Sunday the Frome club hosted the opening round of the 2015 Maxxis British Championships at their Asham Woods track. The new format of racing, which now includes an Experts Championship, is obviously popular with the riders, attracting an entry of 35 teams. The club had watered the track on Saturday and this was added to with overnight rain which meant dust was unlikely to be an issue.
In timed practice local favourites Daniel and Joe Millard were fastest by over 2.5 seconds from Simon Bradford / Luke Peters with Brett Wilkinson / Steve Kirwin third. Defending champions Stuart Brown / Josh Chamberlain crashed at the end of the long straight on a flying lap when the throttle stuck open so they could only manage fifth place.
Before the first race started there was a one minutes silence in memory of one of the Frome Club’s longest serving members, Jim Webb, who passed away earlier this year.
When the gate dropped for race one Brown led the charge down the start straight from Bradford but at turn one Bradford managed to hold the inside line and took the lead with Brown second and Millard third. These three were nose to tail for the first three laps until Brown made his move to take the lead and at virtually the same time Millard was also past into second place. Behind the leading trio Wilkinson was fourth but he soon hit trouble when his Zabel gearlever jammed leaving the bike stuck in third gear. The pace at the front was really frenetic with Brown keeping a safe distance between him and Millard. Bradford started to drop back but was never in danger from Wilkinson. Behind the front four Jarvis and his stand in passenger, Ryan Humphrey, were fifth just ahead of Pelling / Cuff but an incident with a stopped rider on lap ten demoted Jarvis to seventh and Pelling was up to fifth. Brown took the win from Millard with Bradford third.
In the second moto Bradford again took the holeshot from Millard and Brown in third. By the end of the first lap Brown now led from Bradford with Millard third and Pelling fourth. Millard was right behind Bradford during the second lap until the final corner when he made his move and cut through inside Bradford to take second place. Wilkinson was now fourth, Pelling fifth and Jarvis sixth. Jarvis passed Pelling on lap three and on the next lap Wilkinson took Bradford. The top six remained unchanged for the rest of the race with Brown’s relentless pace opening a gap of nearly twenty five seconds at the finish.
The final race of the day saw Brown take the holeshot from Wilkinson with Pelling third and Grahame / Lloyd fourth. Wilkinson and Millard were soon past Pelling who then came under pressure from Bradford. On lap three he was past. Just before half distance Millard’s race was run when his bike stopped. This promoted Bradford to third and Pelling to fourth. Brown went on to take the win by nearly 42 seconds from Wilkinson with Bradford third.
With the first of six rounds now complete Brown now leads on 75 points, fifteen points ahead of Wilkinson with Bradford another two points behind in third.
The second round is at Wooley Grange on 31
st May.