DEP series rolls into Cornwall
April 29, 2008
Round 2 of the 2008 Series rolled into Landrake moto parc, circuit owner Phil Congdon had worked for weeks on the track and it looked perfect, some overnight rain fell but this only helped deliver a fine surface for the days racing, the 125s rolled out for qualifying and as always the 125s are real close with split seconds separating the top riders, the fastest in each group were, Jon Pettit, Dave Willet and young Jack Brunell.
With qualifying down and riders in their correct group for the day racing commenced with the C group coming to the line for their 1st race of the day.
It was a glorious holeshot from Steve Wright who shot up the hill on his new KTM, Andrew Holland showed well along with Steve Whapshott, but it was Dan Johnson who took the first win of the day, second moto saw Andrew Holland and Steve Whapshott glued together for the whole race out front, Steve Wright had pulled another cracking start and was running top 5 but it was Trevor Bird who battled through the pack to take third place, their final moto of the day was taken by the charging Whapshott has he had a good battle with Trevor Bird but managed to hold him off until the flag, a fine ride from Nicholas Shaw placed him in a well deserved 5th.
B Group is always hectic and this group always delivers some brilliant racing, young Daniel Ward slotted his RM into the lead followed by Sean Doyle and Rupert Kimber. Matt Coles out on a 125 for the first time enjoyed himself and steadily improving earning a solid top ten finish, Lee Holland and Mark Bland had a battle royal for the entire race distance closely followed by Jason Brunell, Race two had Sean Doyle up front and this time staying onboard ! Kimber moved through very well passing Wardy and Mark Bland for second, Coles had a slightly better start and moved into the top 5 for a while, while Sam Lewis had bike problems and retired. The third and final moto for these guys was just as hectic as nine riders battled away in the lead group, Dan Whitworth received a hard pass and dropped a few places trying to recover his rhythm, Scott Webb and Matt Hopkins swapped positions a few times but it was Doyle who stood out, followed by Lee Holland and Kev Finch.
A Group is always full of talent and always delivers and deliver it did at Landrake, as the gate dropped for the first time it was Pettit launching into the lead with Christian Taylor and Jim Davies slotting in just behind, the first lap is always hard and one rider to suffer was round one flyer Darren Redman who got pushed over a berm in a 3 rider crash, Willet pulled some passes in weird places and came around in fifth after a great pass on Reynolds who had Fired his KTM into the leading pack again, Scrafton and Hanson set about each other, Pettit was flying and with a clear track in front of him he began to pull a lead, Willet came through to second but could not catch the leader, Taylor hung in there holding off a charging Davies, race two had the Yamaha of Brunell out front with Hanson and Craig English battling each other for second, this allowed Brunell to escape and then came Pettit, quickly disposing of everyone and locking onto Brunell, Willet had a top ten start but again was fighting his way through as he could see Pettit and Brunell pulling away, Reynolds again in the top five locked horns with Davies who has adjusted to the TM and is looking back to his best, he had Lewis Tombs and Redman for company. Pettit did the impossible and caught and passed Brunell as Willet had moved to third. Young Jack Brunell again took the lead in the final race of the day, Adam Reynolds was in second place but had the two TM’s of Davies and Pettit all over him, Willet had to park up Taylor and Brett Wheeler quickly as his starts just failed him today and he had to work so hard for every position, Pettit pounced and took the lead from Brunell who now had Davies lining him up, Willet has been labelled the ‘iron man’ of the series and for one reason he just keeps digging in and working his way forward, oh, and he does the open class as well on the same day ! Amazingly Willet came through to third and on the last lap was looking to pass for second when his bike cut out just yards from the finish, Davies inherited the all important third place for third overall.
Landrake Open class Qualifying went very well for Willett and Eastwood as both took pole in their groups but Willets time was fractionally quicker than Easty’s, just behind them came the KTM of Mike Kock and a flying Jamie Smith. With the riders qualified into their respective groups we saw group B take to the line for their first race of the day.
Steve Wells guided his KX500 up the long uphill start to take a quality holeshot, how nice to see and hear that ‘purr’ around this circuit, he had company from a gaggle of riders including Jacob Grossman, Jonathon Tapp and Ade Deeley, Scott Senter was on the gas as well moving through very well, Darren Williams and Jason Tucker disappeared mid race distance, Tapp had taken control up front Deeley was looking to pass Wells but that 500 just flew up the long Landrake hills, Grossman had settled for fourth.
Their second race was good viewing as Wells was out in the lead pack again along with Neil Watton who was performing some great aerial antics over the big jumps, Deeley again was on a mission as was Tapp, the battle was won by Wells who looked super smooth and suited the 500 style today, his advantage at the flag ? a whopping 0.87 of a second from Deeley.
The last race of the day for these guys was going to be interesting as there were 6 or so that were fast enough to take the win. Out of nowhere Senter launched his attack and put in probably his best ride since joining the series last year ! Grossman was firing on all cylinders in this one as was Warren Clifton. Senter claimed the win followed by Wells and Grossman.
A group open class is one seriously fast group and a joy to watch, Eastwood holeshot their first moto with Willet and Fernandez all over him. Willet pounced on the first lap through the whoop section taking Easty by surprise, these two set the pace and pulled a gap over the chasing pack, Eastwood looked like he had things in control and was following the charging Willet, but a few little mistakes and one major dose of headshake proved he too was wide open, Willet had the race until a bike problem and Easty was on him and making the pass, Willet went into ‘safe mode’ nursing his bike to the finish whilst still in second place only for the bike to cough to a stop on the last lap. Fernandez had worked hard to pull clear of a 4 man battle which included Alistair Clark, Ross Hill and Andre David, These guys hustled each other for the whole moto with David claiming third at the flag from the impressive Clark.
Race two was going to be hectic and it did not fail, the battle that took place between Eastwood and Willet was brilliant, they were at warp speed around here and they were passing and re-passing each other, one going inside the other going wide and they criss-crossed the circuit trying to gain what little advantage they could, Eastwood took the lead and rode such consistent laps Willet was going to have to something spectacular to make the pass, by this time they were in lappers and Easty made it work for him putting riders in Willets line thus preventing him the chance to get close enough to pass. Easty took the win by just over a second, that’s how close this race was the whole time, third place was a few more seconds back and that battle too proved exciting as Kock, David and Ross Hill engaged in some fine racing and they were not going to be out done by what was going on just in front of them, Andre David had his RM in all sorts of shapes, intentional or not it entertained the crowd, Kock slid his KTM into third but only just from Hill and then the ‘wild’ David.
Race three was holeshot by Alistair Clark who had the KX wound wide open, he had company though and not the nice sort, Eastwood and Willet were all over each other to get to him first as both these riders wanted the last race win, Willet dug real deep in this moto as he had already done three 125 races as well ? They soon disposed of Clark who had the pack chewing at his rear tyre, Eastwood tried to pull away with some fantastic lines as his CR threw out a line of roost at every opportunity, not fazed Willet mounted his attack and they again duelled for a few laps with the Yamaha man finally making his move on the sweeping downhill, Easty did try to get him back but there was no way anyone was going to pass Willet now. Willet steadily churned out lap after lap and edged away from the Honda by a 2.14 second margin at the flag, behind these two claiming third was the impressive Fernandez, David and Kock.
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