Alfie Hyde made the journey from home in Berkshire to Dunston Moto Park near the lovely village of Penkridge in Shropshire with a healthy points lead in the MCF sanctioned Polaris RZR British Open SxS Championship.
The forty seven points Hyde had clear of the ‘Professor’ of SxS racing, Richard Avis, the reigning and double British champion who has given away 100cc of power to Hyde all season, but with consistent results and maintaining an ever present record sits in second spot in the Open and leads the 900cc British Championship class.
The motocross track was run in the opposite direction to the previous visit to the venue for round six, in very different conditions. Back then the weather had done its worst and the wood chip surface soaked up the moisture. This time, in very dry conditions, which required watering, was to present very different challenges, the track would definitely cut up, which it did.
Qualification got underway on time, with the 21 drivers and in some cases with passengers, split in to two groups, each having two 15 minute timed sessions. It was obvious from the moment that the Polaris Ranger Race control machine peeled off at the end of the sighting lap that Hyde was fast, very fast with the track in this direction.
All the jumps drove well in this direction but needed some caution and the large table top jump did catch several drivers out, sending them very high if hit with too much confidence and throttle. So with almost all the drivers shaken and stirred at some point it was the second timed outing for everyone on a now familiar and bedded in track and Alfie Hyde set the pace and would sit on pole for Pro Moto 1 with John Lyne almost three seconds down. Jamie Thwaites put in a storming lap to finish qualification in third.
The top three were driving 1000cc machines and Josh Barrett and passenger Ryan finished in fourth powered by 900cc of Polaris brutality. Fellow 900cc powered machine driver Richard Avis in fifth and Paul and Sara Severn in the eye catching black and gold 1000cc machine. The cut off for the two groups fell in front of the Bennett’s, Joe and Andy who would take pole in the expert class grid.
On with the racing, patchy clouds were shading the track from drying out too fast but the deep burms on the outside of the turns were already building and getting a good start was going to be key. Although there was still passing places, which wasn’t something the Bennett’s needed to consider as they shot away from the start in the first Expert class moto and lead throughout the seven laps completed. Local hero Shaun Jenkinson with daughter Erin in the passenger seat were second across the line just ahead of Hampshire based former Quad racer Stewart Gubbins.
As the chequered flag fell the track crews had responded well and were putting out a fire which had broken out on the only non Polaris or production built machine on the grid of Steve Adams. The machine, built by Steve had caught fire and unfortunately somehow sprayed fuel, which was also alight on to Steve and everyone did a great job to get Steve to a safe distance away from the fire and the fire out.
The concern and support from the whole SxS family in the paddock for Steve was fantastic as he was tended to by the medics and transferred to the burns unit at Birmingham hospital were his hands were the concern.
Expert Moto 1 Result;
1st Joe Bennett / Andy Bennett
2nd Shaun Jenkinson / Erin Jenkinson
3rd Stewart Gubbins
4th Adrian / Callum Loveridge
5th Robert / Richard Lloyd
6th Claire Avis
The track had dried out while Steve was tended to and made comfortable to get away to hospital by Air Ambulance. But the subdued grid soon got back down to business as the lights switched from red to green and Pro class roared in to the first turn for their first moto.
Championship leader Alfie Hyde set the pace and was pulling away by the end of the first lap from Lyne and Thwaites who dropped down the order with problems and pulled out of the moto.
Someone else with problems early on was Richard Avis who had to pull in to the work area and sort out the problem, loosing not just position, but laps but still managed to rejoin and finish, scoring valuable points.
Pro Moto 1
1st Alfie Hyde
2nd John Lyne
3rd Josh Barrett / Ryan Hopton
4th Paul Severn / Sara Severn
5th Mark McCann / Richard Brenton
6th Jason Rowlands .
Expert Moto 2
1st Joe Bennett / Andy Bennett
2nd Shaun Jenkinson / Erin Jenkinson
3rd Adrian Loveridge / Callum Loveridge
4th Stewart Gubbins
5th Claire Avis
6th Robert Lloyd / Richard Lloyd
Pro Moto 2
1st Alfie Hyde
2nd Josh Barrett / Ryan Hopton
3rd Paul Severn / Sara Severn
4th Richard Avis
5th John Lyne
6th Paul Rowlands
Expert Moto 3
1 Stewart Gubbins
2 Dean Gibbs / Danuta Gren
3 Shaun Jenkinson / Erin Jenkinson
4 John Lightfoot / Jon Lightfoot
5 Robert Lloyd / Richard Lloyd
6 Claire Avis
Pro Moto 3
1st Alfie Hyde
2nd Josh Barrett / Ryan Hopton
3rd John Lyne
4th Paul Rowlands
5th Richard Avis
6th Stephen Berry
Photos and Release from sxsracing.co.uk, read the rest of the article here: http://sxsracing.co.uk/alfie-keeps-hyding-points/
