The Thor British Youth Nationals enjoyed an exciting weekend of racing at Brampton, Cumbria for round two of the championship where Wal Beaney, Vinnie Guthrie, Dominic Lancett, Rossi Beard and Jed Etchells took the overall honours.
The junior 65cc class provided some superb racing to watch across both days. Saturday saw Ollie Colmer take both moto wins with round one winner’s Wal Beaney taking second, however the young-gun had his eyes on keeping the title lead going into the next round and Sunday saw some breath-taking moments with both Beaney and Colmer battling it out hard. Beaney walked away with the weekend overall after sweeping all three motos on Sunday to retain his championship lead, while Colmer, Keelan Hope, McKenzie Marshall and Roan Delaney rounded out the top five positions.
The top five riders in the Small Wheel 85cc class, Vinnie Guthrie, Alfie Jones, Raife Broadley, Oliver Barr and Bailey Johnston, had it pinned throughout the five motos in Cumbria, with some truly exciting battles during the weekend. Guthrie walked away with the overall win and now there is just four points between Guthrie and Jones for the top spot; all eyes are on these these two as we head to Desertmartin next month to see if Jones can retain the title lead.
The Big Wheel 85cc class saw Dominic Lancett continue his battle for this year’s title as he has amassed an impressive 54 point lead after two rounds, however Bobby Bruce was giving his utmost this weekend to gain those valuable points towards his championship chase. The top five spots for round two of the series went to Lancett, Bruce, Jack Galvin, Ben Kennedy and Kyle McNichol.
Going into the weekend the current Thor British Youth Nationals 85cc BW champion, Rossi Beard, had the overall win in the 125cc class in his sights with the aim of keeping his top spot at the head of the series’ standings. Saturday saw some outstanding battles between Beard and Callum Mitchell with a race win each, while on Sunday Beard was on fire and took all three moto wins, despite Mitchell’s best efforts, with an especially strong outing in the opening race of the day where Beard stretched a five second advantage over Mitchell. The top five overall went to Beard, Mitchell, Sam Nunn, Josh Peters and Drew Anderson.
The open class was equally as exciting, as going into the final moto of the weekend there was only a few points difference between Jed Etchells, who enjoyed two moto wins during the Brampton event, Howard Wainwright and Tom Grimshaw. There were certainly some edge-of-seat moments as these moto warriors fought to the final chequered flag. Etchells finished the final moto in third, which gave him the overall victory with a 4-1-1-4-3 scorecard, while Wainwright was second and Grimshaw was third. Ben Clark and Aaron-Lee Hanson rounded out the top five.
Once again there were the Apico Factory Racing Holeshot awards, which were taken on the second block of motos on Saturday and saw Raife Broadley, Dominic Lancett, Billy Moriarty, Joe Cadwallader and Rossi Beard taking the awards for their classes.
The Thor British Youth Nationals now prepares to move onto Desertmartin, Northern Ireland for round three of the series on 20th and 21st May.