DEP 2-STROKE BRITISH MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP - SKELDER BANKS WHITBY
June 12, 2007
Honda riders Mark Eastwood and David Willett dominated proceedings at the fourth round of the DEP 2-Stroke British Championship at Skelder Banks in Whitby, with the track looking in prime condition this may well have been the best round of two stroke racing so far this year.
The weather was blistering hot on the Sunday and blistering being the operative word as lots of riders were struggling with hands blistering with the combination of heat, sweat and sometimes tears.
The MCF team put on another fine round of championship racing but the early morning qualifying session was in doubt after the paddock awoke to thick fog coming in from the North Sea, but after a word with the land owner things were on track by 9am and within minutes the fog disappeared back into the sunny atmosphere.
The 125 classes were away first on the early morning greasy surface, Jonathan Pettitt, Stuart Edmonds and David Willett took the top three in the class, with Pettitt a two full seconds quicker than anyone else.
In the 125 C group Aaron Bruce put in a great days racing by taking moto’s two and three chased hard in both by heat one winner Steve Harris. Michael Randall, Matt Hopkins, Simon Collins, Leon Wilson and Stuart Duffill performed exceptionally well on a tough and demanding championship circuit.
Same can be said in the 125 B class, all the riders performed heroics on such a technical track with probably 90% making their first trip to Skelder Banks.
Making the most of it up front was James Potter who scorched to two wins, Lee Baggs managed to scupper Potter’s maximum by taking moto two by eight seconds.
Ashley Crossley, David Rawlings, Bradley Howlett, Ady Peedle, Lucas Harris, Michael Deeley and Michael Garrett put on a great show for the large crowd in attendance and anyone one of these riders could have landed a podium position.
Two riders stood head and shoulders above the rest at Whitby in the 125 expert races and they were overall winner David Willet and TM’s Stuart Edmonds.
Both these rider battled it out from the gate drop in each of the three moto’s but Willet had the upper hand and managed to break the Irish challenger in the second part of each race, possibly due to his superb overall fitness.
Edmonds made great starts in each race but just didn’t have the legs on the flying Honda, these two still haven’t finished yet and with five rounds still to complete anything could and will happen.
Jonathan Pettitt is still going strong and proved once again age is no barrier with a storming second overall, Steve Bixby’s luck changed at Whitby and put in great performance to finish third overall. Bixby had to battle tooth and nail with the ever improving Jim Davies, Jim Scafton Matt Ridgway and Nicky Watts in some titanic races throughout the day. Just behind this pack of riders you had huge battles going on with Brett Wheeler, Darren Redman, Steven Collins, Roy McConnachie and Luke Kennet all battling for a converted top ten position.
With some of the top junior riders qualifying for the main 125 event, Paul Shires came away as the overall winner in his class followed very closely by Adam Reynolds and Chris Glover in third, John Butler, Sam Holloway, Lee Holland, George Winn, Steve Birkinshaw, Sean Stevens and David Ford rounded off the top ten in the top junior class.
It was good to the return of Ryan Voase and Stuart Flockhart in the 250 expert class, Ryan who missed the last round due to an enduro calendar clash and Stuart making his first appearance after his injury, both riders took to the track like ducks to water with Voase making the most of his return and showing no mercy to the other riders and took the qualifying session from the Disco king Flockhart and double class entrant David Willett. Current championship leader Mark Eastwood had to settle for fourth place.
Again we had two different winners in the 250 B class, Scott Senter riding superbly well to take races one and two with race one being one of the closest finishes of the day with Sam Lewis just losing out on the chequered flag.
Simon Martin did squeeze out a fine race three win from Darren Marklove.
The racing in this class was full of personal battles all the way through the field, Sam Beddows, Simon Jenkins, Ashley Pennycook and Piers Waddington all rode well in each of the heats and deserved the much sort after prize money on offer.
Stuart Edmonds...
The racing in the 250 A class was nothing short of outstanding with Mark Eastwood again taking a maximum but this time he had to work his Honda nuts off and dig deep to keep ahead of Kawasaki’s Voase, Yamaha’s Stuart Flockhart and Honda’s David Willet.
These four were gone from the gate in each race, whipping, bar banging and grinning at each other at every possible chance they had, the crowd were whooping and a hollering to add to the fantastic carnival atmosphere that was had a Whitby.
But the experience of Eastwood shone through with some clever overtaking moves to cross the line first in each moto. Voase must be kicking himself as he led on a number of occasions but had to settle for the runners up spot this time round, mark my words Ryan will be the first to beat Eastwood sometime this year in the DEP 2-Stroke British Championship.
Willet who must be super fit after racing both 125 and 250cc class took it all the way to Eastwood in heat one but just missed out by a whisker come the flag.
Flockhart did his best but being off the bike for while took its toll but he will be back bigger and stronger at the next round at Finningley this weekend.
Chasing the minor places behind this flying quartet were Ben Taylor, Chad Yarranton, Lewis Rose, Alex Wilson, Andre David and Neil Flockhart all finishing in that order to round off the top ten in the super competitive 250 A class.
The organisers of the DEP 2-Stroke British championship would like to thank Lazer helmets for their kind support at this weekends DEP championship event at Whitby.
Lazer kindly sponsored the event and some riders were lucky enough to win a brand new Lazer lid.
The lucky riders were Lewis Rawles, Anthony Healy, Ady Peedle, Duncan Brown and Darron Mills.
More information on the championship can be found at www.2strokebritishchampionship.co.uk
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