ACU Southern Centre Winter Series Round 4 – Manor Farm
The day started out with beautiful sunshine and a bitterly cold wind for Round 4 of the ACU Southern Centre winter series. The First half race gave the riders almost perfect track conditions, with lovely soft tacky stubble and beautiful loamy woodland. However, after an hour and a half the sky darkened and the rain and hail came down flooding the once perfect ruts. This led to a lot of retirements over the second half of the race with track conditions worsening and becoming very difficult to say the least. A credit to all the riders that did finish, you certainly earned it!
It was Bradley Rowland who made the holeshot in the Champs class, but it was Dan Guy who made the first move to take over the lead through the first few corners. Later the pair were caught and quickly passed by Josh Player and Brad King with Josh going on to set a very impressive fastest lap of the race. Unfortunately for Josh and Bradley they would both end up with DNFs for the day, Josh running out of fuel and Bradley suffering bike issues. It was the ever fast and consistent Brad King who despite feeling under prepared, managed to take the Champs win with consistent Morgan Deakin second and Dan Guy ending up third. Great battling throughout the day very enjoyable for the frozen spectators!
Surprisingly the overall winner was also the Expert class winner and the only rider to manage 16 laps, Josh Kirby. With a superb ride and being mr consistent all day he took overall honors, a cracking result Josh. Second in the Expert class went to Tyson Maytom Jones, another consistent ride with a fastest lap time that would put him right in the mix with the Champs class. Third went to Martin Jessop again a solid ride and only a lap down on the overall winner. Also worthy of a mention, just outside of the top three in experts but still taking 7th overall and only a lap down on Kirby was young Alfie Heard, very respectable finish.
At the top in the Vets Classes was the always entertaining Mr Mark Cornick, knocking on a top 10 overall and still showing the youngsters the way round not a bad result for an almost mature gentleman… Second and Third in the expert Vets went to Jack Twentyman and Dan Groom respectively.
First of the Clubman went to Cameron Games, a great ride with a fastest lap that would put him in the mix in the expert’s class! Second in Clubman a went to Seb Dexter and third Nick Gifford, both great rides on what proved to be a difficult race. Clubman B honors went to Finlay Taylor with a stonking ride putting him close to a top 20 overall, Second went to Ryan Guy and Third Joe Elworthy. Great show from the younger clubman on what turned out to be a tricky day.
The Clubman vets Victory went to Titus Blackwell who finished an impressive 20th overall and mixed it up with some of the expert vets. In second was Lee Boulden on a respectable 12 laps and a close Third place went to Julian Earle.
In the Sportsman Category the victory went to Matthieu Perrier, racking up an impressive 12 laps in the tricky conditions, definitely one to watch in the future! In second place was Jamie Cass and a solid result in third for Josh Kiff.
In the Sportsman Vets class, the honors went to Carl Robinson, in Second Richard Bland and in third place was Tim O’Dowd. All did incredibly well when the heavens opened and were the only 3 in the class to finish.
As always, a huge thank you must go to our marshals who stood out in the horrendous conditions all day, as well as Pete Coles for scrutineering and Craig and Shane for the timing. Also, huge thanks for the set-up help to Brad, Stevo, Chester and Grandad. Additionally thank you to Abbie, Danielle, Alice and Noah for helping with sign on!
Again, congratulations to all those who finished what proved to be race of attrition in conditions that were difficult to say the least and we look forward to seeing everybody at the next round of the Winter series hosted by Portsmouth Club at Woodbury lane on the 12th February. Entries for Round 5 are open on the ACU Website now!
Photos available from the fantastic Photo Finish 43.