With a weekend off national competition British Motocross champion, Tommy Searle, travelled to the Sidcup Clubs historic Canada Heights circuit to take part in round one of the SEMX series which is the South-eastern centre motocross championship. He had crashed and injured himself at the opening round of the British Championship and needed more race time.
Report and Images by Dick Law
But others, like Searle, also thought it was a good idea and the news of so many top riders racing at the popular event traveling at the speed of light on social media it almost looked like a British Championship round, with crowds of spectators flocking to catch a look at their favourite riders.
Saturday’s consistent light rain didn’t affect the sandy hillside track, and by the time qualifying started on Sunday morning, the course was in prime condition for the fifteen-race programme. The usual SEMX rules applied with five groups of forty riders taking it in turn to set a fast lap time with the fastest forty going into the prestigious group ‘A’, the second fastest going into ‘B’, and so on.
Searle, on his GTCI Revo Kawasaki, got the holeshot at the start of the first ‘A’ group race and was chased around the first turn by Joe Brookes (GRT Impact KTM), who was making a comeback to racing from injury. By the end of the opening lap, Searle had already settled into a fast pace, with Liam Knight (Gabriel Holeshot KTM) moving into second after rounding the first turn in eleventh.
Searle’s teammate Mel Pocock was in third, with the on-form Charlie Cole (Blade Bikes Kawasaki) slotting into fourth place after a bad start.
The order stayed the same till the end of the race, with Searle taking the win by almost six seconds from Knight, Pocock, Cole, Luke Benstead (KTM), Matt Bayliss (Honda) and Brookes.
Once again, Searle got the holeshot at the start of ‘A’ group race two, but this time, he had Pocock on his tail till, on lap six, Cole caught Pocock and snatched second place away from him. He closed to within two seconds of Searle and the finish flag.
Pocock hung onto third place, but had Knight in close company. Benstead was fifth from Brookes and Bayliss.
At the start of the third and final ‘A’ group race, Cole got the holeshot from Bradley and Knight while Searle was buried in mid-pack with a lot of work to do.
On lap three, Knight snatched the lead from Cole, with Searle relegating Cole back to third a lap later.
With three laps to go, Searle took the lead a passed the checkered flag in first place, with Knight second and Pocock third, but both Searle and Pocock were penalised and docked a position for jumping on a waved yellow flag. So, the amended finishing positions were Knight, from Searle, Cole, and Pocock. Brookes had another excellent ride on his comeback trail, in fifth from Bradley and Bennett.
The penalties didn’t make any difference to the overall positions as Searle won by seven points from Knight. Cole was third on sixty, with Pocock fourth, just two points behind.
“I think this is the first centre meeting I have done, although I may have rode one to get expert points back in the day,” said a happy, relaxed Searle after the meeting, “It’s been a really nice day, and my little brother has been racing. He won two of his races, but I think he has been sandbagging today as he should have made the ‘C’ group but ended in the ‘Ds’. So all the family are here in the sunshine, and it’s all just nice. I don’t feel the best on the bike at the minute, after my injury, and I just wanted to get some races under my belt, instead of just going to a practice tracks I go to all the time. So we came here with all the family, and it’s been great fun”.
With two race wins and a second place, Grant Martin (Honda) won the ‘B’ group by seven points from Matthew Pocock (Gas Gas) and James Johnson (Honda).
It looked like no one wanted to win the ‘C’ group. A win, a second and a fourth made Charlie Gutteridge (Kawasaki) the overall winner, but second and third place were separated by a single point. Ricky Bowden (KTM) was second to Paul Moore (KTM), and neither made it into two positions in any of their races. Slade Pullin (Kawasaki) won the first race but didn’t start the other two, while race two winner Matthew Fuller (KTM) didn’t start the last race and ended his day in fourth place overall.
It was close at the top of Group ‘D’ as Ryan Wooldridge (Yamaha) took the overall by just two points from Lee Scott (Honda), with David Castle (Suzuki) in third, just two behind Scott.
With three race wins, Cameron Chell (Yamaha) won group ‘E’ overall from James Barabach (Honda) and Tom Owen (KTM) third.
