Nats Turn Up The Heat
By TMX Archives on 30th Jul 14
The hillside track of Brookthorpe just outside Gloucester was the venue for round four of the British Youth Motocross Nationals last weekend.
The exceptionally hot weather took its toll on riders and officials alike but the event team kept the track in fine condition without watering during the day, then worked past midnight between race days to make sure the
event went ahead safely without any dust.
The fight for the overall win in the Open youth class between Tom Neal (KTM) and series leader Ollie Osmaston (MX World Honda) went on race after race and the pair were rarely more than a couple of yards apart.
Osmaston holeshot the first Open class race with Neal second and Rob Holyoake third but by the end of lap three Neal was in the lead.
A lap later Osmaston slipped off and back to third place.
Within a couple of laps Osmaston was back into second place and closing on the leader but he ran out of time and ended the race in second, just under seven seconds behind Neal, with Holyoake third.
Billy King (Kawasaki) spent the entire race in fifth with Tyrone Cleaver just behind him.
In race two Neal got the holeshot chased by Holyoake, Osmaston and Jamie Buckingham (ABM Honda) but by the end of the lap Osmaston was in second place and on the tail of Neal as the pair pulled further and further away from the rest of the riders.
Neal won by under three seconds from Osmaston with Holyoake third around 40 seconds behind. Charlie Putnam finished fourth.
The last race on Saturday was fantastic as Osmaston led the pack into turn one with Neal in his wheel tracks. For the entire nine-lap race Neal was just inches away but couldn't find a way past.
Behind the top two another battle was raging for third place as Putnam and Holyoake swapped positions with Holyoake just beating Putnam by half-a-second.
The first race on Sunday was another cliff hanger. Osmaston got the holeshot as Neal had to come from fourth off the line but was second before the end of the lap.
Once again Neal was doing all he could to get the lead from Osmaston, finally getting past coming down the straight before the finish line on the very last lap to snatch the win.
Holyoake was third with Putnam spending most of the race just behind him in fourth.
Osmaston led race five until he slipped off on the last lap on the increasingly slippery track and handed yet another win to Neal with Holyoake third from Joe Hodgson and Putnam.
In the sixth and final race of the exhausting weekend Neal got the holeshot and went on to win as Osmaston, after gating fourth, had to pass Putnam and Holyoake to finish second.
Overall it was Neal from Osmaston, Holyoake and Clayton but in the championship Osmaston still has a 69-point lead over Jay Lamb with Neal third.
The 125cc Two-stroke entry is growing in numbers and the man to beat is the super-fast Jordan Eccles (KTM) who won five out of his six races with just a crash at the start of race five robbing him of a 100 per cent record.
In race five Eccles was in 16th when he picked himself up but by the end of the lap he was in 10th place and a lap later he was in sixth and scything through the pack. With three laps to go he was in third and passed George Grigg-Pettitt on the last lap for second and a big load of championship points.
Second overall, race five winner Henry Williams just couldn't stay with Eccles' pace over the weekend. Oliver Benton with six strong rides was third overall, six points in front of Grigg-Pettitt with Josh Colman (LRS KTM) fifth.
Eccles now has a 106-point lead in the championship over Coleman and Benton.
The three-race Under 23s championship was all about Brad Todd (Planet KTM) with the Cumbrian taking three wins from three starts.
He fended off George Clarke (CAB Yamaha) in the first race to win by just under a second-and-a-half, then managed to hold off Damon Strydom (Rock Oil Husqvarna) in the final two.
Luke Newman (KTM), who didn't finish out of the top five, was third overall with Clarke spoiling his weekend with a crash in race three that dropped him to fourth.
It's all still to play for in the championship as Todd leads but only by 21 points from Strydom and Nathan Dixon.
The Big-wheel 85cc class always provides great racing and star of the weekend was Keenan Hird (TM) who took three wins from his six starts.
The weekend started off well for Marcus Phelps (KTM) with a gate-to-flag win as Hird took his time to get going, advancing from fourth at the start to second with two laps to go.
The positions were reversed in race two and Hird won from Phelps by almost half-a-minute. The pair swapped places again in the next two races but it all went wrong for Hird in race five as he went down and could only get back to fourth. Jack Bintcliffe (HER KTM) was the winner from Phelps and Chris Mills.
Dylan Woodcock (Monster Kawasaki) won race six after passing Harry Kimber (MX Vice KTM), Brett Pocock (MGP KTM) and Phelps as Hird, after a bad start, came home fifth.
Phelps crashed from second to the back of the pack in race seven, ending his chances of picking
up the overall win which went to Hird.
Phelps was second from Woodcock and Mills and in the championship Hird has a 30-point lead from Woodcock with Dexter Douglas three points further back.
Ben Clark (GMX KTM) got better as the weekend went on as he had two fourth places and a win on Saturday, backed up by three wins and a second on Sunday to take the Small-wheel 85cc overall.
Rossi Beard (NMA DCR KTM) didn't finish out of the top three in all of his races and won two but when the points were added up he was nine points behind Clark.
Race one winner Adam Collings (Vega KTM) was third overall, just six points behind Beard.
In the championship Beard has a slim two-point lead over Clark with Kacey Hird in third, 48 points behind the leader.
Eddie Wade (Golden Tyre KTM) was in dominant form in the 65cc class, winning four out of his seven races and finishing second in the ones he didn't win for a commanding overall victory.
Race three winner Louie Kessell (KES KTM) was second overall as Joel Rizzi (Feehily MX KTM) messed up his weekend and the chance of the overall with a disaster in the last race as he crashed out of the lead and finished last – but he had still done enough for third overall.
Wade still leads the championship, now with an increased margin over Rizzi and Kessell.
