Friday May 17, 2019 at 9:18am
Four down and seven to go. The ACU Wessex Plant British Sidecar Championship is coming to the boil in all four classes. In the expert ranks both Josh and Luke Golding have notched victories as have John Tuck, with Matt Sparkes and Izzy Saunders in the hot seat. Steve’s daughter rode the David Craine and Andy Smith events with Jon Tuck in the somewhat cool Manx double header at the beginning of April when the Golding brother ruled and Tuck and Saunders duo posted a second and third. Nigel and Gracie –Mae Scott score their best ever results in the David Craine with a second place. That took the score line up to forty-seven while the Goldings headed the charts on fifty seven, five upon the Tuck/Saunders/Sparkes standing. The D.K. Mansell was tough. Scores were on the high side with four crews incurring well over a hundred penalties. The Goldings suffered a bad day at the office with fifteen stops in the thirty sections. Tuck and Sparkes headed returnees Rupert and Chris Kimber and Nigel and Gracie-Mae Scott got the better end of a tie-breaker over William Caine and Sam Baxter. Only three crews are contesting the Intermediate class where Manx crew Jack Corlett and Beth Thomas hold the ace card on a maximum eighty points. Robbie Head and Aaron Jacobs are consistent scores with three second places and a Ray Thomas opener of seventeen points. The Clubman class is healthy. Sixteen crews have scored points but half that number did not do the Isle of Man events. Manx front runner John Corlett has, by some quirk of fate, got the voluble Jamie Howe in the chair. No doubt about Howey’s talents as a passenger but he talks his way through a section when the pressure is on. However, John and Jamie won the Manx double and then mastered the mud of the Mansell so the top the class eleven points up on Jake Pope and Harriet Shore with Karl Jarvis and Hannah Dale making the leader board numbers. Paul Fishlock and Sam Atherton won the Ray Thomas opener and were looking strong but a heart attack at the Mansell put Paul straight to A and E. The grapevine sources say Paul is on the mend. Even the Newcomers is looking better with three crews contesting the class. Michael Shipley and Robert Wilson did the double in the Andy Smith and David Craine and stand on forty points. According to the ACU points table after four events Neil and Michael Franks trail Shipley and Wilson by three points. The fifth event in the series is the Tuck Cross Trial on May 26. The venue is Ellmington Manor Farm, Comptom Greenfield, Bristol.