Welsh teenager Dafydd Davies continued his domination of the ACU Clubman Championship at the NORA club’s sixth championship round at Grittenham on Sunday, but he was forced to produce one of the rides of the season in the final race of the day to secure his victory.
After comfortable wins in the two opening races, KTM-mounted Davies was involved in a six bike pile-up at the first turn of the final race, forcing him to charge back from 22
nd place in the hot and dusty conditions to ensure victory.
At the flag Davies was up to second, just a third of a second behind race-long leader Danny Smith – who had early scored 30
th and 24
th places before his holeshot and the sniff of a win gave him a new lease of life!
It was enough to give Davies 117 points – ten more than runner-up Kyle Hawkes – and secure his fifth win from sixth rounds. He has also won 15 of the 18 heats and now leads the series by 176 points.
His result capped a superb day for his EDR team, run by his father Ed, which won every adult group after Luke Cooper won the Pro class and Ed won the Masters. In addition the team’s James Bevan won the Pro B class.
Cooper’s victory in the Pro group came after a fascinating, fierce and fair, battle with George Callaway which saw pair barely metres apart across all three races.
In the opening heat the duo had to come through the field up into to second and third places, by which time the leader, Carl Bunce, had a four second gap, which he held to the flag. Callaway though set the meeting’s fastest lap while giving chase.
However in the second and third races Cooper and Callaway battled for the lead throughout, finishing five seconds apart in the first then just over second apart in the final race after battling wheel to wheel for the entirety.
Bunce added two third places to his win, to take second overall, just one point ahead of Callaway.
Bevan secured his Pro B win with three class victories, but the contest for the lower places was superb all day, typified by a second race battle that saw Callum Bates, Josh Waring, Luke Davies, Kieran Power and Jack Naylor split by just two seconds at the flag.
In the Masters class Ed Davies took three comfortable wins, each time from Gary Aldington, but the story was behind them in the Masters B group where Gary McKenna’s four-round winning-streak came to an end. Instead a debut class win went to Marcus Knight after McKenna, who had previously only lost three motos all year, hit problems in the first race, won the second, then crashed in the third.
Scotland’s Lorne Sinclair has now opened up a small lead in the tight 250 youth championship after his closest rival, Ayrton Knowles, hit problems. Both had had to defer Jack Norris in the first race, who held off a late charge from Sinclair. Then in race two Sinclair won ahead of Knowles.
However, Sinclair was unchallenged in race three after a broken wire to the coil ruled Knowles out and dropped him to a season’s worst of eighth overall
Iestyn Rowlands won the 250 Modified group with the help of a win in race one. Then in the remaining races he was second, each time to Harry Carmichael, who had stopped to change a wheel in the first outing.
Scott Irons won the 250 Standard class with a second and two wins, and Josh Birch took three wins in the 150 class.
In the 100 group it was a day of maximums, with Marcus Sprason showing superb pace to overhaul fast starting Robbie Wood in each race to go on and win all three races by healthy margins. Also unbeaten were Lewis Humphris in the Raptors, Jago Jackson on the 50s and Aled Davies in the 100 Modifieds.
RESULTS: PRO: 1 Luke Cooper, 2 Carl Bunce, 3 George Callaway, 4 Paul Winrow, 5 Sheldon Seal, 6 James Bevan
PRO B: 1 James Bevan, 2 Josh Waring, 3 Callum Bates, 4 Kieran Power, 5 Jack Naylor, 6 Jordan Hickman
CLUBMAN: 1 Dafydd Davies, 2 Kyle Hawkes, 3 Jordon Turnock, 4 Mat Borroughs, 5 Tom Chell, 6 Tom Yates.
CLUBMAN B: 1 Miles Woodward, 2 Marco Zaffino, 3 Bradley Cockrem, 4 Harry Grant, 5 Dean Porter, 6 Elliot Shallow
MASTERS: 1 Ed Davies, 2 Gary Aldington, 3 Darren Bridge, 4 Jason Wildman, 5 Greg Fisher, 6 Mark Stepney.
MASTERS B: 1 Marcus Knight, 2 Andrew Willcock, 3 Simon Pritchard, 4 Gary McKenna, 5 Rick Jones, 6 Dave Lickfold.
250 GROUP: 1. Lorne Sinclair, 2 Jack Norris, 3 Olly Martin, 4 Iestyn Rowlands, 5 Kieran Taylor, 6 Harry Carmichael
250 OPEN: 1. Lorne Sinclair, 2 Jack Norris, 3 Olly Martin, 4 Ayrton Knowles, 5 Kieran Taylor, 6 Tom Day.
250 MOD: 1. Iestyn Rowlands, 2 Harry Carmichael, 3 William Booth, 4 Catrin Davies, 5 Scott Berlyn, 6 Luke Richards
250 STANDARD: 1 Scot Irons, 2 Daniel Hares, 3 Joe Jukes, 4 Vassna Willcock, 5 Brett Chainey, 6 Maddie Martin
150 OPEN: 1 Josh Birch, 2. Shelley Smart. No other finishers
100 GROUP: 1 Marcus Sprason, 2 Woody Jackson, 3 Tom Fitzgerald, 4 Robbie Wood, 5 Alfie Walker, 6 Luke Berlyn
100 GEARED: 1 Marcus Sprason, 2 Woody Jackson, 3 Tom Fitzgerald, 4 Alfie Walker, 5 Robbie Wood, 6 Luke Berlyn.Ma
100 MOD: 1 Aled Davies. No other finishers
RAPTOR: 1. Lewis Humphris, 2 Tom Bainbridge, 3 Callum Lockett. No other finishers
100 STANDARD: 1 Aled Davies. No other finishers
50: 1 Jago Jackson, 2 Logan Paxton, 3 Nadine Barnes No other finishers