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BYMX Championship - Round Two - Norley Results
19 April 2010
Taking a quick glance across the results from round two of this
year's Express Insurance BYMX Competition held at Norley in
Cheshire on a wonderfully sunny April weekend - you may well get
the initial impression that it all turned out to be a rather
routine day in the office with all four Championship leaders
retaining their heady positions.
But the devil is in the detail - as Norley proved to be an
incident packed explosive affair!
In the Junior 65's it took a monumental day two effort from
Albie Wilkie - he conjured up two race winning performances that
ultimately resulted in a second place overall finish that also
enabled him to hang on to his overall championship lead following a
disappointing Saturday that saw him struggling with a wrist
injury.
Speedy Tom Hume together with the round one Express Insurance
"Top Gun" awarded Keenan Hird and James McFayden claimed the other
three remaining individual race wins with Tom eventually taking
centre stage as the impressive overall 65cc weekend winner. Tom
Hume now moves up into second place in the main BYMX Championship
table being four points behind Albie.
Oliver Osmaston was once again totally devastating on his
awesome Pro Circuit Honda - and he duly cleaned up in the Small
Wheel 85cc division with all five race wins on his card. The battle
in Oli's wake however is proving to be totally absorbing with
anything up to seven riders of equal ability all now toughing it
out. At the close of play following the most competitive of
weekends it was Cornwall's Josh Gilbert who claimed second place by
one single point from Worcestershire's Robert Yates. Josh Coleman,
Sam Braithwaite and Conrad Mewse rounded off the top six.
In Scotland it was the Ben and Ben show in the Big Wheel 85cc
section as Messr's Watson and Howell fought out a classic head to
head encounter. At Norley Howell looked a smidgen out of sorts so
could Watson take advantage?
Well the opening race win went the way of James Harrison and he
proved that was no fluke by going on to record four more runners up
place finishes. The winner of all four remaining races? You guessed
it! Ben Watson did in fact take full advantage and he now has the
wind well and truly in his championship sails. James Harrison
brilliantly claimed second overall as Ben Howell finished in third
place. Adam Sterry, Jack Kelly and Liam Garland also made it onto
the end of day presentation podium in fourth fifth and sixth places
respectively in what proved to be the tightest of all weekend
finishes.
Just as in Scotland the main focus of attention at Norley fell
on the to the elder statesmen of the Youth Open class but
unfortunately as it turned out for largely the wrong reasons. North
of the border it was the nose to tail electrifying action of the
top six riders that had everyone in a complete whirl - but in
Cheshire it was the accident and emergency department that seemed
to have an ever revolving door that eventually saw Championship hot
shots Ryan Houghton and Jamie Mc Canney both going home with broken
bones. Brad Pocock also found himself innocently on the wrong end
of the McCanney accident and that severely disrupted his weekend
challenge too.
So back to the racing and it all came down to a virtual final
moto winner takes all decider between Championship leader Connor
Walkley who had previously recorded one race win and Nathan Watson
who had already bagged two. In that final race Bradley Pocock once
again stole every ones thunder to cross the line first making it a
double race winning weekend for him but alas only seventh overall.
Connor came home in second to ultimately further extend his
championship lead to a now more than healthy 12 point gap over
Nathan who finished back in a disappointing sixth place. Bradley
Pocock was the adjudged Express "Top gun" performer for round two
following his totally brilliant display.
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