Summer Series Round 5 Report

The highly successful five round Ringwood Summer Series came to a close at Ashley Hollow near Ringwood with some close deciders in many classes. Andy Gates, Keith Mitchell and Jim Devereux worked their magic once more to conjure up ten challenging sections for the final round.

In the experts Ben Lovelace and Oli Gray have had a battle royale through the series being level on points going into the last round but it was the more experienced Lovelace who took his fourth win of the series to finish two points ahead of Gray despite missing round 3. Lovelace finished the last round nine marks ahead of Gray who didn’t recover from losing eight of his fourteen marks on the first lap compared with Lovelace’s four. Lovelace has now won the last two series and is very difficult to beat in the expert class on this land.

Keith Hitchings returned to trials last year and has shown his class whilst getting back into the sport. He produced what is probably his best result so far winning the final round of the series by two marks from another recent returnee Andy Ball. With nearest rival Derek Francis missing for the last round Gary Tarrant did enough with a third in class to top the Clubman. This was a welcome return to form for Tarrant after a serious injury meant he observed for much of the series last year. Francis finished second three points behind with Ball a good third

Adam Kilbey finished the Youth B class strongly in the final round losing fourteen less than series winner David James. James has ridden impressively in his first season on the B route taking advantage of Kilbey missing one more round than him. There was only two marks between them. 

At this rate after five good wins in the sportsman class on his ‘new for this season’ Beta Kev Downer may well be eyeing moving to the clubman next season. His next challenge will be having a go at sidecar motocross! Shamus Doohan who finished second in the sportsman shared the round 2 win with Downer and finished just a single dab behind him in the last round. Downer finished on eleven losing five on the first lap which was matched by Doohan, but on lap two Downer lost one to Doohan’s six which he was unable to recover from to finish a mark behind. Mark Davis finished the series third overall with a fifth place finish in the final round. Stuart Bunce who started his season late had his best result of fourth on his 200cc Honda. John Miles took the series unopposed in the Pre65’s

On the Novice route Lloyd James made it a family double of class wins, he produced his second clean trial in a row to top the class with four wins. Gary Sainsbury was third behind newcomer Jacob Ball in the final round but riding his Beta which he acquired mid season he earned enough points to finish a good second overall. Martin Lewis picked up two points in the final round to end in third overall. Mike Jarrett took four wins including the final round in the Pre65’s to be a clear winner overall from Trev Newell who also had a good series with two seconds and three thirds. Andy Withers was third and the only other round winner, an injury in round three put him out of the series. With two wins Geoff Parker on his trusty Fantic won the twinshocks overall by two points from Phil Jones riding his ‘smoking Yamaha’ who also had two wins including the last round. Mike Popperwell finished third overall as the only other round winner, Jones and Popperwell missed the chance to challenge for the overall class win by missing a round, Jones retiring in the challenging round three. Oli Barr picked up three unopposed wins in the first three rounds to top the Youth D from Tommy Wakeford.  

Results/Overall

Round 5

Experts: Ben Lovelace (GasGas) 5, Oli Gray (Beta) 14, Ben Skinner (Vertigo) 28

Final Positions: Ben Lovelace 28, Oli Gray 26, Ben Skinner 14, Dave Gray/ Ben Harrison 9

Clubman: Keith Hitchings (TRS) 20,  Andrew Ball (Beta) 22, Gary Tarrant (GasGas) 25, Ian Wakeford (GasGas) 25, Graham Harrison (Vertigo) 31, Shaun Francis (GasGas) 36.

Final Positions: Gary Tarrant 24, Derek Francis 21, Andy Ball 16, Keith Hitchings 15 

Youth B: Adam Kilbey (GasGas) 69, David James (GasGas) 83 

Final Positions: David James 21, Adam Kilbey 19, Max Bird 7

Sportsman: Kev Downer (Beta) 11, Shamus Doohan (TRS) 12, Mick Treagus (GasGas) 18, Stuart Bunce (Honda) 23, Mark Davis (Montesa) 24, Gary Plews (Montesa) 35

Final Positions: Kev Downer 35, Shamus Doohan 21, Mark Davis 15, Mark Read 10

Pre65 C: John Miles (BSA) 19

Final Positions: John Miles 14

Novice: Lloyd James (Montesa) 0, Jacob Ball 2, Gary Sainsbury (Beta) 4, Rob Allen (GasGas) 6, Martin Lewis (TRS) 6, Steve Dibden (Bultaco) 31.

Final Positions: Lloyd James 28, Gary Sainsbury 23, Martin Lewis 8, Mike Orr 6, Tim Rees 6

Pre65 D: Mike Jarrett (BSA) 0, Trev Newell (BSA) 16

Final Positions: Mike Jarrett 31, Trev Newell 22, Andy Withers 12, Ivan Haskell 12

Twinshock D: Phil Jones (Yamaha) 0, Geoff Parker (Fantic) 4, Mike Popperwell (Honda) 5

Final Positions: Geoff Parker 26, Phil Jones 24, Mike Popperwell 20, Matthew Wilson 4

Youth D: Tommy Wakeford 30

Final Positions: Oli Barr 21, Tommy Wakeford 7