As luck would have it, the first decent weather on a Sunday this year coincided with the first round of the 2018 SMC at Long Buckby. Despite snow the previous weekend and a lot of rain on the Friday night before, the circuit was in great shape. Whilst it certainly wasn’t easy, the soft going meant lots of ruts formed in the corners. As the sun shone the track dried and got better and better as the day went on.
Choosing to race with his local club for a change, Neville Bradshaw proved almost unbeatable winning four out of his five races. Beaten only by Michael McClurg in race one, Neville took the overall in the Expert Class and posted the fastest lap time of the day on the very last lap of the last race. Michael finished second overall, ahead of Kristian Hutchings and Paul Burn.
In the Junior A class Lewis Huckerby showed impressive speed on his way to a maximum. Ethan Etheridge came runner-up each time with Mac Burdett third in both of the finals.
Aaron Read took the Junior B honours with a first and a second. Ashley Rilings took second overall, with Jake Wills taking the last step on the podium.
Simon Wyse made the tricky conditions look easy on his way to three convincing wins in the Premier class. Second overall went to Tony Leishman after Ryan Griffiths missed the final race. Lee Keyton took third overall with his results getting better each time out. Fraser Law once again topped the Elite class with Justin Carter finishing second on his endure machine. Steve Bottoms took third ahead of Steve Gilbey. It’s very rare that anyone manages to beat Nigel Miller in the Super class, and this proved to be no exception. Three wins for Nigel gave him the overall from Reg Willis, Roger Knibbs taking third. In the U40 class Ashley Rilings took the overall with 3 good finishes. Tom King used the same approach to take second in a tie-break with Alexander Churchill. Race wins went to Neville Bradshaw and Kyle Creevy, but neither took part in all 3 legs. Once again Tony Leishman proved himself king of the 2 stroke class with a win and two second places. Alexander Churchill came home second ahead of Ian Tindle.
Results: Expert: 1 Neville Bradshaw, 2 Michael McClurg, 3 Kristian Hutchings, 4 Paul Burn, 5 Joe Wyse, 6 Robert Wood
Junior A: 1 Lewis Huckerby, 2 Ethan Etheridge, 3 Mac Burdett, 4 Rob Harwood, 5 Paul Burdett, 6 Brad Willis
Junior B: 1 Aaron Read, 2 Ashley Rilings, 3 Jake Wills, 4 Liam Waite, 5 Kevin Turnbull, 6 John Smith
Premier O40: 1 Simon Wyse, 2 Tony Leishman, 3 Lee Keyton, 4 Mike Fletcher, 5 Dave Willis, 6 Will Surtees
Elite O50: 1 Fraser Law, 2 Justin Carter, 3 Steve Bottoms, 4 Steve Gilbey, 5 Kevin Turnbull, 6 Simon Tucker
Super O60: 1 Nigel Miller, 2 Reg Willis, 3 Roger Knibbs, 4 Trevor Roberts, 5 John Smith, 6 Richard Jochacy
U40: 1 Ashley Rilings, 2 Tom King, 3 Alexander Churchill, 4 Ian Tindle, 5 Sam Appleton, 6 Neville Bradshaw
2 Stroke: 1 Tony Leishman, 2 Alexander Churchill, 3 Ian Tindle, 4 Neville Bradshaw, 5 Justin Carter, 6 Ehren Wood
Workers: 1 Cameron Curtis, 2 Tom King, 3 Fraser Law, 4 Ashley Batten, 5 Helen Morgan
Report: Fraser Law
Photos: www.motoxphotos.co.uk