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All content © Bob MuIIins | ||||
  
Rock Oil Championship As the Indian summer weather continued to grace Lancashire with its presence, despite the heavy thunderstorms that the UK experienced during the week, the hill top venue of Lee Dell was in great shape after a nice six month rest since the last event there. Wayne Braybrook crammed in extra hours to ensure his job as clerk of the
course provided the very best track for this a vitally important Rock Oil
Championship enduro. The super long lap around the reservoir headland meant
that he could make the course really wide fast and flowing, viewing for
spectators is awesome at Lee Dell, meters from the start the hillside gives
a safe birds eye view of over half the course.
A packed start area for the first adult race of the day were flagged away once the course alterations had been done, this included the long loop for the rest of the days action. A change of guard at the top of the Sportsman vets class saw Stuart Mowbrey take the win from David Williams in second. Holeshot man Lee Pallet rounded out the top three. The sportsman championship is now nail bitingly close, in form Tommy Grimmer took his second win of the season just edging out local ace Graham Dickinson, Reece Pickersgill still has his eyes on the overall as the championship heads towards the last two rounds of the season. Nick Manger Ben Martindale and Ben Walker were the top three in the novice class as local man Ian Heyworth won the over 50 battle. Andrew Dean narrowly held off the hard charging local fireman Pete Fletcher in the last two laps. Not gone unnoticed was Fletchers generosity, stopping to help a stranded rider did disadvantage him in the race, true sportsmanship.
With track conditions dried out to now perfect for competition, and with the super efficient lap scoring team having provided results so the AM events presentation could be done, it was the time of the faster more experienced riders to hit the Lancashire Turf. Ex top MX and British Sprint Enduro rider Carl Brogden took the holeshot, in a bizzare turn of bad luck his mousse collapsed towards the end of lap one meaning he had to pit for a wheel change. This meant Chris Hughes, Brandon Sharples and Nathan Ball were all fighting for the lead. At the flag Nathan Ball showed true class by catching and passing Hughes, although towards the very end it got close again the positions stayed the same. Brandon Sharples out on the KTM fuelled for life machine, never stopped in the 2.5 hour race, he took a well earned third expert placing. Anthony Ayrton and Anthony Tempest were the top two Expert Vets both completing 17 laps, David Haith Pushed his SPJ Husqvarna to the limit but just missed the extra lap by a mere 10 seconds. Andy Harvey edged out a nice lead in the Clubman Vets championship by taking the win. Simon Howden placed runner up with Mark Cockfield happy with his third place finish. Oliver Allbones continues to improve on his Moto4 Husqvarna 300, taking a well earned win in the highly competitive clubman class was a great performance. Neil Marshal enjoyed his race taking a second place trophy home, and Marc Vardy held a solid third place in class on his new 150 KTMXC. Championship standings are now really close in all but one class, the decision by RAW Enduro to make all rounds count this season has, and will continue to provide, the best Hare & Hounds competition in the North of England. Massive thanks to all who attended, now the Championship heads across the Pennines to Ripon in North Yorkshire which is a hot bed for enduro action. Thanks to all RAW crew and staff for a great job running another well organised popular event. Online event entries now open for Round 7, fastrack signing on for pre
paid entries avoids queues at event control on race day. |
