Adult competitors Ant Barrett, Danny Lloyd, Stuart Jones and youth rider Jamie Morgan were all crowned ACU British Quad X-Country champions in their respective classes at final round of the series at the spectacular valley track at Llangrove near Monmouth on Sunday. With Carl Bunce having already sewn up the main adult championship class at the previous round, all eyes were on the battles in other classes and they didn’t disappoint.
The two hour youth race in the morning, including the 250 Modified class series leader Morgan, was first away in increasingly blustery conditions as the low pressure that was once Hurricane Katia edged into the west of Britain. But the wind was the least of Morgan’s worries, after he got lost on the opening lap!
Morgan was one of several leading riders who got “confused” in the first main woodland section, allowing fast starting Elliot Downes to get an early advantage. That though was short lived as Downes got stuck in a stream crossing, giving Harry Miller, Morgan’s only title threat, a handsome early lead.
However, as has been typical this year, Morgan pinged in a series of fastest laps, including the fastest of the race on lap four to take the lead by lap five. The 14-year-old, from Usk, who will be staying in the 250 class next year, unlike many of his older rivals, eventually stretched out a 1m 52s winning margin over Miller to secure his fourth national title. “ The only problem was the pheasants that kept flying in front of me – I killed at last one,” said Morgan.
Luke Davies, who had already clinched the 250 Standard title, had a problem free ride and was the first Standard rider home in seventh overall, just 25 seconds ahead of his season long rival Jordan Hickman.
Marloe Magee headed a small 250 Stock field, however his 17th overall in amongst many faster Modified and Standard machines was one of his best ride of the year. While Daffyd Davies, on the new 125 Yamaha Raptor took the 100 Geared class, after his keenly anticipated battle with Bailey Edwards, who has dominated the class this year, fizzled out on lap one when Edwards crashed twice.
The three-hour adult race in the afternoon promised some intriguing battles, not least of all to get finished before the predicted rain arrived. Fortunately, it only came in short squalls, and failed to dampen the excitement. As usual, at the front Suzuki pair and Pont de Vaux teammates Bunce and Chris Cooper dominated proceedings. Bunce led early on after an early challenge from Cooper caused him to clip Bunce’s rear wheel and flip.
However, Cooper was able to battle back into contention by mid-race, after Bunce had to pit TWICE for a new grip on his throttle after they came off “I think they glued the first replacement with WD40!” joked Bunce. However, Cooper had to pit for fuel, and to remove a stone from his boot, which was trapped on top of his gear change foot. From then second was all he could hope for. Paul Hannam, had held second after Cooper’s early mishap, but he was forced to retire with gearbox problems. That left John Wilding to take third overall and in class – his best result of the year.
In the Expert class Ant Barrett only had to circulate and pick up a handful of points to secure his first title. However, since the last round he had managed to break some small bones in his left hand and injure his foot in two separate freak accidents so this was easier said than done.
However, a gritty ride, which included stopping for pain killers mid race, saw him finish fifth overall and first Expert, 4m 17s ahead of Chris Keitch, his nearest rival.
However, both were soundly beaten, by a lap, by 17 year-old Clubman Tom Downes who produced the ride of the day and easily his best ride of the season, to take fourth overall and first Clubman.
“I just clicked with the track,” said Downes modestly, who has actually been showing some good moto cross form recently.
The Clubman battle was expected to be between Lloyd and Jack Price-Draper, who were so close on points that a win for either would have seen them champion. In the end it was immaterial after Price-Draper’s troublesome shoulder, which he first dislocated a year ago, and which partially separated at the recent Great 8, proved too painful and he had to retire. “I didn’t now he had stopped until I came in for fuel’” admitted a relieved Lloyd, who was pushing hard after a first lap mistake had left him down field. “After that I just rode steady to make sure I finished.”
The closest championship finish came in the Utility class – though only one of the title contenders was actually on track at the time. As the last half hour ticked down, championship leader Stuart Jones (retired - broken fan) and second placed Jon Morgan (retired - broken frame), were sat beside the track with pencil and paper trying to work out if race leader Simon Lang could overhaul them in the table. Lang’s one lap win – his third in a row since a mid-season switch from a dated Yamaha Grizzly to the all-dominate Can-Am Renegade – was only enough to move him to second in the series, behind a relieved Jones. “Guess I should have switched machines earlier in the year!” said Lang.
RESULTS:
Adult race overall:
1 Carl Bunce (Suzuki), 2 Chris Cooper (Suzuki), 3 John Wilding (Can-Am), 4 Tom Downes (Yamaha), 5 Danny Lloyd (Yamaha), 6 Ant Barrett (Suzuki)
Championship race: 1 Bunce, 2 Cooper, 3 Wilding, 4 Hannam. No other finishers.
Final championship points: Bunce 135, Cooper 116, Hannam 108, Wilding 93, Paul Winrow (Can-Am) 73, Clint Eagle (Suzuki) 47
Expert race: 1 Barrett, 2 Chris Keitch (Suzuki), 3 Peter Gallagher (Honda), 4 Aaron Pole (Honda), 5 Brett Freeston (Honda), 6 Darran Bridge (Yamaha). Final Expert points: Barrett 135, Keitch 119, Bridge 96, Gallagher 92, Pole 88, Chris Murphy (Honda) 83
Clubman race: 1 Downes, 2 Lloyd, 3 Billy Langford (Yamaha), 4 Ami Price Draper (Suzuki), 5 Ameelie Miller (Honda), 6 Sam Brown (Honda). Final Clubman points: Lloyd 127, Price-Draper 112, Langford 104, Miller 94, Luke Forrester (Honda) 87, Morgan Handford (??) 76
Utility race: 1 Simon Lang (Can-Am), 2 Simon Webb (Can-Am, 3 Adam Wykes (Can-Am), 4 Neil Martin (Yamaha), 5 Katie Hodgson (Can-Am), 6 Gary Hodgson (Polaris). Final Utility Points: Stuart Jones (Can-Am) 116, Lang 112, Jon Morgan (Can-Am) 108, Wykes 95, Webb 92, Graham Widdicombe (Can-Am) 82
Youth race overall: 1 Jamie Morgan (Yamaha), 2 Harry Miller (Yamaha), 3 Dexter Langford (Yamaha), 4 Jack Godfrey (Yamaha), 5 Kyle Hawkes (Yamaha), 6 Jack Pierce (Yamaha).
250 Modified: 1 Morgan, 2 Miller, 3 Langford, 4 Godfrey, 5 Hawkes, 6 Pierce. Final 250 Modified points: Morgan 129, Miller 103, Elliot Downes (Yamaha) 102, Godfrey 93, Langford 93, Pierce 87
250 Standard: 1 Luke Davies (Yamaha), 2 Jordan Hickman (Yamaha), 3 Jack Naylor (Yamaha), 4 Connor Taylor (Yamaha), 5 Guy Keenan (Yamaha), 6 Brandom Holm (Yamaha). Final 250 Standard Points: Davies 135, Hickman 123, Taylor 102, Keenan 101, Miles Woodward (Yamaha) 82, Naylor 78
250 Stock: 1 Marloe Magee (Yamaha), 2 Shannon McKenna (Yamaha). No other finishers. Final 250 Stock points: Magee 129, McKenna 99, Connor McKenna (Yamaha) 77, Joe Sharp (Yamaha) 25, Bradley Wildman (Yamaha) 20, Andy Gregory (Yamaha) 18.
100 Geared: 1 Daffyd Davies (Yamaha). No other finishers. Final 100 Geared points: Davies 35, Bailey Edwards (KTM) 35, Ryan Spratt-Wyatt (Cobra) 10.