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“Brilliant, chilled, professional, entertaining and slick”, are some of the words used to describe the first round of the Elite Youth Cup Series this weekend. Held at the famous Matchams Park circuit in Hampshire, the whole weekend went like a dream for the team of professional staff of the Elite Youth Cup. Everything went to plan, including the glorious weather, perfectly prepped track, racing timed to perfection and all marshals were on time and raring to go. “My team were on site on Tuesday making sure everything was complete and ready to go for the weekend”, explained Chris Barker from the organising body MCFederation. Many of riders and guests who were there said the same thing; it was run superbly and professionally. And to top it all Grand Prix Kawasaki factory rider Billy Mackenzie was hosting a TV programme covering the series which will be broadcast sometime in the future after the final round, Billy spent the day interviewing the riders and commentating on the races which all the riders really enjoyed. The format was simple with only forty riders in each group; timed practise was on Saturday morning which was followed by two blocks of racing for each class. Sunday had three blocks of racing and everything was all complete by 3.15pm. Nearly all the industry press were there including Moto Magazine, MotoX Magazine and TMX which was great to see. Jeff Perrett the loveable editor of Moto Magazine gave out magazines for the top six in each group and then stayed on to present the trophies to each podium finisher in each class - a great weekend was had by all concerned. Now to the racing, the Elite 65cc class was dominated by one rider and that was PAR Homes Ben Watson. In qualifying Ben had to settle for second spot behind the high flying Jack Heath but come race time Ben showed that he could well be a future prospect in a few years time. Behind the maximum man the racing was tight and any rider could have dropped into second position. But it was top qualifier Jack Heath who managed to hold off Chubbie Hammond, Oliver Osmaston, Liam Knight, Callon Cooper and Max Acres in the youngest category of the Elite Youth Cup Series round one. After qualifying in first in the Elite small-wheeled 85 class and then storming to victory in moto one, Paul Coates looked set for a great weekend but unfortunately in race two, Paul suffered a suspected broken leg after a nasty tumble, all the team at Elite wishes him a speedy recovery. This left the door open for two other riders to take race wins, Jamie McCanney and overall winner Scott Aldridge both these little guys battled for top position but Scott proved a little stronger on the deep sand of Matchams. Another rider who certainly raised his game was Daniel Thornhill who chased the top two all weekend but eventually had to settle for third place. Andrew Reid who travelled from Ireland made his journey worth while with a fourth place overall finish followed by James Dunn, Luke Dean, Lloyd Pettett and Luke Newman. In quite possibly the tightest racing all weekend in the super exciting Elite big-wheeled 85 class, two young riders with the same surname managed to dominate the proceedings, Daniel and James Hutchinson both took race victories and both showed real class in the tricky Matchams sand but it was James who managed to gain the win by a single point from Daniel. The two other riders who managed to win a moto were Jack Rowe and Christian Taylor but they just couldn't quite get enough consistency to finish within the top three. Albion Honda rider Sam Davis didn't win a race but proved consistency is the key with third place. Richie Worrall powered his Suzuki to fourth, Taylor finally finishing in fifth, Daniel McCanney sixth and Jack Rowe seventh after a horrendous crash in the final race which saw the RS motor home rider cartwheel off the finish line table top. The ever improving Lewis Tombs (top) gained control in the Elite Senior group with a hard fought win in a real bar banging group. Lewis took races one and three with Kawasaki mounted Scot James taking the remaining three moto's. Lewis proved his consistency by not dropping out of the top three all weekend and this gained him the advantage over second place rider, PAR Honda's David Games. Tombs, Games, James and Will Worden were extremely entertaining to watch and if this first round has anything to go by then we still have plenty of action to come. Ryan King suffered real bad luck in race four, a first turn pile up off the start soaked his bike in petrol but things got worse, as he was trying to catch the leading pack on the far side of the circuit his bike burst into flames and the raced was stopped, thankfully nobody was injured and Ryan ran straight back to his van to re-start the race on his spare bike.
With a successful round one complete the Elite Youth Cup heads north to Finningley, Doncaster on the 23rd/24th June, where racing will re-commence for another two days of the best youth motocross in the UK at the Elite Youth Cup Series. Information and images from the event can be found at www.eliteyouthcup.co.uk Photos: Ray Chuss. Elite Youth Cup Dates & Venues Round 1 - 28 & 29 Apr - Matchams Park, Hants Round 2 - 23 & 24 Jun - Finningley, Doncaster Round 3 - 21 & 22 Jul - Landrake, Devon Round 4 - 8 & 9 Sept - Culham Parc, Oxon
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Elite Youth Cup - Round 1 Matchams
Park 28 & 29 April 2007
With the screaming 125cc 2-strokes making for great race
action, along popped the Elite Open class in all its glory. All these riders
are nearing the end of their youth racing careers before the big step up to
the adult ranks. Star of the weekend was Matthew Moffat (left), Matthew is in his
first year at this level but that didn't bother him as he swept to a well
deserved overall win. Matthew didn't actually win a race as he left that to
Alex Rockwell who took four moto wins, which was after a first race DNF. Josh
Waterman took advantage of Rockwell's mishap and raced to an eleven second win
over Matthew. All the riders in this class were giving it their all which made
for great racing. Following the top three were Mel Pocock, Joe Gregory, Ashley
Harland, Richard McDermott and Sebastian Osborne who had their own personal
battles throughout the glorious two days.