Brad Anderson the reigning EMX300 champion and leader of this year’s EMX300 series won all five of his “faster open” races on his 250 Verde KTM at the Apico two-stroke series at the weekend. But that’s not to say he had it all his own way as Josh Spinks, ridinga borrowed 250 KTM what he hadn’t even seen before the weekend pushed, Anderson all the way in all but one of the races and spent most of his weekend eating Anderson’s dust as he searched for a way past, writes Dick Law.

The last couple of months of this heat wave have been challenging for race many meeting organisers. But the old school undulation grassland track at Sellindge stood up well to the two days of racing with dust being held to a reasonable level, helped but a cooling sea breeze, and the hard work of the man in charge Dave Willet.

In race one as Anderson and Spinks started their weekend long battle at the front Bradley Wheeler held on to third for three laps before slowing and dropping back to ninth place. Lewis Trickett, making a welcome comeback to race after an injury-forced lay-off, took over third and was strong till his lack of race fitness meant he dropped back to seventh. Jamie Skuse did eventually finish third with Matt Burrows after an average start fourth.

Lewis Tombs was loving his 125 and was using all the track mixing it with the 250s. He finished fifth on the track but first 125 home from Brett Fisher and Jordan Moyle.

As Anderson got his second holeshot and win of the weekend Spinks had to pass both James Kensington and Burrows on the opening lap he before he could close on the leader and continue to give him a hard time. Burrows spent all race in third as Nev Bradshaw, who was riding two classes, had his bike stop on lap six never to go again while in fourth. Trickett started in seventh to cross the line in an excellent fourth place.

The finishing order of the 125 side of the race was the same as the first race with Tombs smiling all the way to his second win with Fisher and Moyle following him home.

The third and finish race of day one was once again led by Anderson but behind him Trickett was on it in second from the fast-starting Kensington, Burrows, Daniel Arnold and Tombs as Spinks missed the gate completely and was in eighth place. As Kensington slipped down the running order Spinks was on his way up and passed Trickett with a lap to go for second place, again. Burrows was fourth with Tombs, the first of the 125s fifth.

After a long night of grading and watering the track was in great condition and even had some puddles about for a short while on Sunday morning.

Spinks got the holeshot at the start of Sunday’s first race with Anderson in second for the first time over the weekend. But three laps in to the race, Spinks threw away his advantage when he slipped off and handed the lead, and the win to Anderson. Daniel Arnold had gated third and looked comfortable in the position till Burrows, after starting in ninth, passed him with four laps to go. Trickett was fifth from World Enduro Super Series leader Jonny Walker on a 150 KTM and then Wheeler.

Tombs was once again winner of the 125s from Moyle and Alex Hamer with Fisher at the back as he limped around at the back with a rear wheel puncture.

In the fifth and final race of the weekend it was back to normal with Anderson leading all the way and with Kensington second out of the gate but dropping back to ninth place at the end. Spinks chassed Trickett around the opening lap but by the end of the second lap he was in second with Burrows following him through as the pair finished second and third. Trickett finished fifth on the track, but fourth in class as Tombs was one again first 125 but was in fourth on the track.

“We have come down for the two-days of racing and just to have a bit of fun,” said overall winner Anderson, “I just love riding the two-stroke. Josh has ridden really well over the weekend and was pushing me all the way. Dave has done a great job running the event considering all the hot weather we have been having and I like the track and I hope it goes from strength and strength.”

Spinks was happy with his weekend and said: “Brad has a wealth of experience on the two-strokes and is leading the EMX300 series and was always going to be hard to beat, so to jump on a bike I am not familiar with and go fastest in qualifying I was very happy with. We had some good battles especially on the first day when I was trying to get past him, so I can’t grumble, and I did really enjoy it and I can’t wait for round three.”

Burrows from third place on the podium, said: “I struggled with starts today and the two-stroke is completely different at starts than the four-stroke. But riding the bike was really enjoyable and I think I will start riding the two-strokes even more. We got the bike for the first round, but I struggled all that weekend as I had forgotten how to ride a two-stroke. But I went out practicing this week on it and I seem to get better on it as the weekend went on.”

