

5   Richard Dixon                              

6   Richee Leech                               

Holeshot awards went to Ben Millward

 

 

Riders prepare for the 1^st race of the day

 

 

 

 

Ben Millward was happy to get the holeshot award in the 3^rd race and clearly shows it over the big table top jump

 

 

 

William Burden (47) and Sam Whymark (21) prepare to land on one of the many big downhill jumps at Wakes Colne

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matchams Park  Final round 

 

 

The final round of the 2005 series returned to matchams moto parc in Hampshire, this was going to be the decider as there were double points being awarded to finishers and any rider in the top 9 juniors and top 6 experts could take their class titles!

 

After plenty of rain during the week, Matchams staff had the circuit in pretty good condition, and as riders arrived Saturday they were impressed with the changes and the condition of the track. Unfortunately during the night the rain started again and was to continue right through until lunchtime on race day, this had made the hilly sand track a real quagmire and was going to make the 125 races a battle to survive and finish rather than an all out race to win !   It was going to be the thinking rider that prevails on this circuit.

 

As the gate dropped for the first  race it was the old timer Jon Barfoot who eased his Reynolds TM into the lead, with series leader Jonathon pettitt in 4^th, pettitt only had to finish each race to take the title so he set about catching the leader and following thus putting pressure on Barfoot to keep on the gas and try to pull away, Pettitt’s clever plan worked as at ¾ distance Barfoot made a mistake with backmarkers and Pettitt was through to take the win, the race sealed the series Championship for Pettitt and the pressure was off, second race again saw Barfoot take the lead but it was Ben Millward who earned the Holeshot award on his Inchains TM. Pettitt was up the front of the pack again as was East Anglia’s Richee Leech.

 

Their were some terrific battles around the track and there were also some bad luck befalling riders, Steve Bixby had been on the gas in practice and looked real good, that was until a rock smashed his KTM gearbox and he had to retire, Paul Willis crashed and was run over and retired for the day, James Kensington crashed on the start and lost his clutch so he was unable to finish the day, and junior leader James Watts crashed and had trouble all day with bike problems, Joe Pyke had a new 06 Honda and had real problems getting this to work properly and had to cruise the bike around in the lower positions, another top junior with problems was Henryk Cameron, in with a chance of winning, his new 06 Kawasaki engine seized solid and he failed to qualify for group A.

 

This was the end to a brilliant 125cc Championship, with every rider complimenting each other and reflecting on certain events throughout the year, with the highs and lows of their campaign, but never far away from anyone’s thoughts was the sad loss of Richard Fitch, our Champion

 

 

Overall results for Matchams (double points rounds)

 

Expert                                                  Junior

Barfoot             174 lrw                        Trannah            180

Pettitt               174                               Seabright          160

Mellows           152 lrw                         Dowsing           142

Millward           152                              Fox                   138

Luke                144                               J Watts             136

 

 

 

Championship Overall

 

Expert                                                  Junior

Fitch

Pettitt               782                              N Watts           717

Barfoot            705                              Fay                  585

Luke                579                              Fox                  582

Davies              570                              Arbon              566

Potter               562                              Pyke                561

Willis                466                              Cameron          558

Millward           456                              J Watts             555

Evans               431                              Roper               536

Dixon               407                              Whitworth        498

Edge                357                              Whappshott      491

Kensington       337                              Huddleston       486

Hoptrough        321                              Finch                441     

Oliver               305                              Elwell               423

Edwards           311                              Kennard           402

Leech               289                              Whymark         390

House              283                              Veale               363

Houlston           251                              Banks               352

P Watts            242                              Hoskins            352

Palmer              227                              Preece              342

Dowson           224                              Frew                314

Dowsing           314

Foyle                205                              Brocklehurst     312

Robinson          204                              Farnish             309

Redman            186                              Randall             270

French              170                              L Watts            193

Barker              163                              Howkins           190

Trannah            180

Cowshall          139                              Butler               175

Anderson         128                              Groves             153

Gregory            120                              Burden             149

Frankland         118                              Dodd               135

May                 110                              McTee             107     

Jones                108                              Turner              95

Midgeley          101                              Robinson          80

Redstone          100                              Wright              72

Ford                 97                                Miles                71

Wheeler           80                                Swanson          67

Colom              76                                Thexton            66

Bastic               65                                Potter               64

P Collins           64                                Reeves             61

Braithewaite     55                                Anger               49

Pyne                 44                                Martin              43

Shelton             35                                Nelson             41

Shepperd         32                                G Martin          40

Higgins             25                                Sapsford          38

Sapsford          19                                Hooper             36

Chamberlain     15                                Parker              28

Minter              14                                Phillips             24

Wash               6                                  Walker             19