Acorns at Sandbach 26.04.09

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Acorns at Sandbach 26th April 2009
Vets & 2 Stroke Championships

With nearly all eyes on the main AMCA Championship at Culham over the weekend, Acorns MCC put on a gem of a meeting, which hosted the much underrated but extremely popular Veterans and Two Stroke Championships.Both classes attracted a huge entry from competitors nationwide, but it was the Midlands region riders who came out on top at Sandbach Raceway. Teme Valley’s Dave Livesey topped the Vets class whilst Stuart Harper’s 500 2t took him to victory in the very competitive Two Stroke Championship class.

The club had put in a tremendous amount of effort, with a very well prepared track and an extremely well organised event. Dust did kick up a little towards the end of the meeting but caused few if any problems as the club had done a fantastic job of watering earlier in the day.

The meeting was buzzing throughout the first block of racing but did go a little flat following a long delay whilst Inter Junior Dan Wise was treated on the track following a heavy fall.

The well-prepared track did rough up considerably by the third block but many of the Vets revelled in the rougher conditions.

Dave Livesey took two out of three races for the overall win, interestingly losing second race when he decided to ride his 500 2t instead of his four banger, which had carried him to victory in the opening race. Lesson learned, he reverted to the 4T for the final race and it came up trumps.

Chris Wainwright, runner up in 2008, hounded Livesey throughout each race, took the win in race 2 and was never out of the top three which gave him the runner up spot. Mark Hawkins improved with each outing and took a creditable third overall in a very competitive class.

Veterans Champ for many years, Mark Spruce, was absent from the meeting nursing broken ribs and a punctured lung from a practice session the previous week and looks to be out for most of the season.

Stu Harper won the 2 stroke with two wins and a third despite still recovering from a massive crash whilst practicing a few weeks back. Si White was Mr Consistency with three runner up spots as Alan Jones put in three good performances for third overall. Tino Rizzi took a while to warm up but showed his potential by winning the final race.

Despite not winning a race, Burntwood’s Pete Weaver took the overall in the Experts Unlimited class, a point ahead of Peter Wainwright, who finished in second despite two race wins. Chris Pearson rode consistently well to take third overall.

Disaster struck in the second MX1 Seniors race as frontrunners Matt Davis and Martin Groves took each out as they crossed the finishing line on the last lap. A delay followed as both riders were treated and transferred to hospital. With the top two out, Ieuan Spooner took the overall with Michael Smith in second and Mike Allsopp, the race three winner, in third. Dan Eastwood led all three races initially but asthma took its toll and he retired from all three. Bad Luck.

Both Tom Marsh and Jamie Wilson had a race win to their credit in the MX2 Seniors, but George Hough nipped in to take the overall with three consecutive runner up spots, with Marsh and Wilson taking second and third respectively.

Juniors Unlimited Group One saw Lewis Cole take two out of three for the overall with some very close racing from Thomas James and Tom Roeton, who tied on points for second and third.

Daniel Butlin took the overall but lost out on maximum points in the Juniors Unlimited Group Two, as brother Addy denied him the win in the final moto, securing second overall. Wolves rider Greg Walker finished in third.

Ashley Poultney maxed out in the Inter Juniors, the only rider to do so all day. Ben Wainwright took second and Jordan Pratt third.

Despite the delays, all three blocks ran well and the championship races were very competitive and entertaining and deserve recognition for the quality of riders in each class.