The rest

The “Fast open” class produced the closes finish of the weekend with a single point separating the top two riders and with third place just six points behind them. Harry Whitlock got better and better as the weekend went on as he went fourth, third and second on day one, and backed that up with two race wins on day two for the overall. Race one winner Conner Sutherland was never out of the top three for second overall while Lee Powell struggled on Sunday after winning two races on Saturday was third.

Preston Williams won all five of the rookie races from Jack Lindsay and Sunny Smyth while in the 125 side of the combined 125 / Rookie races Jamie Cox, who didn’t finish out of the top three took the overall by just three points from Ben White with Ben Reeves a distant third.

It seemed that no one wanted to win the Evo class as Jamie Law. after a second and two wins on Saturday, fell on the first race of day two when he had large lead and looking to cruse to a comfortable win fell and hurt his shoulder. As the British championship round is coming up next weekend Law sat out the last race. The same happened to Bradshaw as after winning the first race and chasing Law home in the other two he had bike problems and went home Saturday night. Brian Wheeler had a couple of little problems like the fount brake locking on and no sparks half way through a race and the dropped him well down the leader board.

But all this left Ryan Fellowes with two race wins on Sunday the overall winner from Jon Barfoot and Samuel Pocock. Oliver Weeks with four second places and a win was handed the overall by four race winner Daryl Hall after he DNFed race four. Jason Morettes was third overall.

Jason Buffery won the small twinshock class from Simon Vowles and Tim Mills.

In the combined big and small wheel 85s, Jack Grayshon was in a class of his own as he looked like he was on rails hitting his marks every lap and never really looking like he was anywhere close to making a mistake as he won all five races with ease. All Raife Broadley could do was finish second for second overall with Eisha Elliott third.

In the small wheel side of things Arai Elcock won all five of his races for the overall with Gavin Scott second and Ezra Blackwell third.

Top ten overall results

Faster open:

1 Brad Anderson 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 = 125

2 Josh Spinks 22 + 22 + 22 + 22 + 22 = 110

3 Matt Burrows 18 + 20 + 18 + 20 + 20 = 96

4 Lewis Trickett 15 + 18 + 20 + 16 + 18 = 87

5 Daniel Arnold 12 + 16 + 16 + 16 + 15 = 77

6 Jonny Walker 14 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 = 72

7 Steve Bixby 11 + 15 + 15 + 11 + 14 = 66

8 James Kensington 9 + 11 + 11 + 13 + 13 = 57

9 Ben Milward 10 + 10 + 13 + 9 + 11 = 53

10 Bradley Wheeler 13 + 14 + 12 + 14 + 0 = 53

Faster 125:

1 Lewis Tombs 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 = 125

2 Brett Fisher 22 + 22 + 22 + 16 + 22 = 104

3 Jordan Moyle 20 + 20 + 16 + 22 + 18 = 96

4 Ashley Crossley 16 + 15 + 20 + 18 + 20 = 89

5 Alex Hamer 15 + 16 + 18 + 20 + 16 = 85

6 Timmy Andrews 18 + 18 + 15 + 0 + 0 = 51

Fast open:

1 Harry Whitlock 18 + 20 + 22 + 25 + 25 = 110

2 Conner Sutherland 25 + 22 + 20 + 20 + 22 = 109

3 Lee Powell 22 + 25 + 25 + 13 + 18 = 103

4 Ivan Williamson 20 + 18 + 18 + 22 + 15 = 93

5 Matthew Myers 12 + 15 + 16 + 16 + 16 = 75

6 Darren Hansford 14 + 16 + 13 + 18 + 12 = 73

7 Sam Cheesman 10 + 13 + 15 + 14 + 20 = 72

8 Joe Reeves 16 + 14 + 14 + 10 + 11 = 65

9 Peter Dickinson 13 + 11 + 11 + 15 + 14 = 64

10 Nick Shaw 15 + 2 + 12 + 9 + 13 = 51

Fast rookie:

1 Preston Williams 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 = 125

2 Jack Lindsay 22 + 22 + 22 + 22 + 22 = 110

3 Sunny Smyth 20 + 20 + 20 + 20 + 20 = 100

4 Callum McCaul 18 + 16 + 18 + 18 + 18 = 88

5 Luke Spinks 16 + 18 + 16 + 16 + 16 = 82

6 Myles Taylor 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 = 75

7 James Light 14 + 14 + 14 + 14 + 14 = 70

Fast 125:

