Wednesday, 21 April 2010 22:03

South West Summer Series Round 2 – Cheddar – 18th  April

 Glorious sunshine and a resurfaced and well prepared track, thanks to Pete Phillips and his team, greeted almost 300 riders to the second round of the South West Summer Series at Cheddar.  
That there was a National weekend the following week explained the appearance of a number of out-of-region riders getting some early practice in and it was good to see Liam Phillips back in action in the SW again.  With Ian Wheeler on the mic abley assisted by Jez Beck and Charlie Phillips whilst he was on track, the scene was set for some fast and furious action.

Four groups of Novices took to the track with Exeter’s Aaron Peake winning all races in 6 and Under and Willow Peake mopping up in 7-9s.  Burnham’s Sam Phillips took overall honours in 10-12s and James Taylor sewed up the combined 13-16+ group. 

 

In the Female classes Tiverton’s Mollie O’Loughlin made light work of the 6 and Unders and Cornwall’s Megan Wherry won all her races in 9-10s.  The combined 11s to 16s group saw wins for Burnham’s Alesi Tye, two for Cornwall’s Katie Kemp and Tiverton’s Shannon Blake.

The younger Cruiser riders found themselves combined together up to 14 years with Burnham’s Roy Jones dominating all the races.  The 15-16’s was an all Cornwall riders affair with Jake Quintrell taking three wins and Nathan Bache the other.  17-29 had Bideford’s Brian Jury’s name stamped all over it with four fine wins ahead of Braintree’s Darren Eastell. 

The 30’s groups were combined to give a group of 20 riders and therefore semis in which Burnham’s Clive Hawkins took overall victory winning all his races.  There were enough of the ‘old boys’ for a full gate of 40+ers in which visiting rider Kevin Blackman won all and a full gate of 45+ers in which Duchy Pirates’ Dave Herman reigned supreme.  The Ladies 25+ group saw a return to form of Hawks’, and now Dialled Bikes supported,  Claire Morrison riding Cheddar again for the first time since her horrific accident at last years’ Brits.  Four wins ensured Claire that her confidence had returned.

Burnham’s Jack Hawkins took overall points victory in 6 & Unders whilst in the 7’s despite three moto wins for Hawks’ Travis Diwell-Wilson and two for Cornwall’s Ashley England it was Duchy Pirates’  Jack Nation who took the A Final win and victory for the day.  In the 8’s the Brookes brothers from Preston took moto wins with Ryan taking the A Final win.  Codham Park’s Josh Peters won all the races in the 9 year olds group as did Cornwall’s Alex Diment in 10s and Burnham’s Josh Coppin in the 11s.  The 12s, 13s and 14s also saw domination by one rider in each race with Duchy’s Scott Domingues, Harry Gray-Blest and Bristol’s Ben Walters winning the
classes respectively.

In the Male 15’s the battles between Exeter’s Dan Davis and Duchy’s Matt Roddis saw two wins apiece but Matt won the all important Final for overall victory and Decoy’s Jake Cornforth took the 16s group.  The 17-24 group had 32 riders and Burnham’s Liam Phillips and Peckham’s Tre Whyte dominated the motos with Phillips and Peckham’s Dan Whyte taking the semis.  Liam Phillips took the A Final win from Dan Whyte and Decoy’s Dan McBride.  Bideford’s Michael Smart took the wins in 25-29 and in the Masters 30+ class it was SE Racing’s Dave Ives who won overall despite the efforts of Bristol’s Richard Green who won one of the GP races.

It would be wrong to dwell on the incidents and injuries during the meeting but there were a few and it’s hoped that those riders involved recover fully and speedily to return as soon as possible.  The South West Series now moves to Portreath in Cornwall, home of the Duchy Pirates, on 9th May for round three.

Alan
Humphrey