WITH three times winner Sydney Bales away with other commitments, the field was wide open this year for the Braintree & District Motorcycle Club's annual Jack Hubbard Trophy motocross at Hatches Farm, Stisted, at the weekend.
The main MX1 class was headed by expert riders from across and beyond the eastern centre, but one man stood head and shoulders above them all: Braintree's own Jason Morland, who with apparent ease regained the trophy five years after his 2009 win.
While the Silver End man was untouchable in this big bike class, run over 11 gruelling one mile laps of relentless bumps and cambers, what was quite incredible was his thirst for more.
He accepted the loan of a 1999 500cc Kawasaki KX to additionally contest the retro machines group, albeit on a non-award basis, the bike being outside the stipulated 1990 limit for this class.
Only engine failure in the third and final leg denied him what would have been an incredible clean sweep of race wins over two separate classes at a single event.
The action was nonetheless fast and furious behind the unstoppable Morland. Leading experts Ben Talbott, Luke Parker and Brendon Mayers were pretty well evenly matched but Sam Arbon moved up to follow home runner-up Luke Parker in the third leg.
This was after Mayers pulled out from a promising second place on lap eight with a damaged motor.
Eyes were also on the private battles of locals Will Hughes and Aaron Smith. Enduro specialist Hughes, from Stisted, is on good form at present and laying third in the Clubman Enduro class on his GH/G&B Finch Husqvarna.
Only one point separated the two at the end, in Hughes' favour, but with Smith finishing two places up on his rival in leg three.
Witham's Steve Cadd's consistency over his three races earned him best junior title and seventh place overall.
Despite nursing an arm injury and competing against bikes more than twice the capacity of his 125cc Cagiva, former top expert Matthew Skeet from Halstead was, on last year's form, the one to upset the bigger mounted riders in the retro machines group.
But for a broken rear brake mechanism that took him out on lap one of his first leg, things might have been harder for overall winner Jason Fowler (1988 500cc Kawasaki), and Skeet had to settle for third behind runner-up Paul Own, also Kawasaki mounted.
The NGR Championship was dominated by series leader Paul Hubbard, who won all three of his races, as did 16 year-old MX2 winner Shane Lock.
Results: MX1: 1 Jason Morland 60, 2 Luke Parker 45, 3 Sam Arbon 37, 4 Phil Burton 33, 5 Ben Talbott 32. Leg winner: Morland (3). Best junior: Steve Cadd 27.
MX2: 1 Shane Lock 60, 2 Rob Blackman 51, 3 Pat Cousens 39, 4 Nathan Lock 35, 5 Phil Whiting 31. Leg winner: Shane Lock (3).
NGR over 30s championship: 1 Paul T Hubbard 60, 2 Paul Hubbard 45, 3 Adam Gordon 42, 4 Aaron Hopkins 41, 5 Trevor Buckley 31. Leg winner: Paul T Hubbard (3).
Retro machines: Evo class: 1 Jason Fowler 46, 2 Paul Owen 43, 3 Matthew Skeet 32.
Twinshock class: 1 Mark Chapman 37, 2 Jonathan Davis 9, 3 David Witney 7. Leg winners: Ben Talbott, Matthew Skeet and Jason Fowler.
↧