Liam Knight took three race wins to dominate the sixth and final round six of the Eastern centre motocross championship at Blaxhall, but Shaun Southgate won the championship with consistent rides throughout the series. Jake Nicholls who led the championship at the start of the event and looked favourite to win, had his challenge last till lap three of qualifying when he broke his leg after catching his foot in a rut and had to be taken to hospital, writes Dick Law.
Ryan Watts continued his winning ways in the junior championship, winning two out of his three races and finishing second on the other won the overall and the junior championship by a massive margin.
The hardworking members of the Woodbridge club prepared there excellent Blaxhall circuit to British championship level as usual and watered it to perfection ready for the 160 riders taking part.
Knight lead the first experts’ race from the drop of the gate till the checkered flag but was kept honest by Lewis Tombs, Ashton Dickinson, who was mazing keeping up with the 450’s on his 250 Yamaha, and Jake Shipton while Gosh Gilbert on a charge through the pack came off bike time as his front wheel tucked on a sandy landing.
The second race was almost the same with Knight getting the holeshot, but this time Dickinson was the one the chased him over the line from Tombs with Gilbert making amends for his first race crash in fourth. Shipton’s engine let go on his 450 Yamaha on lap six spoiling his day as Southgate crossed the finish line in fifth.
In the third and final expert race the young Tom Grimshaw, who is still recovering from a mid-season injury, got the holeshot on his 250 Yamaha, but within a lap Knight was through to notch up his third win of the day. Dickinson once again was second with Gilbert third. Southgate crossed the finish line in eleventh place but had done enough to be crowned Eastern Centre champion.
“I always like this Blaxhall circuit and they prepped it really well for this morning” said a happy overall winner Knight, “I was pleased to qualify second to Jake (Nicholls) but I hear his hurt himself and didn’t ride, so I was happy with my two holeshots and felt comfortable in the lead even though Lewis and Ashton were only just behind me. In the last race after passing Ton Grimshaw I think that was the biggest lead I had all day. I think this will help me when we go to the last Maxxis round in two weeks’ time at Lyng as that’s another sand track at that suits me”
Southgate was more than happy with his centre championship win and said after, “It’s a dream come true as ever since I was a kid racing. Riding as an expert in this centre is not easy and I have been plugging away at getting better for some time now and this is, like I just said, a dream come true. I think winning it is down to being constant. I have been getting good starts and have been keeping myself out of trouble. I think if Jake hadn’t have hurt himself today, which is a shame he would have won it but like they say, you have to be in it to win it”
Watts has dominated the juniors championship races all year long and had won the championship a round earlier, but that fact didn’t stop him wining the overall today. He won 12 out of the 18 championship races and was only twice out of the top two and won the championship by 138 points. Conner Baldry was second in the championship with Matthew French third.
Overall results
Expert:
1 Liam Knight 25 + 25 + 25 = 75
2 Ashton Dickinson 20 + 22 + 22 = 64
3 Lewis Tombs 22 + 20 + 18 = 60
4 Luke Benstead 16 + 14 + 16 = 46
5 Dylan Woodcock 15 + 13 + 15 = 43
6 Declan Whittle 12 + 15 + 14 = 41
7 Shaun Southgate 14 + 16 + 10 = 40
8 Josh Gilbert 0 + 18 + 20 = 38
9 Tom Grimshaw 13 + 12 + 12 = 37
10 Luke Parker 11 + 10 + 11 = 32
11 Calum Mitchell 7 + 9 + 9 = 25
12 Ben Clark 0 + 11 + 13 = 24
13 Steve Bixby 10 + 8 + 6 = 24
14 Brad Woodroffe 9 + 7 + 7 = 23
15 Adam Day 8 + 6 + 5 = 19
Final championship positions:
1 Shaun Southgate 311
2 Jake Nicholls 300
3 Luke Benstead 294
4 Lewis Tombs 254
5 Luke Parker 250
6 Declan Whittle 230
7 Ben Clark 203
8 Ben Cole 164
9 Brad Woodroffe 158
10 Tom Grimshaw 153
11 Steve Bixby 153
12 Adam Day 121
13 George Grigg-Pettitt 121
14 Calum Mitchell 110
15 Jason Morland 108
Junior championship:
1 Ryan Watts 25 + 22 + 25 = 72
2 Bill Moynes 20 + 25 + 22 = 67
3 Perry Galloway 22 + 20 + 20 = 62
4 Ben Alexander 16 + 18 + 15 = 49
5 Connor Baldry 18 + 12 + 18 = 48
6 Matt French 15 + 14 + 12 = 41
7 Ashly Campbell 7 + 16 + 16 = 39
8 Joe Salmons 13 + 15 + 10 = 38
9 Aaron Hopkins 14 + 8 + 14 = 36
10 Connor Bunkle 10 + 7 + 13 = 30
11 Paul Hubbard 8 + 10 + 11 = 29
12 Christopher Lake 5 + 9 + 9 = 23
13 James Barker 6 + 11 + 2 = 19
14 Amie Goodlad 0 + 13 + 4 = 17
15 Adam Ford 11 + 0 + 5 = 16
Final championship positions:
1 Ryan Watts 416
2 Conner Baldry 278
3 Matt French 240
4 Ben Alexander 215
5 Joe Salmons 207
6 Jordon Pasquale 202
7 Bill Moynes 191
8 Ashly Campbell 161
9 Alex Hornsby 145
10 Aaron Hopkins 118
11 Perry Galloway 117
12 Adam Ford 97
13 Amie Goodlad 91
14 James Barker 79
15 Danny Budd 75