1 Jamie Cox 20 + 22 + 25 + 22 + 25 = 114

2 Ben White 25 + 25 + 16 + 25 + 20 = 111

3 Ben Reeves 22 + 18 + 18 + 20 + 22 = 100

4 Sean Dath 18 + 20 + 20 + 14 + 16 = 88

5 Tony Cadman 15 + 16 + 15 + 18 + 18 = 82

6 Ady Peedle 16 + 11 + 22 + 16 + 10 = 75

7 Kurtis Beecham 11 + 12 + 12 + 12 + 15 = 62

8 Jack Hansford 13 + 15 + 14 + 1 + 14 = 57

9 Daniel Jackson 7 + 15 + 14 + 1 + 14 = 57

10 Guy Raines 7 + 14 + 13 + 9 + 13 = 56

Evo:

1 Ryan Fellowes 20 + 18 + 20 + 25 + 25 = 108

2 Jon Barfoot 18 + 16 + 16 + 22 + 22 = 94

3 Samuel Pocock 16 + 15 + 15 + 20 + 18 = 84

4 Jamie Law 22 + 25 + 25 + 0 + 0 = 72

5 Nev Bradshaw 25 + 22 + 22 + 0 + 0 = 69

6 Ivano Chiesa 12 + 13 + 13 + 16 + 15 = 68

7 Brian Wheeler 11 + 20 + 18 + 15 + 0 = 64

8 Andrew Mrozek 13 + 0 + 13 + 18 + 16 = 60

9 Dominic Wallis 15 + 14 + 14 + 0 + 0 = 43

10 Pat Winter 14 + 12 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 26

Super Evo:

1 Oliver Weeks 22 + 22 + 22 + 25 + 22 = 113

2 Daryl Hall 25 + 25 + 25 + 0 + 25 = 100

3 Jason Morettes 18 + 20 + 18 + 22 + 20 = 98

4 Danny Malone 15 + 18 + 16 + 16 + 16 = 81

5 Kester Gibbons 20 + 0 + 20 + 20 + 18 = 78

6 Tom Bird 12 + 15 + 15 + 15 + 14 = 71

7 Jack Hughes 11 + 14 + 13 + 12 + 13 = 63

8 Steve Halfhide 10 + 13 + 14 + 13 + 11 = 61

9 Luke Love 13 + 16 + 0 +14 + 12 = 55

10 Paul Gaylard 14 + 0 + 0 + 18 + 15 = 47

Twinshock:

1 Jason Buffery 22 + 25 + 25 + 22 + 25 = 119

2 Simon Vowles 25 +22 + 18 + 25 + 22 = 112

3 Tim Mills 18 + 20 + 22 + 18 + 18 = 96

4 Mark Reeves 20 + 0 + 20 + 20 + 20 = 80

Big wheel 85:

1 Jack Grayshon 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 = 125

2 Raife Broadley 22 + 22 + 22 + 22 + 22 = 110

3 Elisha Elliott 20 + 20 + 16 + 20 + 20 = 96

4 James Orchard 18 + 18 + 20 + 18 + 18 = 92

5 Freddie O’Leary 16 + 16 + 18 + 16 + 16 = 82

6 Lucy Hamer 14 + 13 + 15 + 14 + 14 = 70

7 Ed May 15 + 15 + 0 + 15 + 15 = 60

8 Daniel Roche 13 + 14 + 14 + 0 + 0 = 41

Small wheel 85:

1 Arai Elock 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 = 125

2 Gavin Scott 22 + 20 + 18 + 22 + 22 = 104

3 Ezra Blackwell 18 + 22 + 20 + 15 + 20 = 95

4 Leighton Watson 20 + 15 + 22 + 20 + 15 = 92

5 Cristina Palmer 14 + 18 + 14 + 14 + 18 = 78

6 Joseph Gidley 15 + 16 + 13 + 16 + 16 = 76

7 Alfie Walton 16 + 10 + 16 + 18 + 10 = 70

8 Freddie Gidley 13 + 14 + 15 + 13 + 14 = 69

9 Leo Vowles 12 + 13 + 12 + 12 + 13 = 62

10 George Botterill 11 + 12 + 11 + 11 + 11 = 57