Meeting Report - August 2008 25 Aug 2008

CORNWALL SOLO GRASS TRACK CLUB
NEWS RELEASE - 24th August 2008

Cornwall Solo Grass Track Club hosted two days of track action over the bank holiday weekend at St Erme.

Despite small entries on both days spectators witnessed plenty of entertaining race action with a good mix of experience and youth.

Saturday's Club Championship meeting saw young Welshman Nick Mallett leading the solo field claiming four race wins in taking the 500's, Experts and Open classes. Chesney King, in his first season of adult racing, claimed second behind Mallett in all classes. Stefan Maunder claimed victory in the restricted licence holders to go with third in the 500's and Open final. Max Sandford claimed the Invitation race to go with second in the 350's behind rising star Lewis Leah who raced to a 4 ride maxium in only his second adult meeting and his first on a 350 machine. Kevin Williams was forced to retire from the meeting after a heavy fall in the 2nd heat of the 500's whilst contesting the lead with Nick Mallett.

Sidecar honours were shared between local pairings of Lee Hicks & Phil Collyer and Phil Syms & Gareth Bemister. Hicks was in superb form winning 7 out of 8 races in taking the Experts and 1st Open Final, with Syms taking the 2nd Open final. Other race winners were Jim Pearn & Roland Broomfield with two heat wins in the 2nd open heats and Joe Sturtridge & Lee Toms with one win in the 1st open heats.

The highlight of the youth racing was the battle between Callan Phillips and Edmund Best in the Cadets class with Best eventually taking class honours with three wins to Phillips' two. A straight run of third places saw Joseph Nicholls claim third overall. Auto Cadet honours went to Jack Dummett with Mary Gribble second and Anders Rowe third. Keiron Hicks claimed the Juniors from Mawgan Watts second and Shannon Derrick third. The Inters honours went to Josh Dingle ahead of Nathan Stoneman who were the only two riders to complete the day after mechanical problems affected Darryl Ritchings and Jake Quintrell.

Results

Solos
350's 1st Lewis Leah (Jawa) 40 points, 2nd Max Sandford (PSB Jawa) 32 points, 3rd James Charlesworth (Jawa) 28 points
500's 1st Nick Mallett (Jawa GM) 28 points, 2nd Chesney King (Jawa) 22 points, 3rd= Stefan Maunder (Jawa GM) & Scott Creswell (Hagon Jawa) 11 points, 5th Jason Prynne (GM) 10 points, 6th Ryan Julian (Jawa) 9 points, 7th Kevin Williams (Jawa) 7 points, 8th Ian Parsons (Weslake) 7 points, 9th Steve Pearce (Jawa) 6 points, 10th Jim Collins (Jawa) 5 points
Experts 1st Mallett, 2nd King
Restricted 1st Maunder, 2nd Creswell, 3rd Charlesworth, 4th Parsons
Invitation 1st Sandford, 2nd Creswell, 3rd Pearce, 4th Maunder, 5th Charlesworth, 6th Julian, 7th Parsons
Open 1st Mallett, 2nd King, 3rd Maunder, 4th Pearce, 5th Julian, 6th Creswell, 7th Parsons

Youth
Auto Cadets 1st Jack Dummett 60 points, 2nd Mary Gribble 50 points, 3rd Anders Rowe 45 points
Cadets 1st Edmund Best 56 points, 2nd Callan Phillips 54 points, 3rd Joseph Nicholls 45 points, 4th Josh Hardwick 39 points, 5th Saul Bulley 36 points
Juniors 1st Keiron Hicks 60 points, 2nd Mawgan Watts 50 points, 3rd Shannon Derrick 27 points
Inters 1st Josh Dingle 60 points, 2nd Nathan Stoneman 49 points, 3rd Jake Quintrell 10 points

Sidecars
Experts 1st Lee Hicks/Phil Collyer (Steer Yamaha), 2nd Phil Syms/Gareth Bemister (KH Steer Yamaha), 3rd Simon Heal/Chris Bovingdon (Don Burt Yamaha R1), 4th Jim Pearn/Roland Broomfield (Yamaha), 5th Aubrey Steele/Gary Allen (Steer Yamaha), 6th Joseph Sturtridge/Lee Toms (Steer Yamaha)
1st Open 1st Hicks/Collyer, 2nd Heal/Bovingdon, 3rd Sturtridge/Toms, 4th Anthony Power/Wayne Rickard (Yamaha ExUp), 5th Syms/Bemister, 6th Steele/Allen
2nd Open 1st Syms/Bemister, 2nd Hicks/Collyer, 3rd Pearn/Broomfield, 4th Sturtridge/Toms, 5th Power/Rickard, 6th Steele/Allen

On Sunday attention turned to the annual Grand Slam meeting which went ahead in heavy conditions after overnight rain.

