Round two of the Tribal-MX British Sidecar clubman’s championship is being held at the Long Buckby track and being hosted by the Northampton Mc club, on their tight and twisty circuit that has always made for some close racing when the sidecars visit.
The club have said they are hoping to have spectators at this event but will need to wait and confirm nearer the time dependent on the current situation and following the Government guidelines at the time.
Following the trip up to Woolly Grange for the opening round in the North East a few weeks ago, an exciting, if not full line up, made for some good racing all through the field.
Coming out in overall first place was the pairing of Luke Peters/Tom Glazier, initial favourites on the day were Liam Mudie/Jim Kinge, but they unfortunately picked up a puncture whilst leading race one, and then a mechanical failure leading to a small crash, which put passenger Jim out with an injured ankle and ending their promising day early as Jim couldn’t carry on.
Second spot on the day went to Tilo Maguire/Toby Hutchins, followed by Jim Whitt/Scott Lloyd in third place who had a steady day finishing high in all three races.
Matt Connor/Jake Grahame were fourth followed by Luke Banks/Daniel Spencer rounding off the top five on the day.
However, since this round though, things have changed a little with an incident for Toby Hutchins at another event, which has unfortunately put him out for six weeks with a broken wrist and another separate incident causing injury to Luke Peters & Tom Glazier, a heavy landing caused the team to both receive injuries and at the time of writing nobody is sure if these riders will be back for this round, let’s hope so.
Further down the field and showing good form were new pairings of Matt Connor/Jake Grahame who were going very well in race one at the opening round until a coming together with Tilo Maguire/Toby Hutchins, whilst fighting for the lead, sidelined them both for a lap or so, both thankfully getting going again to finish the race.
Another young rider Luke Banks with his passenger Daniel Spencer, also showed some good form chasing home more experienced riders in each race.
It’s good to see young sidecar talent coming through and giving the more established teams a run for their money, this is promising for the sport and what the Clubman’s championship is all about.
With a number of other teams including Adam Field/Darren Bishop, Liam Mudie/Christopher Booth, Jim Whitt/Scott Lloyd and Grant Young/Sam Marshal to name just a few and others more than capable of running in the top ten, this season is shaping up to be a close run thing and let’s hope for a good day and some more good close Sidecar cross on the tight and technical track of Long Buckby.
Please visit the SMCA Facebook page or the website for all updates/race results and to follow all sidecar cross events in 2021.
See you all trackside soon
SMCA.