March 4th, 2021.
Two young adult quad riders from Yorkshire are amongst the first to sign up for the NETT Club Championship this year. With some impressive youth class championship titles between them, this is the first season that they will run head-to-head, as both have signed up for the Adult Support Category of the popular Northern Series. Brothers Zak and Chad Beevers are relatively new to the sport compared to many of their racing competitors – they didn’t start racing until their mid-teens.
Zak, who turns nineteen in May, made his debut in the 250 Open Class at Wooley Grange in 2017. A 2-2-1 followed by a 1-1-3 in NETT’s opening double-header weekend showed he meant business. He fought hard with the talented Dylan McKenna, among others, to take the title by a mere seven points. His defence of the NETT title in 2018 was equally notable, dominating the class again in his second year of racing and winning six of eight rounds.
In 2019, while Zak moved up to the Adult Support Class and had a quiet year due to injury and academic commitments, younger brother Chad stepped up for his debut season in the tough 250 Open Class in both NETT and NORA. His performance in both championships steadily improved all season, picking up his first 1-1-1 at Preston Docks, round 4 of the NETT series that year. A broken wrist in the last race of his season didn’t deter him; the usually laid-back Yorkshire lad had found a new focus and it was a remarkably slimmer and fitter rider that came out ready for the 2020 season. Here, despite tough competition from the vastly experienced Luke Berlyn and talented Northern Irishman Josh McKnight, he dominated the British 250 Open Class, taking the prestigious title in style.
Since then, the Beevers brothers have not been able to do much more than race each other in a stubble field on pit bikes, thanks to COVID restrictions keeping them away from friends, and bad weather away from their practice track.
With bikes prepared by double British Quad Supermoto Champion Mark Beevers, who just happens to be the boys’ dad, the brothers are excitedly looking ahead to the forthcoming NETT season. Zak votes Dean Moor as his favourite track; “It’s a good flowing track,” he says, “and we like the double headers because there’s not just lots of racing in one weekend, but the social side of things is good too.” Chad favours Duns, which he said was “amazing” when he last raced there at the end of 2019. Not willing to be drawn on who might win the brotherly head-to-head in 2021, sixteen-year-old Chad joked “I just want to go racing” while the older, perhaps wiser, Zak reckoned he would be concentrating on “just staying on my bike!”
NETT’s new Membership Secretary Stu Gair is upbeat about interest in the Northern series. “We started taking championship registrations last month,” he said, “and were pleased by the steady stream of interest, even before we had finalised our venues. And now that it sounds like lockdown will soon be easing, riders and organisers alike can have confidence that we’re finally going racing again.”
Gair, who is better known for his exploits racing sidecars, is one of a team of new and old faces who have stepped up to coordinate the schedule of five double headers this season. He and James Porter finished sixth overall in the 2019 NETT sidecar championship, a class which attracted over twenty outfits and brought in riders and passengers from all over the country. The Championship was won by the popular pairing of Jonathan Wilson and Louise Houston with Jake Wilson and Andrew Rowan taking second, and Liam Mudie with Chris Booth completing the Championship podium in third.
NETT has a long tradition of running sidecar classes and this year will be no different; as well as running the club’s own championship class, it will host rounds of both the SMCA Clubman Championship and the ACU British Championship, giving quad riders and their followers an added spectacle throughout each weekend.
To register for the NETT Club Championship 2021, visit
www.nettquad.co.uk/club-info/membershipWords: Ann Wood.
Image: Joanne Beevers