Tuesday May 31, 2011 at 3:56pm
The second round of this year’s championship took place yesterday at Asham Woods with 28 of the countries top sidecar crews doing battle over the three legs. After a period of dry weather the track was well watered by the club in the days leading up to the meeting but on the day mother nature took over and supplied rain nearly all day long ensuring dust would not be an issue.
In timed training the local crew of Daniel & Joe Millard set the fastest time on their first lap. They were soon overtaken firstly by Stuart Brown / Josh Chamberlain and then by Jack Etheridge / Ryan Humphrey. These three would go to the line in that order followed by the current leaders of the clubmans championship, Neil & Michael Franks.
The charge into turn one of the first moto was headed by Brown from Millard with Scott Wilkinson / Craig Parmenter third and Rob Oldfield / Gary Kinge fourth. After two laps Oldfield sustained a puncture and soon pulled out. This lifted Jenkins / Girling up to fourth. As the race neared half distance Millard made a mistake and dropped back to fourth.
At the front Brown was comfortably clear of Wilkinson but Jenkins, in third, was being closed down by Millard and with two minutes to go they lost third place.
The second race turned out to be one of the most exciting so far this year. Millard took the holeshot from Brown with Oldfield in third and Jenkins fourth. A tangle at turn one left Etheridge and Wilkinson right at the back.
Millard held the lead for the first lap but on the main straight at the beginning of lap two Brown powered past to take the lead. Although Brown seemed to have a speed advantage on the long straight Millard was quicker on the rest of the lap so they were nose to tail for lap after lap. On the big hill out of the quarry Millard had the advantage and on a number of laps he got alongside Brown at the top but Brown held his line to keep the lead. Oldfield held third for fifteen minutes but then a bike problem on lap eight dropped him down to twentieth place.
Further back both Etheridge and Wilkinson had been carving their way through the field and finished eleventh and seventh respectively. Brown took the win from Millard but he certainly knew he had been in a race.
In the third and last leg Etheridge took the holeshot from Wilkinson and Brown but it wasn’t long before Brown took the lead leaving Etheridge second in front of Oldfield, Millard and Wilkinson. A tangle at the end of the start straight left Jenkins with an injured ankle and Parr restarting nearly a lap down.On third lap Millard was up to second and Wilkinson had passed Oldfield to take fourth. At the front Brown was in trouble when the handrail broke at the inboard end leaving Josh trying to hang on to a moving target.
Despite the drama on Brown’s bike the front four positions remained unchanged to the flag.
Brown now leads the championship by sixteen points from Millard who is twenty six points ahead of third placed Etheridge.
The next round is at Torrington on 19th June.