Flatout Racing

Round 5 of the Carvill group adult motocross championship took place in the new east cork motorcycle club facility in Park, Youghal. The track was new to the majority of riders as they had never ridden there before. With the fine weather and the track in pristine condition, the 5th round of the championship was set for a real close battle in all classes.

Sunday morning after the track was watered once again it was all set and ready. With riders briefing finished the A+B MX1 headed to the line for qualifying. Quickly out of the blocks was Dubliner Stuart Edmonds who set fastest lap on a 1.27.327. Wayne Garrett his championship rival followed him in 2nd with 1.28.493 and local rider Raymond Casey in 3rd on 1.29.600. 4th place Ross Brown set a very close lap to that of Raymond’s in 3rd with 0.092 sec of a difference on a 1.29.692. After the session finished the riders discussed in the paddock the track and the majority were happy with it and were ready for good racing.

C MX1 qualifying was also very close with lap times separated by just hundredths of a second. Keith Finnamore took the number one spot on 1.38.187 followed closely by Mark Eccles on 1.38.677 and 3rd place Ken Maher put in a lap time of 1.39.901, so the top 3 spots were separated by only 1.224secs.

A+B MX2 qualifying saw a lot of the mx1 rider’s return to the track giving them another chance to suss it out. But once again Stuart Edmonds qualified 1st followed by Wayne Garrett in 2nd and Richard bird 3rd. Local youth rider Aaron Beausang showed his pace with a 5th gate pick only 2.515secs off that of Edmonds in 1st. C MX2 qualifying was won by David Finnamore followed by Neil Robinson and 3rd place Kyle begs. Top 3 again separated by a close 1.637sec.

Race 1 was the A+B MX1 and after only 13mins of racing gone the transponder system shut down with nothing the club could do only red flag. With the hard work of officials and all involved they got it back up and running and rescheduled the race for the last race of the day.
C MX1 now became the first official race. Clifford Wilson began from 2nd place but with no pressure took over 1st place and walked home with a huge 18.6 sec lead from Mark Eccles who led home Keith Finnamore.

A+B MX2 race 1 showed outstanding pace by Stuart Edmonds who came from 2nd last off the start all the way true the pack to eventually take the race win by 8secs from Richard bird. Edmonds delighted with his start to his day still had a lot more to come however. Tommy Merton put in a good race after dropping to 8th position but steadily climbing his way back up through the field to a good 3rd position.

C MX2 race one was a win right from the start by David Finnamore. After getting the start he carried on throughout the race with an eventual 9sec lead over Ronan Flynn. Ronan began in third position and diced with eventual 3rd position man Stevie May to eventually take 2nd place by 24secs.

After the lunch break and the track heavily watered to keep down the dust the track became extremely slippery. However this would not stop Gary Gibson getting on with what had to be done and take the win from Wayne Garrett and Tommy Merton. Stuart Edmonds began in 4th but quickly disappeared after falling and getting tangled with the track ropes on the 2nd lap. After eventually freeing his way out he remounted but a lap down. But with Edmonds strong pace and never give up determination he un lapped himself and climbed back up the leader board all the way to 4th place before the chequered flag went out. A great performance once again from the Dublin based rider

The final C MX1 race saw 3rd place rider Keith Finnamore in race 1 this time up his game and take the win from Ryan McKeown who got a bad start in race one and could only climb the leader board to 10th position. Race 1 winner Clifford Wilson took 3rd place tying the overall with Keith Finnamore. However Keith took the 1st position due to a better last race.
A+B MX2 once again saw Stuart Edmonds make a comeback from behind. Edmonds took 2nd position early on in the race but went down on a slippy grass section. However this did not stop him and he remounted and took the win from moto-one Suzuki rider Tommy Merton. Local youth Aaron Beausang showed his talent in race 2 after starting out challenging Tommy Merton for the lead in the opening laps of the race. Beausang who couldn’t seem to keep ahead of Merton sat behind him in 2nd place until the more experienced adult riders came by near the closing stages of the race and eventually ended up with a fine 6th position. With maybe more experience we will see him return to action again and possibly challenge for a title win. Richard bird went on to take 3rd place in race 2 after passing back Edmonds when he went down but being re passed by the hard charging Dublin man.

C MX2 was scheduled to be the final race of the day but with the A+B MX1 being re run after the lads had a chance to showcase their talent in front of the spectators remaining to watch the final race. David Finnamore again took the lead from the start and gave no chance to anyone else opening up a lead of 20secs to second place rider Kyle begs. Kyle diced with Ronan Flynn all the way to the line eventually taking 2nd place by just over 2secs.

With all the A+B MX2 riders extremely tired most of them had to go out and repeat their actions from the earlier race in the final A+B MX1 race. With Ross Brown getting the start he always needed he took the lead from Edmonds. But it wasn’t long before Edmonds charged up to his pace and made his move. But brown wasn’t having it. Brown quickly re passed him and this was repeated over and over. This brought all spectators out to the side of the track to cheer on both riders in which was becoming an epic battle. On lap 3 Brown seemed to have missed a gear and Edmonds capitalised immediately. With Brown getting back going in 2nd he put on a charge to catch Edmonds but could not get as close as he would have liked. Edmonds began to pull bit by bit and Ross remained 2nd. Merton meanwhile wad well beaten by the outstanding opening pace of the leaders and remained in 3rd position. But the days racing began to take a toll on Edmonds and he began to wear away and cruise his lap in fear of making mistakes. Brown meanwhile began to close but his opening pace also hit him and could not seem to close enough on Edmonds after the lead he pulled. While the front two slacked off the pace, Merton remained strong and closed in frantically on brown. But all in vain as the chequered flag went out Edmonds won by 4secs from a hard charging Brown. Merton could only remain 3rd a further 4seconds behind.

Overall a good days racing was had by all and the results looked like so:

A MX1- 1st-Stuart Edmonds 43points
2nd-Gary Gibson 43points
3rd-Tommy Merton 40points
B MX1- 1st- Joel Brown 44points
2nd-Chris Wright 43points
3rd-David Ferguson 41points
C MX1- 1st- Keith Finnamore 45points
2nd-Cliford Wilson 45points
3rd-Mark Eccles 40points
A MX2- 1st-Stuart Edmonds 50points
2nd- Tommy Merton 42points
3rd-Richard Bird 42points
B MX2- 1st- Jim O Neill 50points
2nd-Adam Murphy 42points
3rd-Jordan Scott 38points
Photos and story by James McCarthy