Six down and five to go, the ACU Wessex Plant British Sidecar Championship is coming to the boil in all four classes. The drop score could influence the final outcome for the Experts, Clubmen and Newcomers.
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 brothers ruled and Tuck and Saunders duo posted a second and third.
Only two crews are contesting the Intermediate class where Manx crew Jack Corlett and Beth Thomas hold the ace card on a maximum one hundred and twenty points. Robbie Head and Aaron Jacobs are consistent scores with four second places and a Ray Thomas opener of seventeen points. The Clubman class is not healthy.
Only eleven crews rode the Congleton & District Motor Club event where series sponsor Phil Sparkes won the day with his young - well, fifty-four-year-old Dave Tuck, scooped the twenty points. Not bad going for Mr Sparkes who will hit seventy years shortly. Like a good wine Mr Wessex Plant Hire matures with age. The hundred-dollar question is Sparky the oldest ever Clubman class winner? Manx crew John Corlett & Harry Gell have won three trials but ironically were down in fifth place at the opening Ray Thomas back in March. Jamie Howe was in the hot seat for the brace of Manx events. Paul Fishlock and Sam Atherton won Ray Thomas trial. Paul retired from the Mansell due to health problems but was back for the Tuck Cross. Corlett and Harry Gell will have to accept that Jake Pope and Harriett Shore are only six championships points behind the Manx duo.
Newcomers Neil and Mark Franks are on a roll with a thirty-one-point advantage over rivals Richard and Miles Gilham who are a known quantity as are Michael Shipley and Robert Wilson with a brace of class victories each.
The battle for points is just nine days away when the Mansfield Maun club stage round seven at the total off-road venue of Griff Walk Farm, Brassington, North Derbyshire, where Terry Crabtree and the Mansfield team will run a two lap five mile Doncaster Cup trial. A postscript from Mel Harrison is that Cockhill Mines of the Yeadon-Guiseley Motor Club's agenda. Felbeck is the favourite with another option but the former has everything in the way of sections.