Results
Allcomers A
| Pos | Competitor | Points | R1 | R2 | R3 |
| 1 | Tommy Searle | 72 | 25 | 25 | 22 |
| 2 | Liam Knight | 65 | 22 | 18 | 25 |
| 3 | Charlie Cole | 60 | 18 | 22 | 20 |
| 4 | Mel Pocock | 58 | 20 | 20 | 18 |
| 5 | Joe Brookes | 45 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 6 | Harry Bradley | 40 | 12 | 13 | 15 |
| 7 | Luke Benstead | 32 | 16 | 16 | – |
| 8 | Ollie Beamish | 30 | 8 | 10 | 12 |
| 9 | Matt Bayliss | 29 | 15 | 14 | – |
| 10 | Liam Bennett | 27 | 13 | – | 14 |
| 11 | Lewis Taylor | 25 | 7 | 7 | 11 |
| 12 | Ryan Osborn | 24 | 6 | 9 | 9 |
| 13 | Ben Franklin | 23 | 11 | 12 | – |
| 14 | Joshua Bassett | 22 | 9 | 11 | 2 |
| 15 | Gary Ashley | 20 | 4 | 8 | 8 |
| 16 | Max Lewis | 17 | – | 4 | 13 |
| 17 | Harvey Cashmore | 14 | 1 | 6 | 7 |
| 18 | Joele Hart | 13 | – | 3 | 10 |
| 19 | George Clarke | 10 | 10 | – | – |
| 20 | Kieran Clarke | 9 | 3 | – | 6 |
| 21 | Lenny Ashley | 9 | 5 | – | 4 |
| 22 | Sam Ongley | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 23 | Ryan Nock | 5 | – | 5 | – |
| 24 | Jacob Randall | 3 | – | – | 3 |
| 25 | Brad Skinner | 2 | – | 2 | – |
| 26 | Billy Moriarty | 1 | – | – | 1 |
Allcomers B
| Pos | Competitor | Points | R1 | R2 | R3 |
| 1 | Grant Martin | 72 | 22 | 25 | 25 |
| 2 | Matthew Pocock | 65 | 25 | 18 | 22 |
| 3 | James Johnson | 57 | 20 | 22 | 15 |
| 4 | James Jackman | 56 | 16 | 20 | 20 |
| 5 | Elliot Reeves | 42 | 13 | 16 | 13 |
| 6 | Rory Wootton | 40 | 9 | 13 | 18 |
| 7 | Oliver Kingston | 35 | 8 | 11 | 16 |
| 8 | Connor Tingle | 32 | 7 | 15 | 10 |
| 9 | Jamie Cox | 29 | 14 | 3 | 12 |
| 10 | Josh Talbot | 28 | 15 | 7 | 6 |
| 11 | Leo Akers | 25 | 1 | 10 | 14 |
| 12 | Max Wood | 25 | – | 14 | 11 |
| 13 | Craig Handley | 24 | 12 | 12 | – |
| 14 | Aiden Breakspear | 19 | 10 | – | 9 |
| 15 | Frankie Elwell | 18 | 18 | – | – |
| 16 | Carl Miller | 15 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
| 17 | Jake Cappa | 11 | 11 | – | – |
| 18 | Guy Carter | 11 | 2 | 9 | – |
| 19 | Cameron McGee | 10 | – | 2 | 8 |
| 20 | Lee Tolan | 9 | – | 6 | 3 |
| 21 | Rueben Bailey | 9 | – | 8 | 1 |
| 22 | Freddy Gidley | 6 | 4 | – | 2 |
| 23 | James Orchard | 6 | 6 | – | – |
| 24 | Connor Sutherland | 5 | – | – | 5 |
| 25 | William Bell | 5 | 5 | – | – |
| 26 | Scott Kennedy | 4 | – | – | 4 |
| 27 | Jimmy Cornish | 4 | – | 4 | – |
| 28 | Callam O’Sheen | 1 | – | 1 | – |
Allcomers C
| Pos | Competitor | Points | R1 | R2 | R3 |
| 1 | Charlie Gutteridge | 65 | 18 | 22 | 25 |
| 2 | Ricky Bowden | 55 | 20 | 20 | 15 |
| 3 | Paul Moore | 54 | 16 | 18 | 20 |
| 4 | Matthew Fuller | 47 | 22 | 25 | – |
| 5 | Paul Austin | 39 | 11 | 14 | 14 |
| 6 | Levi May | 35 | 2 | 15 | 18 |
| 7 | John Hobbs | 35 | 13 | 12 | 10 |
| 8 | Oliver Wooldridge | 34 | 8 | 13 | 13 |
| 9 | Pierre Nakhka | 33 | – | 11 | 22 |
| 10 | Jasper Parsons | 30 | 14 | 16 | – |
| 11 | Christopher Stemp | 26 | 9 | 1 | 16 |
| 12 | Slade Pullin | 25 | 25 | – | – |
| 13 | Louie Hutchins | 24 | 4 | 9 | 11 |
| 14 | Lewis Wigger | 21 | 15 | 6 | – |
| 15 | Glen Phillips | 19 | – | 7 | 12 |
