Bushton report: British Women’s Motocross Championship
By Team TMX on 24th May 19
After an exciting first round of the BWMA Westermans International British Womens Motocross Championship, AMCA Mid Wilts club hosted round two at the heavily-revised Bushton circuit.
In the Adults an upset was on the cards after defending champion and series leader Chelsea Gowland suffered a fractured elbow and facial injuries following a crash at the AMCA MX2 Championship just two weeks ago.
Showing true grit and determination, though, she was back on the bike to keep her title defence on track.
Race one saw Kayleigh Durston take the holeshot closely followed by Gowland, Catherine King, Charlotte Hall, Marni Saunders and Bethany Allison.
In some of the days most exciting racing Gowland quickly passed Durston and managed to keep a steady gap leaving Durston, King, Hall, Saunders and Allison to fight for second.
Hall and King were banging bars right to the finish flag as King took second, less than a second ahead of Hall.
The battle for the top 10 Pro Class selection was hotly-contested, with Jaymee Garrood comfortable in seventh ahead of Millie King, Grace Bates and Louise Powell.
Race two saw Bethany Allison storm out of the gate to take the holeshot ahead of Gowland, Hall and Durston, but race-one runner-up King got off to a bad start and had a lot of work to do to get back to the front.
Gowland soon took the lead and again pulled away to control the race for another great win and a maximum score despite the pain of her fractured elbow.
Behind her Allison dropped into the clutches of Saunders, Hall and Garrood as the hard-charging Hall pulled a nice gap in second from Saunders, Durston and King.
Jaysi Austin took pole position in qualifying in the Youth Class ahead of a determined Grace Packman and the ever-improving Katie Morgan.
In the Rising Stars it was Ellie Davidson ahead of Poppy Banning.
Grace Packman just pipped Beanie Reece for the holeshot in race one but on the first corner Jaysi Austin went down, bending her bike up badly, with Beanie Reece swallowed up by the dust berm.
Then on lap two Autumn Jenkinson had a big off causing the race to be red-flagged.
The restart saw Packman crash badly leaving her out for the day and dealing a blow to her championship challenge.
On the restart Austin led the way from Reece who had an epic battle throughout with Morgan, the latter eventually taking second place.
Rising Stars Poppy Banning and Ellie Davidson had a brilliant battle throughout, Poppy getting the better of Ellie by the flag.
Race two was run without the Inter class so the BWMA girls had the opportunity to race head-to-head and Austin led Reece into the first corner but Austin exited first.
Austin riding with a damaged finger from her first race crash pushed on to a comfortable lead while behind her Morgan and Reece again had a great battle, Morgan again just having the edge.
In the Rising Stars it was a similar story to the first race with nothing separating Banning and Davidson as they swapped places all race.
Results
Adult Ladies: 1 Chelsea Gowland 120, 2 Charlotte Hall 104, 3 Catherine King 99, 4 Marnie Saunders 97, 5 Kayleigh Durston 90, 6 Bethany Allison 88.
Youth Girls: 1 Jaysi Austin 120, 2 Katie Morgan 108, 3 Beanie Reece 100, 4 Sophie Jones 94, 5 Poppy Banning 88, 6 Autumn Jenkinson 86.
Rising Stars: 1 Poppy Banning, 2 Ellie Davidson.
Words: Howard Marriott
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