Race Reports
2014 R8 Leuchars
Round 8, Comerton Farm Leuchars, Sunday the 7th of September 2014
All roads led to Comerton Farm near Leuchars in Fife for the Scottish Twinshock Scramble Club’s Round 8 meeting of their jam packed 10 round 2014 championship.
This superb sandy racetrack has a good reputation for producing excellent racing with its massive “wall of death” style sweeping berm and tricky table-top jumps. The track as normal was well groomed for the arrival of the Twinshock guys and organisers were hoping for a good turnout of competitors to fill the start line.
The now popular paddock walkabout saw some good banter with big Gary Whyte signing copies of the T.M.X with his bike pictured in the “Show us Your’s” page. Paul Chiappa was also interviewed by big Rick with regards to why he dumped a sick pal on the roadside because he was going to be late for the meeting at Tinto. And of course my Twinshock T.V presenter Rick also took Peter O’Neil to task and asked him that if he won this year’s Evo Pre 1990 125 championship would he make an honest woman of his beautiful fiancée. So if you want to know the outcome the video is posted on the club website Forum under “Past Events”.
As it turned out there was a vastly over- subscribed entry of riders for this eighth round encounter, and with the good summer weather set to continue into at least next week it was all systems go as race one lined up at the start gate.
This track looked like it was going to be hard on the old Twinshock bikes trying to plough through the deep sand and cope with the many whoops and bumps that were scattered throughout the length of the track. But as they say “it is the same for everybody” so let’s just get on with it.
The riders in the Fourstroke class appeared to enjoy the deep sandy berms and the fast flowing layout of the Comerton racetrack, but when the final positions were eventually calculated Findlay White and Rick Caldwell both tied on points and would both have to share the spoils of the No1 spot at close of play. Andy Malloch once again put in a fine show on his Armstrong Rotax to take the final podium place in third.
In the Pre 77 class it was another emphatic win for Dunoon man Ritchie McFadden on his very distinctive yellow liveried Maico. “Mr Consistency” Albert Britton has never failed to finish a race all season and he chalked up another runner-up spot at Leuchars with a superb result on his old YZ Yamaha. For me these are the kind of riders that win championships, it is not all about being the fastest, if you put your laps in and consistently finish your races you would be very surprised how successful you are come the end of the season.
Top classic rider Jim Colligan put in some good results in his three moto’s to take the overall win in the Over 40’s formula from Davie Watson on the very quick 480 Honda in second. Mike VanDerMerWe just managed to keep the front two of Colligan and Watson in his sights over the three legs and he would fill the final podium position in third.
The little Evolution Pre 1990 125cc machines had to work extremely hard in the very deep sand to circumnavigate the circuit at any considerable speed, and this was very apparent in their white hot motors as they popped and banged their way round the track. Young Angus Tosh was back to his winning ways after a short lay-off and he would take the overall from Bryan Colligan in second and shortly to be married Peter O’Neil third.
Davie Pullar had a much easier passage to victory than his usual run of the mill bar bashing exploits with big Graham Naismith, who as we know is still recovering from his injuries sustained at Tinto. But three straight wins in the Over 50’s class would see Pullar emerge as top dog at this round 8 event. Scott Napier showed some excellent speed from the start gate in moto’s one and two and led Pullar a merry dance around the sandy course. Although Pullar soon brought his wealth of experience to bear to make the pass on Napier to make it a full sweep of wins.
Actually on the subject of Graham the Pullar family very kindly arranged a raffle at the Leuchars meeting to help raise some funds to aid Graham’s recovery and subsequently raised £500 with a further £100 donated by club all-round good guy Donny Bruce.
There was some excellent racing served up in the Twinshock Open class as once again championship leader Paul Chiappa had to work hard to win all three legs. In race two Chiappa never got the greatest of starts from the gate and was almost halfway down the pack at turn one as Craig Smith got the holeshot and showed the chasing pack a clean pair of heels. Smith rode a superb race although the vastly experienced Chiappa soon made up the lost ground and virtually stole the win from Smith with less than half a lap to go. James McLean took the lead early on in moto two but was soon overtaken by Chiappa and Smith, still a third place finish overall was still a good result for him come the final whistle.
In the Twinshock 250 class it was Alec Joiner who took the top podium spot, this was despite a bad fall at turn one in moto three where he collided with another couple of riders soon after the start. Nevertheless he soon picked up his machine and re-mounted to cross the finish line to take the win. Graham Smith was the eventual runner- up in this class on his I.T Yamaha from Graham Miller on the very quick Husqvarna third.
