At the beginning of the year, riders contesting the 2018 AMCA British Motocross Championship powered by Datatag and supported by Datatag were offered the unique opportunity to enhance their potential final finishing position! The only criteria to add an extra 300 points to their tally was that they should enter and compete in up to five AMCA Group events. So with just a couple of weeks remaining of this offer and going into Sunday’s penultimate round of the series at Brookthorpe in Gloucestershire, the tables now show a slightly different appearance!
In MX1 last time out at Culham, Ray Rowson bagged a maiden overall win but series leader Josh Waterman was again on the podium. That result means that Waterman, a Brookthorpe track specialist leads the standings by a nice 94 points with Shane Carless, Rowson, James Dodd, Ryan Crowder and Gary Gibson currently rounding off the top six.
Although it was only a second overall at Culham, Luke Burton is now really stretching his MX2 series advantage, 131 points clear of Clinton Barrs who scored a very popular win at the Oxfordshire venue. Despite what now appears to be a big title chasing deficit, Bristolian Barrs will as always be giving it his all during the remaining moto’s and is certainly a rider well worth watching! Like Clinton, Lee Sealey has also utilised the benefit of those extra 300 points on offer to thus jump up into 3rd in the MX2 standings just ahead of Lewis King, Bradley Tranter, Jack Gardner and Matt Ridgway.
Only a collapsed rear-wheel denied 2T series leader Richard Cannings another maximum points haul during the latest round. Despite his season long dominance though, Cannings is still remarkably only 38 points better off than an equally consistent and determined Sean Eckersley. Sean looks like keeping himself right in the title mix whilst Bradley Doyle, Jordan Saunders, James Lane and Adam Hill appear to be the most likely riders to remain in the frame for an eventual medal position! During the recent Culham round, Jake Parker scored a great maiden overall 2T win but is currently down in 14th spot and looking to have just a little too much work to do in the remaining motos and thus trouble the top three in the Championship table!
Winning both Vets moto’s last time out, Simon Lane looks well on course to earn another AMCA title. This weekend at Brookthorpe, Lane will be racing very much on home territory and you can be sure that he will also be receiving plenty of local trackside support! At present in the Vets, Sean Smith is the next best from Gary Jones, Colin Conduit, Brian Staples and Paul Wieczorek.
Incredibly, Joseph Brookes has won every Youth 85/150cc moto but somehow still finds himself lying 2nd in the standings and some 86 points behind Charlie Palmer! The reason for that change in the standings is that Palmer has made sure to bag those extra 300 bonus points on offer and has also been ultra-consistent throughout the campaign! Whilst Ben Dutton in 4th and Jake O’Gorman in 5th have also enhanced their points tallies, the likes of Brookes, Matt Tolley, Joshua Main, Harry Ridgway and Kierun Webber still have two weeks remaining to take advantage and change the appearance of the Championship table!
So, the spectacular Brookthorpe circuit is the place to be this coming Sunday, August 12th for some super action as the 2018 AMCA British Motocross Championship reaches its penultimate round. The venue can be found on the outskirts of Gloucester with the local postcode being GL4 0UT.
Words and pic by Mike Wood.