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Luton & District MCC Race Report Sunday 22nd July

MX at Old Park Farm, Toddington,Beds.

Club Championship Event

Report by Nigel Morris

In stifling hot conditions Paul Edge continued his winning ways in the latest round of the experts championship class  at the Luton Clubs, Old Park Farm venue near Toddington.

Once again this year the extreme weather conditions would have a huge bearing on the days racing as riders battled against soaring temperatures and blistering sunshine.

The Experts pace was equally hot and it was the 550 Husaberg Suzuki of Fred Sparkes which was generally the quickest machine off the line. Fred blasting away at the front early on, he took some reeling in by, the local Dunstable man, Edge. Try as he might Sparkes could not contain the chasing rider and the results would show a hat trick of wins for Edge. Behind the flying pair at the front it was down to the usual suspects to provide all the battling excitement.  Regardless of this activity Dexter Marks would also come away with three consistent third places. Mark Boswell made some very uncharacteristic mistakes. I’ve never ever seen him crash in turn one before, so consistent is the Banbury man, and with a smile on his face he went on to he blame Fred Sparkes for turning in  too tightly!

While fourth and fifth places alternated between James Barnwell and Jack Barnwell it was a cracking scrap in the last leg which typified the Toddington action. It featured Staurt Dyerson and Kevin Green who battled down to the flag for a fifth place finish. Throughout the race Green worked away at the back wheel of Dyerson, eventually with just a couple of laps to go Green was through. It looked all over, but Dyerson had other ideas and he came back yet again to steal it before the flag dropped. Both ridesr looked all in at the end but it had been hugely entertaining for those left watching this last race of the day.

The Junior finals provided a double win for Jason Garrad. Jason had been involved in a feisty heat early on in the day and he  was clearly on a mission from that point onwards to prove he was the one to beat. And prove it he did, not first out of the gate he took less than a lap to get to the front and leave the pack trailing; he came home a clear and worthy winner. Sam Robinson continued his progress at the head of the junior field with a strong second overall ahead of the consistently quick Matthew Eley. James Hanson also looked to be a threat after a stirring ride in the first leg but he failed to follow this up and Chris Bick and Neil Jago would do better overall.

The non-qualifiers was also a double, this time for James Turner who did his best to throw it all away with a messy crash in leg one. He  quickly  remounted but then had a long haul back to catch the super smooth Charlie Janes before the race end. Tyrone Wall proved to be strong throughout with a pair of third places.

As per usual the Over 40 & 50 year olds provided some great races for the basking crowd to enjoy. These ‘lads’ who purport to ride ‘just for the enjoyment’ gave a very gritty and determined performance if that’s the case. New boy,  Paul Gaylard quickly made his mark riding a  1996 Honda, but a stall and bale out while moving through the filed cost him dearly in leg one which was won by the more familiar figure of Steve Gilbey. Gaylard wasn’t to be denied in the other two legs having to overcome Gilbey and Mark Reeves who did exceptionally well against bigger capacity machinery on the fast slopes which are a feature of this circuit.

In the Over fifties Reg Willis was fast enough not only to win his category but to also be challenging at the front end of races with the younger element. Unluckiest man on the day was an ever improving Andrew Brightman, who seriously challenged Willis, but the Bedfordshire farmer suffered a rare throttle cable breakage in leg two that took him out of the action for the rest of day

Jack Barnwell turned out straight after the experts race to win the Workers Championship race ahead of Simon Stebbings who gave good solid performances in all the events he contested

Experts

Overall 1.Paul Edge 2. Fred Sparkes 3. Dexter Marks 4.Mark Boswell 5 Kevin Green

6.Stuart Dyerson

 Juniors Final           

Overall 1.Jason Garrad 2.Sam Robinson 3. Matthew Eley 4. Mark Sandle 5. Neil Jago

  6.Chris Bick

Junior Non Qualifiers

Overall 1. James Turner 2. Charlie Janes 3.Tyrone Wall 4. Jon Bick 5.Gary Carter

Over 40s Championship

Overall  1.Steve Gilbey 2.Paul Gaylard 3.Mark Reeves              

Over 50s Championship

Overall 1. Reg Willis 2.Archie Leishman3.Andrew Brightman

Luton Club Workers Championship race

1.Jack Barnwell 2. Simon Stebbings 3.Rupert Fairclough 4.Ryan Fleckney 5.Chris Hackett . 6 Andrew Brightman

 

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