The deep sandy racetrack could have been specially made for the very quick Evolution class riders as they soon got to grips with the massive table-top’s and the “wall of death” berm. Tom Grant was top dog when the points were calculated although this class could easily have been won by anyone of four or five riders. Davie Ross showed that he certainly had the speed to run at the front in this formula but at the end of the day a runner-up position was the best that he could muster. Morton Hannah showed some early promise with a couple of very fast holeshots but he would still have to settle for a third place overall.
Newly crowned British 250cc Evolution champion Gavin Robertson decided not to race in the Evolution class and entered his machine to race in the super quick Monoshock A Class. Now suffice to say that Mr Robertson left the entire field in his dusty wake over the three legs would be a somewhat slight understatement, although when you learn that he lapped nearly half the field of these modern machines riding a 1989 CR 250 Honda put’s the whole feat right into perspective. Plus as I write this newsletter Gavin tells me he still has not secured a spot in the big Vet’s MXDN meeting at Farleigh Castle on the 13th of September. Now let’s just think about that for a minute, why would you not want the current British 250 Evolution champion racing in your most prestigious event of the year?. “Could it be that it is because Gavin almost whipped their arses at the 2013 event” . . . “no surely not . . although I will leave you to make your own mind up.
Chris Inglis won the Monoshock B class (day members) formula with some breath-taking speed from John Williamson second and Darren Scott in third.
In the new Two-Stroke class Mark Osinski was the class of the field and took full honours from Ross Hamilton second and John Kenny in third.
The penultimate round of what thus far has been an excellent championship this year now moves on to the first of two stubble field races, the first at Glenochil Alloa on the 21st of September then our final round will be at the superb track at Glenfarg on the 5th of October. If we can get more of this year’s excellent weather for these last two meetings this is going to be a vintage year to look back on.
More than likely as you read this some of our riders have made the long journey down to Farleigh Castle to take part in this year’s Vet’s MXDN event, so it goes without saying that we all wish them well and hopefully return to race at Alloa injury free.
Rick also tells me that the dance tickets are selling good for our wee swaree at Galston in Ayrshire on the 25th of October and if last year’s shenanigans were anything to go by it should be a cracker. So don’t delay grab yourself a ticket for a front row seat of good banter, good food, good beer, and all the pish you can talk thrown into one night.
Lastly the DVD from Leuchars should be available soon so if you fancy watching yourself in action just see me at the next round at Alloa for a copy, (although please make a point of fishing me out as I unfortunately do not have time on the day to go looking for individual persons due to the horrendous amount of work I do on the day).
See you at Alloa for Round 9.
Results
Over 40’s
1 J Colligan
2 D Watson
3 M VanDerMerWe
4 G McClure
5 W Pentland
6 J Maxwell
Over 50’s
1 D Pullar
2 S Napier
3 J Rutherford
4 D Bruce
5 D Penrice
6 Joe McLean
Pre 77 class
1 R McFadden
2 A Britton
3 J Fraser
4 B Robertson
4 J Britton
6 D Fullarton
Fourstroke Class
1 F White
1 R Caldwell
3 A Malloch
4 C Wilson
5 A Adair
6 I Robertson
Pre 1990 Evo 125 Class
1 A Tosh
2 B Colligan
3 P O’Neil
4 K Smart
5 J Lamont
6 P Campbell
6 A White
Twinshock 250 Class
1 A Joiner
2 G Smith
3 G Miller
4 G Whyte
5 J Hopton
6 J Fleming
Twinshock Open Class
1 P Chiappa
2 C Smith
3 J McLean
4 C Robertson
5 B Allardyce
6 A Aitken
Evolution Class
1 T Grant
2 D Ross
3 M Hannah
4 A Reid
5 G Morrison
6 K Birse
Monoshock B Class (Day Members)
1 C Inglis
2 J Williamson
3 D Scott
4 R Wilson
5 J Dawson
6 I Wilson
Monoshock A Class
1 G Robertson
2 C McLuckie
3 R Fitzsimmons
4 A Shields
5 A Brodie
6 M Wilson
Two-Stroke Class
1 M Osinski
2 R Hamilton
3 C Meechan
4 J Kenny
5 D Allan
6 A Garden