Tuesday February 10, 2015 at 9:48am
Sunday 8th February 2015, Hawkstone Park, Shropshire
Report and photography: Rob McDonnell
A winter competing in the French Sand Championship paid dividends for Stefan Murphy at Hawkstone Park on Sunday where he took overall victory in the opening round of the ACU British Quad Championship to lead the series for the first time in his career.
The 24-year-old ATV’s R Us Yamaha rider admitted the additional race fitness and quad prep time stood him in good stead as the superbly prepared Shropshire sand track dug up particularly deep and rough over the course of the day, and took its toll on many riders and machines.
Murphy did not win any of the three 20-minutes heats but his 2-3-3 was enough to give him a one point victory over former British champion Paul Holmes, who looked back to his title-winning best when he won the final heat.
“The Hawkstone track is not necessarily like the French sand ones I’ve been riding which have been largely beaches, but I did come here race ready and with a lot of knowledge about my bike’s set-up, “ said Murphy. “For a lot of riders this was their first time out this year and Hawkstone is a tough track for your opening race.”
The former Under-21 British Champion had not qualified strongly, ending up eighth of the 40 starters. Pole instead went to Northern Ireland’s Dean Colhoun, who many, including the now semi-retired reigning champion Paul Winrow, had made the pre-event favourite.
However, at the start of the opener they all had to play second fiddle to Welshman Luke Cooper who fired his KTM into a strong early lead ahead of a five-way battle comprising Oli Sansom, Murphy, Colhoun, George Callaway and Ireland’s Jack Rayburn. In the space of half a lap everything changed. First Colhoun muscled to the head of the chasing group and immediately pulled a large gap, then ahead of them all Cooper crashed heavily in the infamous Bombhole, dislocating his hip.
A lap later the race was red flagged so medics could attend to the stricken Cooper and with Colhoun leading on the previous lap, he took victory by nine seconds from Murphy who in turn was two seconds ahead of the Callaway.
In race two Sansom took the holeshot but was quickly overhauled by Murphy and Dutch star, Joe Maessen, who had staged a remarkable ride in race one after coming from dead last to 11th on an ill-handling machine - he had collided with another machine so heavily that he had to deflate one of the front tyres to free it!
“This time I got a much better start and that was important here today so I was able to ride my own race,” said Maessen, who stretched out a 12-second winning margin over the field by the flag, largely thanks to a much better run through the backmarkers in the closing laps. The chasing group comprised Murphy, reigning Under-21 Champion Mark McLernon and Colhoun. By lap four McLernon was out of contention after a crash, which left Colhoun and Murphy to battle it out to finish with Colhoun eventually edging the battle by three seconds. Behind them Holmes, who had been fourth in race one, and Sheldon Seal, fought a good battle over the second half of the race with Holmes eventually getting the best of it.
In the final race, however, Holmes never looked like being beaten with a 10 second gate-to-flag victory that he admitted was his easiest ride of the day.
“I did not much enjoy the first two races,” admitted Holmes. “ I had arm pump and I struggled. But we worked on the set-up and, by the last race, things were better. Whether it was due to the changes, or I was more relaxed I’m not sure, but it worked!”
Behind him the battle for overall victory was being contested by Colhoun and Murphy, but just as Colhoun looked on course to take the honours, a puncture in the closing laps dropped him from second to fifth. Then he crashed in one of the deep ruts and, after struggling to restart, finished 13th. Murphy was also overhauled by a late charge from Maessen but his third place was just enough to give him overall victory. Carl Bunce had his best ride of the day in fourth, and McLernon’s fifth was also his best ride. It was also good enough to give him victory in the Under-21 class in the third race.
Colhoun had easily won the first two Under-21 outings, but his third race disaster meant he just missed on winning the class overall. He tied on 141 points with Callaway who won overall in his race debut with the all-new RPG Yamaha team thanks to his second in class in the last race. The last “man” on the Under 21 podium was 15-year-old Bailey Edwards!
Overall: 1 Stefan Murphy (Yamaha) 137 points, 2 Paul Holmes (Yamaha) 136, 3 Joe Maessen (CRQF Honda) 127, 4 Dean Colhoun (Walsh Honda) 125, 5 Sheldon Seal (KTM) 117, 6 George Callaway (Yamaha) 115.
Under 21 Overall: 1 George Callaway (Yamaha) 141, 2 Dean Colhoun (Walsh Honda) 141, 3 Bailey Edwards (Yamaha) 127, 4 Mark McLernon (Walsh Honda) 123, 5 Luke Davies (Yamaha) 121, 6 Jack Naylor (Suzuki) 109.
Race One: 1 Colhoun, 2 Murphy, 3 Callaway, 4 Holmes, 5 Oil Sansom (Yamaha), 6 McLernon.
Race Two: 1 Maessen, 2 Colhoun, 3 Murphy, 4 Holmes, 5 Seal, 6 Callaway.
Race Three: 1 Holmes, 2 Maessen, 3 Murphy, 4 Carl Bunce (Suzuki), 5 McLernon, 6 Seal.