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All content © Bob MuIIins | ||
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Rock Oil Championship Round 2 The second round of the RAW Enduro Rock Oil Lubricants backed hare & hounds championship headed for the Lancashire hills on April 10th. Known for its wild cold weather, Lee Dell had a surprise in store for competitors on Sunday morning. Despite heavy snowfall late Saturday afternoon making track conditions very slippery, the weather on Sunday was simply stunning. A small but eager group of youth riders were first out on track, Richard Moorhouse was the Youth A rider on a mission, Richie loved the wet tricky conditions, he used his skills to take the win despite being pushed by RAW newcomer Robert Francombe, Roberts attendance was great to see adding more top end competition to the class. Lewis Townend finished in third place. On to the First Adult race of the day and a short delay due to extra day entries meant a ten minute delay to the start of this race. Sportsman Vets were the first to be flagged away with the top three riders running very close all race long, the course was an open flowing design, marked out in this way by Wayne Braybrook to allow line choice when the obvious trails got cut up. Stuart Mowbary made the best of the terrain taking the Vets win just ahead of local enduro enthusiast Jeremy Ashby, Jeremy only rides once in a while although when he does he makes it count. David Williams was the only other vets rider to finish on a 13 lap tally. Sportsman honours went to Josh Haith who was on fire all race on his Husqvarna 85. Josh held a six minute advantage over second place Phil Dodsworth at the flag. Shane Keyworth was the final podium visitor finishing on 11 laps. Delighted to take the Novice class win Jamie Lock now sits in the top 6 overall championship standings, Ben Martindale was runner up just under two minutes behind. Stand out performance of the day goes to Ollie Franklyn taking a well earned third place trophy home with him. Jonathan Wadsworth just held onto the Over 50 vets win after a late charge from Ian Heyworth closed the gap to just under two minutes, local ace Pete Fletcher narrowly missed out on the extra lap as the timing clock hit zero finishing in third place. With track repairs and some re routes being tended to by the super efficient travelling marshals, the morning event trophy presentation was followed by the start of a small but class field of more experienced riders ready to rip round the Lee Dell complex. Steel eyes Chris Hughes was the holeshot man in the expert class, Pingu
then carried on for the whole race keeping a solid consistent pace despite
having a monster crash in the early stages. Returning to fitness local MX
turned Enduro fan Brandon Sharples is finally back on form after his
injuries from 2015 are healed. Brandon kept Hughes on his toes by reducing a
plus one and a half minute lead to a mere 12 seconds at the finish flag,
that's what great racing is about! RAW team rider Brad Lilburn had an
average day on his Colin Appleyard TE125, despite a few crashes he ground
out a solid third place finish with good points towards the expert
championship. As ever the clubman class is the most competitive, after a
turn one crash Marc Vardy took his MAV builders KTM to a solid win in the
class, young Thomas Widd showed that he has the ability to run up front by
narrowly holding off round one winner Danny Culkin who finished in third
place. The clubman class title chase will be one to watch all season as the
"young guns" do battle ready for their 2017 Expert upgrades.
Trials and Enduro fan Anthony Ayrton was the man on it in the Expert Vets
class taking a good win. Dean Johnson only just missed staying on the lead
lap after his Lay in Sunday morning... and was credited with a great second
place. David Haith showed a good solid pace to take third place just ahead
of John Steeples who still nurses a niggling foot injury. Clubman Vets
winner Russell Watson made the Clubman vets his own finishing on 14 laps, a
delighted Mark Cockfield took a brilliant runner up place on his Beta,
having been upgraded from Sportsman Vets after last season's class win,
Cockfield is starting to get to grips with the faster riders in the more
experienced race. Now RAW have a break in the championship to work on the new venues preparing for the summer season. The Rock Oil Championship moves to Westwood near Sheffield for Round
three on May 14/15th where course grading will begin very soon. Exciting
news for Westwood fans is that all being well we will have use of a new
field section which has never been used before.
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