The third round of the 2017 Hadrian Marine British Clubmans sidecarcross championships was held at Wattisfield Hall in Norfolk on Sunday hosted by the Diss MCC. The rain dance being done by the local farmers over the past few weeks brought the results they wanted in the days before this meeting but it did become too much by Saturday night.
Hence the well prepared track became very soft and muddy on top with hard ground just below. This reduced timed qualification to a bit of a lottery with machines becoming stuck around the circuit. Fastest was Ross Bowers / Rob Eastman with Jake Brown / Matt Connor just five hundredths of a second slower in second place.
When the riders came to the line for race 1 the sun had been out and that added to a small alteration to the layout of the track meant it was very much more rideable. Field / Bishop took the holeshot from Bowers, riding Tony Grahame’s bike as his own had failed just before the start, with Rogers / Wernham in third. Just before the end of lap one Field’s race was over as he turned the outfit over just before the finish line. Brown now led from Rogers and Osbaldiston.
On the next lap Osbaldiston passed Rogers and the leaders remained in these positions until the mid point in the race when the Irish crew, Neil Campbell / Craig Parmenter who were riding as a non point scoring wild card and starting from the second row, passed Rogers and on the next lap Osbaldiston tangled with a slower rider and dropped to eighth. At the flag Brown took the win with Campbell second and Bowers third.
In the second moto Brown led for the duration with Osbaldiston in second until the start of the fifth lap when he was passed by Bowers. Working their way up the order after a poor start were the vastly experienced Mark Banks / Dug Woods who were soon up to fourth place. Unfortunately the race was red flagged because of a bad crash. Brown won from Bowers and Osbaldiston.
The final race of the day saw Brown leading from Bowers and Foden / Spencer. At the end of the first lap Oldfield / Barnes were now in second place just ahead of Bowers with Osbaldiston fourth. Oldfield held second for three laps before being passed by Bowers and after that dropped right back to fourteenth. This lifted Osbaldiston to third which is where he finished behind Brown and Bowers.
Brown took the overall win on the day with a maximum score with Bowers second. Bowers now leads the championship on 170 points, 16 points ahead of Osbaldiston who is just six points ahead of Brown.
The next round of the championship is at Milton Park on 18
th June.