The super 2019 AMCA British Motocross Championship reaches its penultimate round this coming Sunday, August 11 as the red-hot title hunt arrives at Brookthorpe in Gloucestershire. And with the series now at the business end of proceedings, Sunday’s results could ultimately make the difference between a season of success or heartache and failure.
So it’s time to remain composed, calculated and classy, putting in three big points scoring rides to ensure that you are still in the frame for the big finale in just a further 3 weeks time. Showing those required attributes last time out at Culham, Shane Carless now holds a 69 point advantage in MX1 with James Dodd in 2nd. In his debut AMCA season, Neville Bradshaw is further 20 points in arrears as Josh Waterman holding 4th is now barring disaster the only other rider realistically still in with a top three chance. At present, Ashley Thomas, Gary Gibson, Luke Mellows, Will Hughes, Sean Wainwright and Luke Harrison are next up. Still looking to bag enough points to gate-crash the MX1 top ten in the final two rounds are the likes of Andy Smart, Daniel Preston and Luke Meredith.
With six out of seven MX2 overall wins, it’s not surprising that Jamie Wainwright has the biggest lead in all of the Championship classes. At present he sits 123 points clear of Kristian Whatley whilst following an impressive podium placing at Culham, Ryan Crowder has really tightened his grip on 3rd spot in this class. The Lancashire lad is just 33 points behind Whatley but a big 122 clear of Josh Coleman in 4th. With Luke Dean, Clinton Barrs and Corie Southwood currently in 5th, 6th and 7th, a very narrow 12 points then separates the next three riders, Lee Truman, Mark Young and Matt Ridgway.
A truly fantastic battle as raged throughout 2019 in what as been a memorable and very entertaining 125cc class and just 33 points is the gap between leader Lewis Dowdeswell and Culham winner Chris Povey. Also on the podium at Culham, Ryan Zebedee is looking very strong in 3rd spot in the standings, now 172 points better off than Nathan Bache in 4th. Ben Watkins, young Jordan Ridgway, Tomos Wright, Brad Malin, Ben White and Ben Murray are next up. But with Malin out injured, his place in the top ten will soon come to an end with Richy Roberts looking the most likely rider to fill that gap.
At the top of the Vets, Jamie Powell in his debut AMCA title season after reaching the age of 40 currently boasts a nice 106 points advantage over defending Champion Simon Lane. Also in his Vets debut year, Craig Chamberlain sits in 3rd, 97 points better off than Colin Conduit with Darren Bennett in 5th. After sitting out the rounds at Hawkstone and Culham due to injury, James Lane will make a welcome return to action this weekend and will certainly be very keen to improve on his current 6th spot. Ste Marlow, Sean Smith, Gareth Dunsford and Stephen Elford currently complete the top ten.
In the Youth class, Matt Tolley, Harry Ridgway and Ezra Blackwell look hot favourites to fill the final top three places. With just Brookthorpe and Long Lane to come, the super Tolley who has led the charge all season currently boasts a 58 point advantage over Ridgway. Incredibly though, Blackwell is then just a further single mark in arrears. From here onwards the gap down to 4th placed Joshua Fletcher-Williams is a big 189 points with Brodie Salt, Yarin Evans and Jake O’Gorman next. In a super competitive contest, places 8th to 11th is separated by less than 50 points as Mitchell Hartill, Reece Leverton, Henry Tomes and Connor Howells lock horns.
The Brookthorpe circuit can be found on the outskirts of Gloucester, the local postcode being GL4 0UT. Words and pic by Mike Wood.