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All content © Bob MuIIins | ||
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Rock Oil Championship The Iconic Norwood Teversal played host to round 4 of the Raw Enduro Rock Oil backed championship on Sunday July 3rd. Norwood has a reputation for creating a love hate relationship with riders, if the ground is saturated then conditions are always tough which some riders love, equally as the ground dries out its one of the best Hare & Hounds tracks in the north of England. Sunday was no exception as heavy rain for two hours on Saturday afternoon made conditions tough for the youth race and the first half of the first adult event. By the time the PM race kick started into life conditions were perfect which is always luck of the draw at Norwood.
RAW Enduro Rider Saul Hirst was on fire in the Youth A Class taking the win from Cole Cookland who really did keep the pressure on Hirst. Jack Winn made the long journey from the north east worthwhile taking his Race 2 Off Road supported KTM to a great 3rd in class. Cory Cookland was the victor in the Youth B class, Cory just managed to grab the extra lap on his rivals. Jamie Williams took runner up place with local lass Jaysi Austin showing how much her MX skills are improving her riding in third place. A newer faster signing on procedure for day entries now means race start delays are a thing of the past at RAW Enduro, at 10:30 prompt Clerk of the course Wayne Braybrook delivered the safety briefing and best advice for a competitive race to the packed start line.
Lee Pallet took the Sportsman Vets Holeshot, after leading the first few laps he was hunted down by Neil Myers who eventually went on to take the vets win by just over 3 minutes. Sportsman class honours is now a battle of the young guns, Joe Townsend was the man on a mission working hard to take the win on his DCR Sherco. Reece Pickersgill continues to improve his RAW Enduro results taking a superb runner up place. Sam Johnson rounded out the sportsman podium. Almost last away in class Ian Heyworth had to work harder than expected in the over 50 class, the old warhorse ground on through to take the win from runner up fellow Lancastrian Pete Fletcher. RAW Regular Steve Johnson helped his championship point tally by taking a close fought third in class.
Interestingly the Novice class riders coped really well in the tricky
early race conditions, Jamie Lock overcame as big crash towards the end of
the lap mid race, to then take the win and extend his championship lead, Ben
Walker was the only other novice to complete 9 laps. Holeshot man in the Experts was Chris Hughes, at the end of the first lap Lee Sampson had taken the lead and continued to build up a healthy gap on the chasing pack. Just after refuelling Sampson made a small but costly error, a slip off saw his electric start button on his Sherco smashed off, and with no kickstart his day was then over. This left local lad Josh Bailey in the lead, now this is not a place where Josh would normally be leading an expert race, but all credit to him he held off the hard Charging Elliot Bradshaw for most of the race, eventually Bradshaw took the win on his 125 KTM. Phil Hancock was delighted with his third place in the expert class. As ever the clubman class honours were super tight at the top. Andy Myers rode a consistent race to take the win by a mere 12 seconds from Marc Vardy who suffered with cramp in the closing stages. Hard Charging Danny Culkin overcame an average start to get his act together towards the end of the race just missing out on runner up spot by three seconds at the flag. Andy Harvey was the Clubman Vets winner and mark Raynor took the Expert Vets win. So that's Norwood action over for another season, already we have the venue booked for the first weekend in July 2017, lets hope again for the fine weather Norwood deserves for great racing. New Personalised trophy plates will be sent direct to the top three in each class adding a touch of extra RAW passion to what is already a rapidly growing club. The 5th round of the championship will take place on July 17th, the venue is to be confirmed very soon, Raw Enduro have had to consider track conditions at a number of venues after what has been one of the wettest months on record. Thanks to all RAW crew and staff for a great job running another well organised popular event. Online event entries now open, fastrack signing on for pre paid entries
avoids queues at event control on race day.
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