Summer Series Round 4 Report

Competition heated up at Round 4 of the Ringwood Summer Series with Ben Lovelace bringing out the ‘the big guns’ to hold off David and Oli Gray. Course setters Jim and Keith excelled themselves with some tricky technical sections for the three laps of ten sections. Section 5 in particular left a few riders hugging trees and one or two getting to the bottom of the section before their bikes. The temperature made everyone sweat with only one rider being clean at the end of the trial.

In the Experts, Lovelace and David Gray matched each other for the first two laps both recording 2-3, whilst Oli Gray and Ben Skinner were on eight. A superb clean final lap sealed Lovelace’s third victory out of four rounds, but he ties with Oli Gray overall. Dave and Oli Gray enjoyed their family rivalry all the way round, encouraging each other to beat the course, Dad Dave lost two twos in the last three sections of the last lap whilst son Oli lost just two on section 10 to finish a mark behind his dad. They are evenly matched with one round each when they have ridden together. After two good laps Ben Skinner disappointingly faded losing nine on the last. 

The intermediate class created an even closer result with the top four covered by just two marks in a strong field. Ian Cobb finished one mark ahead of Dec Francis and ex motocrosser Andy Ball, Ball had outscored Cobb on the second lap to go into the final tour level but a dab on sections 3 and on 8 cost Ball the win and having dabbed on these sections each lap he ended third behind Francis on sections clean. Francis had a good ride apart from section 3 where ‘bunny hopping’ was needed to make a tight climb resulting in a loss of four marks. After four rounds it’s all to play for as there have been four different winners in the class, with Francis and Tarrant just one mark apart overall. Youth B riders took on the challenge of a difficult route, Max Bird riding in the mid weeks for the first time was one of the riders who landed at the bottom of section 5 before his bike on lap one, a dab on lap two followed by a clean on the third was impressive. He finished eight ahead of local rider Adam Kilbey who had a good ride also cleaning section 5 on the last lap.

Kev Downer made it a full house of four wins from four starts on his Beta which he says actually brakes when you pull the lever unlike his twinshock Fantic which thinks about it first. He thought he had blown it losing seven, but closest rival on the day Tony Talbot on his twinshock TLR Honda, despite a very tidy ride was two back on nine. In the series, Downer has already wrapped up the series but it’s close for second between Shamus Doohan, Mark Davis and Mark Read in with a shout. They all had solid rides Read was third and riding partners Doohan and Davis ending all square on marks but Doohan had two more cleans. In the Pre65’s John Miles was unchallenged but still had a good ride with the seventh best score overall whilst Youth Rider Bay Robinson completed the course on his old 80cc Beta while problems are still being ironed out on his new machine.  

On the Novice route, Lloyd James was the one rider to remain clean in the trial finishing a mark ahead of Guy Monk having his first ride on a Montesa, he lost a single mark on Section 3 where the final turn became very loose and cost several riders marks. Martin Lewis had one of his best rides just four marks behind Monk in third. Geoff Parker took his second round win on four in the twin shocks ahead of Phil Jones on his smoking Yamaha and Mike Popperwell who had an ‘offnight’ losing fourteen on his Honda. Mike Jarrett made it three round wins on his BSA B40 in the Pre65’s dropping a single five on section 3. Ivan Haskell on a C15 and Trev Newell on a B40 shared second but Haskell took second on furthest clean.

The final round of this excellent series is next week on 29th June at Ashley Hollow near Ringwood starting at 6.30p.m.

Results - Top Six

Experts: Ben Lovelace (GasGas) 5, Dave Gray (Beta) 9, Oli Gray (Beta) 10, Ben Skinner (Vertigo) 17

Clubman: Ian Cobb (Beta) 6, Derek Francis (TRS) 7, Andy Ball (Beta) 7, Gary Tarrant (GasGas) 8, Keith Hitchings (TRS) 12, Graham Harrison (Vertigo) 19, Reece Talbot (Montesa) 19

Youth B: Max Bird 37, Adam Kilbey (Beta) 45, David James (GasGas) 104

Sportsman: Kev Downer (Beta) 7, Tony Talbot (Honda) 9, Mark Read (Vertigo) 14, Tim Bird(TRS) 18, Shamus Doohan (TRS) 21, Mark Davis (Montesa) 21.

Pre65 C: John Miles (BSA) 23

Novice: Lloyd James (Montesa) 0, Guy Monk (Montesa) 1, Martin Lewis (TRS) 5, Gary Sainsbury (Beta) 19, Mike Orr (Montesa) 29, Tim Rees (Sherco) 37

Youth C: Bay Robinson (Beta) 71

Pre65 D: Mike Jarrett (BSA) 5, Ivan Haskell (BSA) 10, Trev Newell (BSA) 10.

Twinshock D: Geoff Parker (Fantic) 4, Phil Jones (Yamaha) 7, Mike Popperwell (Honda) 14 

Full Results/ club News see - https://www.ringwood-mc-lcc.co.uk

For entries - see ACU website online entry

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