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The annual running of the Teme Valley MX club's Motoduro event once again attracted a good entry at Church House Farm, Clifton-on-Teme in Worcestershire. Teme Valley member Bob Crump played host for the day but had spent more than six weeks preparing the course with son Tom to make sure the high standard that riders have come to expect from this event were maintained. The pair really excelled themselves. One stretch of gulley had taken three days to clear, all for 10-15 seconds of riding, but proved to be a superb section to ride. With added land to the previous year, Experts were lapping around the eight-minute mark without taking the chicken run to avoid the small extreme section.
Just to make things interesting for the riders, the course was reversed for the second Adult race of the day and proved to be considerably hard in the opinion of most riders. In addition to the large entry of MXers there were a few well-known Enduro faces, the best know being Freestyle Husqvarna's Wyn Hughes and Husky rider Alan Jones plus Yamaha's Dylan Jones and a handful of others. The first race of the day left the start line just after 11.00am. It would have left on bang on the hour mark but Wyn Hughes, in the MX1 Expert class, realised on the start line that he had forgotten his transponder but the laid-back attitude of the organisers allowed for him to get it before the race started. Tom Crump rocketed into the lead off the line and lead the field for the whole of the race He may have known the course, having set it out with Dad Bob but Alan Jones kept him in sight as Hughes had a terrible start and left the line last but one, with plenty of work to do. He clawed his way into the top three until a stall saw him lose time and finish a lowly 13th. Lee Kelly of Stourbridge MXC kept close to the leaders and eventually got the flow of the extreme section to take third in MX1 Experts in the opening race of the day.
Dylan Jones pushed his Yamaha hard in the MX2 Experts and managed to stay ahead of hard charging Mark Perrott in second place as Ben Bird snatched third. The second race saw Dylan Jones once again in the driving seat with Perrott on his tail throughout the race but third place this time around went to Richard Lane giving these three riders to top three overall spots in MX2 Experts. Jonathan Turley, Colin Griffiths and Ian Strudley had a tremendous battle at the head of the MX1 Seniors class with just eight seconds covering the three riders by the end of the race. It was 'all change' in race two as Tom Hibberd, Ben Sprig and Jack Hibberd grabbed the podium places. Jack Hibberd had done enough for the overall class win with Colin Griffiths second and Ian Strudley third. Alan Barber edged a 13 second advantage over James Earl as the two competed for MX2 Senior's honours with Adam Smart taking third in class. Earl went one place better in the second race taking the win and the overall as Adam Wise and Gavin Barnett followed him home but it was Barber who came second overall followed by Barnett.
Two other members of the Gwyther family enjoyed more success. Ben Gwyther beat brother Joe to first place in the MX2 Juniors with John Hayward in third, then Ben took his second win of the day in race 2, giving him the overall win followed by Haywood and Steve Johnson. Hawood took second overall and Stu Ratcliffe third. Steve Totney's experience showed through as he took both Sportsman class wins followed on both occasions by Rob Moore and Vince Evans giving the three the top overall spots.
This was a really good event. The sun shone all day long, the course held up well and provided some great challenges for all who entered. The event ran exceptionally well thanks to a real team effort from Teme Valley members and there was only one small criticism - why not do it twice a year? Results Overall |
The course zig-zagged across open fields and into a handful of wooded
sections, gullies, across cleared forest areas, along fire roads and through
ditches. Most of the entrants for the event were MX riders but even though
many were unused to such terrain, the course flowed well and there was an
option to take a shorter course through an extreme section that contained
large rocks, a big step and a handful of logs.
Crump also lead the second Adult race for quite some time until he was
passed by Hughes who had a point to prove. The veteran Husqvarna rider tasted
victory but the overall win went to Alan Jones whose consistent second places
in each race put him way out on top as both riders just passed the finish flag
seconds before time ran out to post and extra lap on Crump in third who had
experienced a couple of crashes. Jones took the overall win followed by Crump
and Lee Kelly in third.
The MX1 Juniors was a large class but that didn't stop Darren Gwyther from
charging to the front to win the opener ahead of George Corbett and Andrew
Reed. Corbett improved by one place to win the second race as Reed moved into
the runner-up spot with Gwyther third. Corbett won overall followed by Reed
and Gwyther.
A shortened Inter Juniors course saw Morgan Grey win the 11-12 class ahead
of Alice Crump and Scott Draper while Alistair Garness beat Harry Clarke and
Oliver Bembo in the 13-14 class.