A glorious sunny day greeted the competitors for the first round of the Dave Barkshire Motorcycles Two Man Championship with temperatures soaring to 26C in the afternoon. This is the first time a Two Man event was run at Strait Mill Bocking by the Sudbury Motor Cycle Club who were rewarded with a full entry.
There was hot competition in the Championship Class throughout the morning and afternoon sessions with the lead changing constantly right to the end. The Roper brothers Rick and Jamie (both Sudbury) edged the win on 45.83 laps just .16 of a lap ahead of Sam Mitchell (Woodbridge) and Brendan Mayers (Halstead). The pairing of Harvey Mutten and Toby Morley (both Woodbridge) 3
rd on 43.67 laps, Braintree pairing Will Hughes/James Yearley 4
th on 41.00 laps, Steve Roper/Adam Norton (both Sudbury) 5
th on 39.00 laps and Will Kerry (Woodbridge)/Chris Hockey (Sudbury) 6
th on 37.5 laps.
The Expert Class resulted in a close finish for the first three places with a win for Ben Grice (Lowestoft)/Kevin Palmer (Norwich) on 43.00 laps followed in 2
nd place by Mark Mitchell/Joe Marsh (both Halstead) on 42.83 laps and 3
rd place Lewis Weller (Diss)/Lee Monger (Sudbury) on 42.67 laps. This is a good start for Palmer in the Expert Class as he won the Clubman Class last year with a different partner. Alex Barkshire (Diss) son of the Contest Sponsor with partner Daniel Wright (Diss) were 4
th on 41.33 laps with Phil Roper/Paul Belton (both Sudbury) 5
th on 40.67 laps and Nigel Ross/Graham Mays (both Sudbury) 6
th on 40.33 laps.
There was a tie on net laps completed in the Clubman Class between Paul and Daniel Hunt (both Diss) and Matt Smith/Marc Norton (both Sudbury) both teams riding 41.17 laps. It was down to the Special Test times to decide the winner team and the Diss pairing got the win by 1.08 minutes with the Sudbury pairing having to be content with 2
nd place. Third were Andy Blackman (Castle Colchester) and Gary Vines (Sudbury) on 40.17 laps, 4
th Will Nice (Bury St Edmunds)/Ben Marsh (Halstead) on 40.00 laps, 5
th the Diss pairing of Kyle Betts and another son of the Contest sponsor Aaron Barkshire on 39.67 laps. Sixth and seventh places were taken by two Sudbury pairings of Adam Kempster/Keith Potter on 39.17 laps and James Barker/Brett Hallworth on 39.00 laps.
These are provisional results subject to change and Round 2 is on 30
th April at Iken organised by the Woodbridge Club.