The incredibly prepared , natural terrain at Foxhill near Swindon which was the perfect setting for Round 4 of the Cromwell Trucks ACU British Quad Championship. Alongside a support Quad class and also Maxxis British Sidecars with a topping of Evo solo’s to round the day off. With Local Regional Sponsor Chris Riley from Berkshire Bikes in attendance, and all the way from Lancashire Steve Clitheroe from SCT supporting the evo's
With just two points separating the top 2 riders of Paul Holmes and Mark McLernon at the start of the day, we were all promised a thriller!
With a perfectly prepared track and a bumper crowd boosted immensely by running the Maxxis British Sidecarcross Championship at the same event as the quads it was widely regarded in the paddock as the best event in many years.
Off to a flyer in qualifying were the Irish contingent of Mark McLernon and Leon Rogers. McLernon set the fastest qualifying lap of 1 min 56.5 secs and was well supported by Rogers with a time of 1 min 57.2 secs.
On to race 1 and it was Welshman Dafydd Davies with the hole shot, closely chased by McLernon and Holmes. Davies held his lines for 3 laps but then it was the ferocious two of McLernon and Holmes who took over with McLernon being only a fraction of a second ahead of Holmes, lap after lap in a real treat for spectators. McLernon held on in the fight to the line to win by 0.8 seconds! Justin Reid came through the pack strongly to grab the third slot.
Race 2 and it was Rogers setting the early pace ahead of McLernon and Holmes. The order changed as McLernon took Rogers during lap 4, and with Holmes getting passed Rogers after a bit of a tussle in the next lap it was all set for another McLernon & Holmes show. This time it was Holmes’s turn to shine as he got passed McLernon with 3 laps to go and then stormed ahead to cruise to a 12 second win over McLernon. Rogers held on for third.
Race 3 and down to the wire as a win for either Holmes or McLernon would give them the win on the day and more importantly the Championship lead going in to Round 5 in Cumbria on 23
rd July.
However, first a storming hole shot from Scotland’s Murray Graham, illustrating the strength in depth of this Championship. By the end of lap 2 it was Rogers and Holmes taking over the reins with McLernon way down the pack after a poor start. Holmes then took Rogers and kept him at bay to the line, winning by 1.5 secs. McLernon came through the pack to grab 3
rd.
So Holmes with picked up a very well deserved win on the day, and increasing his Championship lead over McLernon to 7 points.
1
st Paul Holmes (2,1,1), 2
nd Mark McLernon (1,2,3), 3
rd Leon Rogers (8,2,3)
In the U21’s sub group Dafydd Davies took the overall after an impressive 4
th place in the first race set him up for the day. Harry Walker was also on fire with two strong 6
th place finishes in races 2 and 3. after a collision in race 1 with his ‘Boss’ Stef Murphy in a first turn incident climbing through to a 14
th place from last setting the second fastest time of the day in doing so !
Consistent good finishes for James Bevan gave him a well-earned 3
rd place.
1
st Dafydd Davies (4,7,7), 2
nd Harry Walker (14,6,6), 3
rd James Bevan (10,11,10)
Main British Championship standings after 4 rounds,
1 Paul Holmes269, 2 Mark McLernon 262, 3 David Cowan 182, 4 Carl Bunce 167, 5 Leon Rogers 161
Quad Support class also saw and interesting day with the ‘out the gate’ master Ed Davies showing some youthful talent how it’s done in all three moto’s, not for the want of trying from Ayrton Knowles and Irishman (youth) Dean Dillon on a 250 machine, leaving the best till last Dean on a 250 put an incredibly gutsy move in the last race on Knowles and take 2
nd overall on the day!!
Davies 74
Dillon 64
Knowles 62
Owen 52
Evo Class,
Although not very many accepting the challenge to ride one of the most nostalgic tracks attached to the Evo scene, from the 80,s
There was 18 on the line for the first race which saw Gavin Stevenson on the Sct 125 show is form on an Evo machine not normally accustomed to, as an ACU British Contender with Husqvarna
Super Evo saw Ky’rhys Smith take top honours on the day!
Results,
Evo
Gavin
Stevenson
John Waghorn
Zac Todd
Super Evo
1 Ky’Rhys Smith
2 Kyle Noble
3 Mark Hutchinson