INVADERS from the north conquered the NORA-MX club’s Southern Quad Cross championship at Milton Park on Sunday with Scotland’s John Mitchell and Cumbria’s Mark Watson monopolising the top two places in all three Expert races.
The pair both made the haul south to cast an eye over the technical Northamptonshire track,
which is set to host the final double header round of the British Quad cross championship in October.
Former British champion Mitchell and the current red plate holder mastered the slippery conditions, made worse by sporadic bouts of heavy rain, to win the first with relative ease and then the third moto, after Watson got caught up at the first turn. Watson had earlier pinched the second after Mitchell himself had been held up at the tight and greasy first corner.
“It’s a pretty nice track and it was good to test tyres and stuff before the British round,” said
Watson, who was soundly beaten by Mitchell in the race to get packed up quick after the last
race and hit the M1 north!
The only club “regular’ who took the challenge to them in any meaningful way all day was Giles Davis, with the former British super cross champion clearly at home around Milton’s many jumps and whoops. His third spot in the first race was hard earned and he led for a good portion of the race before the visitors finally hunted him down. An eighth and a fifth were enough to give him third overall, helping to consolidate his second spot in the NORA championship and take six points out of series leader and previous round winner Stefan Murphy who had a below par day down in sixth overall.
In the Inters class, which runs within the Expert race Mark Roberts secured overall victory from Luke Sanfillipo, who looks increasingly at home on his Yamaha as the season unfolds following his switch from KTM.
The highly competitive Clubman class proved the most fiercely contested of the day, producing three different race winners, with series leader Josh Waring taking the first. The next race went to Ryan Turner, while former championship leader Tom Claireaux, now mounted on an ex-Sam Bryan Honda after his early season results were blighted by an unreliable Yamaha, took the third. They also finished in that order in the overall standings.
The remaining adult class, the Masters, was won with ease by Ed Davies, though a downpour in the first outing which turned the hard packed corners very slippery allowed Ant Barrett to get within 12 seconds.
With all four of the youth 250 classes starting together it provided some hectic action, but the fastest rider of the day was Irish visitor Leon Rogers, another having a one-off look at the track. He won all three outings overall and won the 250 Open class with ease after his biggest threat and British championship rival Alexander Thompson DNF’d in race two.
It was the usual suspects battling it out in the 250 Modified class where anyone of five riders
started the day with a possible chance of taking victory. In the end it was Harry Miller (1-1-2)
who secured the overall with two unusually dominant (for the class) race wins.
Despite not winning a race Josh Coombs secured second overall and in turn went back to the top of the championship table, after the series leader, Frazer McFadden ended the day down in an uncharacteristic fifth. His chances of good overall placing were effectively ruined in the last race when he rolled at the first turn and had to battle back through the field.
Two youth riders who scored a maximum where Luke Davies in the 250 Standard class and Bailey Edwards in the 100cc Geared class. Edward’s winning streak now stretches to 18 races (he was second in the first two!).
And the Welsh girls Catrin Davies (2-1-1) and Shelley Smart (1-3-2) showed a clean pair of wheels to the boys in the 50cc Modifieds to take first and second overall.
Another girl, Anna Dawson in the 250 Stock, was less fortunate. A practice crash left her with sore ribs. Kieran Heath took advantage to win and regain the championship lead from Dawson, who was relegated to third by Brett Herring, who was having his first ride with the club this season.
RESULTS:
Expert: 1 John Mitchell (Yamaha), 2 Mark Watson (KTM), 3 Giles Davis (Honda), 4 Carl
Bunce (Suzuki), 5 George Callaway (Yamaha), 6 Stefan Murphy (Honda). Points: Murphy
405, Davis 356, Sansom 306
Clubman: 1 Josh Waring (Yamaha), 2 Ryan Turner (Suzuki), 3 Tom Claireaux (Honda), 4
Andy Taylor (Suzuki), 5 Sam Payne (Honda), 6 Matt Hartwell (Honda). Points: Waring 407,
Turner 366, Bradley John 333
Masters: 1 Ed Davies (KTM), 2 Ant Barrett (Suzuki), 3 Darren Bridge (Yamaha), 4 Andy
Downes (Yamaha), 5 Chris Murphy (Honda), 6 Matt James (Yamaha). Points: Davies 499,
Barrett 430, Bridge 381
250 Open: 1 Leon Rogers (Yamaha), 2 Callum Bates (Yamaha), 3 Matt Payne (Yamaha), 4
Alexander Thompson (Honda). No other finishers. Points: Matt Payne 341, Harrison 222,
Daniel Lewis 215
250 Modified: 1 Harry Miller (Yamaha), 2 Josh Coombs (Yamaha), 3 Jamie Morgan
(Yamaha), 4 Adam James (Yamaha), 5 Frazer McFadden (Yamaha), 6 Ayrton Radford
(Yamaha). Points: Coombes 435, McFadden 430, Miller 387
250 Standard: 1 Luke Davies (Yamaha) 2 Tommy Pittaway (Yamaha), 3 Jamie Smith
(Yamaha) 4 Leon Patmore (Yamaha), 5 Jordan Hickman (Yamaha), 6 Connor Taylor
(Yamaha). Points: Davies 493, Pittaway 414, Patmore 382
250 Stock: 1 Kieran Heath (Yamaha), 2 Brett Herring (Yamaha), 3 Anna Dawson (Yamaha).
No other finishers. Points: Heath 433, Dawson 427, Joe Sharp 252.
100cc Geared: 1 Bailey Edwards (KTM), 2 Harry Walker (KTM), 3 Kieran Taylor
(Dolphin), 4 Joshua Turner (Cobra), 5 Ryan Spratt-Wyatt (Cobra), 6 Laughton Spooner (??).
Points: Edwards 519, Walker 462, Spratt-Wyatt 252
100cc Modified: 1 Connor Fitzgerald (Apache), 2 Aryton Knowles (Cobra), 3 Dafydd Davies
(Apache), 4 Aled Davies (Pro Shark), 5 Thomas Chell (Pro Shark), 6 Declan McKenna (Pro
Shark). Points: D Davies 427, Fitzgerald 407, Chell 370.
100cc Standard: 1 Harry Ruby (Pro Shark), 2 Jake Bashford (Pro Shark) 3 Joshua Birch
(CQR), 4 Daniel Hares (Pro Shark), 5 Reece Swan (Suzuki), 6 Elysha Crane (Pro Shark).
Points: Crane 443, Ruby 429, Bashford 414
50cc Modified: 1 Catrin Davies (Apache), 2 Shelley Smart (Pro Shark), 3 Dylan McKenna
(Apache), 4 Marcus Sprason (Pro Shark), 5 Alfie Walker (??), 6 Liam Griffiths (Quadzilla).
Points: Davies 472, McKenna 425, Smart 401
50cc Standard: 1 Josh Talent (Apache), 2 Toby Boothroyd (Apache), 3 Woody Jackson
(Apache). No other finishers. Points: Talent 458, Boothroyd 440, Jackson 420