BRITISH QUAD CHAMPIONSHIP – ROUND 3 RACE REPORT


May 23rd 2017.

Round 3, Sunday May 21st, Landrake, Cornwall

HOLMES TURNS THE TABLE


Paul Holmes returned to the top of the Cromwell Trucks British Quad Championship, without winning a race, after a real spectacle of top quality riding at Landrake.


The event looked in doubt on Saturday afternoon when an unexpected downpour of rain hit the track. However, after some tremendous track work by the land owner and his crew, the championship was back on. Three separate race winners, and some tremendous day-long racing, kept the crowd entertained and there was even some dust kicking up by the second moto.

Fastest in qualifying was Holmes ahead of Carl Bunce and David Cowan.

Brad Frost took the holeshot in front of Dafydd Davies in the first race, but they were both soon overhauled by championship leader Mark McLernon, who quickly built up a commanding lead. Bunce made it through to second, as the drama unfolded behind him in the latter part of the race. Running in fourth, and keeping Holmes at bay, Frost lost a wheel with four laps to go and then Davies, who looked to be comfortable in third, suffered an engine seizure with just two laps to go. This opened the door for Holmes to take third, together with an important few additional points.

Race two, and wildcard entry George Day stormed the holeshot. Meanwhile back on the start line, McLernon looked to be in trouble as he was last off the line, leaving himself an impossible task. The race was on ahead of him and Day who backed up his holeshot with a determined performance to take the win over Bunce in second, and George Callaway in third. McLernon put in some damage limitation and worked his way up to a credible 10th place.

As they headed into the last race, Bunce was looking strong with two solid second place finishes under his belt. Callaway lead off the line though and was then caught up in a race-long battle with Holmes. Lap after lap Holmes tried his hardest to get by, but a determined Callaway matched and edged him all the way, holding his line to take a well-deserved win over Holmes by just 0.5 seconds. McLernon rounded out the podium in third and Bunce finished in an unfamiliar 15th.

A third, fourth and second were enough to give Holmes the overall win on the day and he now leads the championship by a slender two points over McLernon.




The Under-21 class was won by Callum Bates with a second, fourth and third. Harry Walker, who won the first U-21 race, experienced a rare engine failure in the second moto, which also put him out for the final race too. After that poor first race, Davies went on to bag both second and third class wins and is eighth overall in the British Championship itself. Also on the U-21 podium were James Bevan with two seconds in races two and three and Murray Graham with a third in the opening moto.

In spite of his wheel incident, Brad Frost won the Rookie class.

OVERALL ON THE DAY POSITIONS
British Championship
1. Paul Holmes (3, 4, 2)
2. George Callaway (9, 3, 1)
3. Mark McLernon (1, 10, 3)

Under-21 Championship
1. Callum Bates (2, 4, 3)
2. Dafydd Davies (12, 1, 10
3. James Bevan (11, 2, 2)

BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1. 2 Paul Holmes 197
2. 1 Mark Mclernon 195
3. 585 Carl Bunce 138
4. 111 David Cowan 131
5. 14 Justin Reid 124
6. 89 George Callaway 114
7. 151 Leon Rogers 106
8. 15 Dafydd Davies (U21) 103
9. 72 Stefan Murphy 90
10. 21 Terence Mackin 78

BRITISH U21 CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1. 15 Dafydd Davies 195
2. 222 James Bevan 166
3. 8 Callum Bates (R) 154
4. 7 Harry Walker 152
5. 747 Blake McCormick (R) 148
6. 20 Kyle Murphy 120
7. 97 Alex Bethell (R) 116
8. 101 Lorne Sinclair (R) 113
9. 114 Jake Smith 84

The championship battle resumes at Foxhills in Wiltshire on Sunday the 25th of June 2017. Along with a round of the ACU British Sidecars, Quad support and Evo/Super Evo group; this one-off Nora-MX promoted events promises to be a biggie.

For full results go to www.nora-mx.co.uk

Pictured: [top] Callaway leads Holmes, [bottom] Frost heads Leon Rogers
 
Words: Pete Chell
Images: Nikki Walker
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