In the up to 350cc Solo class Lewis Leah carried his form from Saturday through to Sunday taking a clean sweep of five wins to claim the class win from Max Sandford in second and Jody Hodgeson third. Nick Mallett led the qualifiers for the final winning four of the five heats with Wayne Barrett claiming the other. Chesney King took second in the points with Stefan Maunder third and Wayne Barrett fourth after sitting out the third leg. The final saw Barrett take a lead out of the first turn followed by Mallett with King third and Maunder fourth.

Jamie Bree & Jason Barry took four wins out of five to lead the points scorers going into the final of the 1000cc Sidecars, next up was Simon Heal with Matt Vickery in the chair, after a first heat crash ruled Chris Bovingdon out of the meeting, taking with three wins, followed by Phil Syms & Gareth Bemister with two and Joseph Sturtridge & Lee Toms with one. Syms suffered a gearbox failure in the last heat but was able to take his place in the final thanks to Lee Hicks offering his outfit for use. Heal & Vickery took victory in the final ahead of Bree & Barry with Sturtridge & Toms in third.

During the afternoon a one off race saw six of the sidecar drivers swapping their regular passengers for a one off novices race to raise funds for the Children's Hospice South West Precious Lives Appeal. The final total of funds raised through sponsorship and collections on the day is expected to be well in excess of £750's. Taking to the passenger seat were local entertainer Jonny Cowling, BBC Radio Cornwall's Matt Pengelly, Brenda Quintreel, Jackie Dingle, Alan Goudge & Kirsty Toms.

In the youth racing Edmund Best won nine out of ten races to claim the Auto Cadets and Cadets class wins. Jack Dummett took second in the Autos ahead of Mary Gribble in third. Callan Phillips took second in the Cadets with Joseph Nicholls third. David Abraham took his first ever race win on grass in the third leg and followed up with two further wins to take the Juniors by two points from Keiron Hicks with Mawgan Watts third. The Inters result was declared after three heats with Josh Dingle taking the win on points from Darryl Ritchings in second and Nathan Stoneman third.

Results

Solos
Upto 350cc 1st Lewis Leah (Jawa) 50 points, 2nd Max Sandford (Jawa) 39 points, 3rd Jody Hodgeson (Jawa) 33 points, 4th Lee Pitman (Sullivan Yamaha) 21 points, 5th James Charlesworth (Jawa) 10 points

351-500cc Final 1st Wayne Barrett (GM), 2nd Nick Mallett (Jawa GM), 3rd Chesney King (Jawa), 4th Stefan Maunder (Jawa GM), 5th Scott Creswell (Hagon Jawa), 6th Steve Pearce (Jawa), 7th Ryan Julian (Jawa)

Sidecars
Final 1st Simon Heal/Matt Vickery (Don Burt Yamaha R1), 2nd Jamie Bree/Jason Barry (Steer Yamaha), 3rd Joseph Sturtridge/Lee Toms (Steer Yamaha), 4th Phil Syms/Gareth Bemister (KH Steer Yamaha)

Youth
Auto Cadets 1st Edmund Best 50 points, 2nd Jack Dummett 40 points, 3rd Mary Gribble 35 points, 4th Edward Tait 30 points.
Cadets 1st Edmund Best 48 points, 2nd Callan Phillips 42 points, 3rd Joseph Nicholls 33 points, 4th Saul Bulley 27 points, 5th Josh Hardwick 25 points
Juniors 1st David Abraham 46 points, 2nd Keiron Hicks 44 points, 3rd Mawgan Watts 35 points
Inters 1st Josh Dingle 20 points, 2nd Darryl Ritchings 18 points, 3rd Nathan Stoneman 16 points