| 16 | Ryan Cole | 17 | 6 | 5 | 6 |
| 17 | Jak Young | 12 | 12 | – | – |
| 18 | Max Harvey | 11 | 7 | 4 | – |
| 19 | Roman Wright | 10 | – | 2 | 8 |
| 20 | Lewis King | 10 | – | 10 | – |
| 21 | Sam Sandford | 10 | 10 | – | – |
| 22 | James Powell | 9 | – | – | 9 |
| 23 | Jarratt Osborne | 8 | – | 8 | – |
| 24 | Lee Anderson | 8 | 5 | 3 | – |
| 25 | Oliver McHugh | 7 | – | – | 7 |
| 26 | Jamie Stocker | 5 | – | – | 5 |
| 27 | Antony Lambert-Williams | 4 | – | – | 4 |
| 28 | Tim Weighill | 3 | – | – | 3 |
| 29 | Jordan Grubb | 3 | 3 | – | – |
| 30 | Anthony Carter | 2 | – | – | 2 |
| 31 | Lee McGregor | 1 | – | – | 1 |
| 32 | Jody Crawforth | 1 | 1 | – | – |
Allcomers D
| Pos | Competitor | Points | R1 | R2 | R3 |
| 1 | Ryan Wooldridge | 62 | 22 | 15 | 25 |
| 2 | Lee Scott | 60 | 20 | 18 | 22 |
| 3 | David Castle | 58 | 18 | 20 | 20 |
| 4 | David Farrant | 53 | 13 | 22 | 18 |
| 5 | Troy Searle | 50 | 25 | 25 | – |
| 6 | Henry Slevin | 44 | 14 | 14 | 16 |
| 7 | Oliver Hughes | 39 | 15 | 12 | 12 |
| 8 | Carl Ward | 35 | 8 | 13 | 14 |
| 9 | Cullen Hollyer | 34 | 12 | 7 | 15 |
| 10 | Shaun Ballard | 32 | 16 | 16 | – |
| 11 | Tony Powell | 27 | 11 | 9 | 7 |
| 12 | Austen Stemp | 24 | 1 | 10 | 13 |
| 13 | Ollie Ella | 24 | 2 | 11 | 11 |
| 14 | Marcus Wildman | 24 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 15 | Kieran Cullen | 21 | 6 | 5 | 10 |
| 16 | Eliot Wakefield | 17 | 9 | – | 8 |
| 17 | James Wilson-Hall | 14 | 5 | 3 | 6 |
| 18 | Kieron Colegate | 10 | 10 | – | – |
| 19 | Paul Godfrey | 9 | – | 4 | 5 |
| 20 | Michael Foster | 6 | – | 6 | – |
| 21 | Gary Nutt | 5 | – | 1 | 4 |
| 22 | Jamie Ward | 4 | – | 2 | 2 |
| 23 | Jack Welch | 4 | 4 | – | – |
| 24 | Molly Taylor | 3 | – | – | 3 |
| 25 | Levi Crittenden | 3 | 3 | – | – |
| 26 | Rob Baxter | 1 | – | – | 1 |
Allcomers E
| Pos | Competitor | Points | R1 | R2 | R3 |
| 1 | Cameron Chell | 75 | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| 2 | James Barabach | 64 | 20 | 22 | 22 |
| 3 | Tom Owen | 42 | 8 | 14 | 20 |
| 4 | Dean Harriss | 42 | 16 | 8 | 18 |
| 5 | Billy Mcknight | 42 | 22 | 20 | – |
| 6 | Joe Clerkson | 36 | 18 | 18 | – |
| 7 | Bryan Hills | 30 | 15 | 3 | 12 |
| 8 | David Bowden | 30 | 14 | 16 | – |
| 9 | Wayne Pither | 28 | 13 | 15 | – |
| 10 | Tim Mitchell | 27 | 6 | 5 | 16 |
| 11 | Dylan Price | 24 | 11 | 13 | – |
| 12 | Peter Wooldridge | 21 | – | 6 | 15 |
| 13 | Joe Perfect | 17 | – | 4 | 13 |
| 14 | Adam Bungay | 15 | 3 | 12 | – |
| 15 | Fraser Line | 14 | – | – | 14 |
| 16 | Alfie Crittenden | 12 | 1 | 11 | – |
| 17 | Aaron Bowden | 12 | 12 | – | – |
| 18 | Kayla Crane | 11 | – | – | 11 |
| 19 | Steven Pacman | 10 | – | – | 10 |
| 20 | Barry Hellier | 10 | 10 | – | – |
| 21 | Dan Smith | 10 | – | 10 | – |
| 22 | Ellie Powell | 9 | – | – | 9 |
| 23 | Tom Bindley | 9 | 2 | 7 | – |
| 24 | Melvin Masters | 9 | – | 9 | – |
| 25 | Keith Mattingly | 9 | 9 | – | – |
| 26 | Fahren Fraser | 8 | 7 | 1 | – |
| 27 | Liam Ryland-Pye | 5 | 5 | – | – |
| 28 | Mitchel Warren | 4 | 4 | – | – |
| 29 | Aran Hayday | 2 | – | 2 | – |
