Last weekend saw the Cumbria Twinshock Club host the Wulfsport King of the Castle meeting at Farleigh Castle. The event is always very popular with nearly 400 riders wanting to relive their youth and ride the hallowed ground that saw some titanic battles back in the Grand Prix days. Thoughts of Graham Noyce and Dave Thorpes heroics were never far away, and even the 1980 MXdN where Pete Mathia made the GB team, and Pete was here again 42 years later winning the Over 60 class.
Report by Geoff Shuttleworth – Images courtesy of Click466
As usual a full week of work had gone into the layout and prep of the track, and for the first time since 2019 it was a Covid free zone with no restrictions. The track was perfect for the start but a torrential downpour turned it into a real test of character for the second block on Saturday. Sunday dawned bright and breezy and conditions were near perfect for the third block, but an accident and injury to birthday boy Dave Farmer curtailed the fourth block halfway through, and the event had to be stopped to enable the medics to look after him. We wish him well on his recovery. But all in all, everyone seemed to enjoy the whole atmosphere of the weekend, and they are all sure to be back for another crack at it in 2023.
There were a lot of classes to get through in each block, so it’s difficult to mention every race in detail but first to the line were the Four Stroke riders. The man to beat was Scott Faulkner who strolled to four wins over the weekend to take the overall, with Matt Thomas just pipping Jason Fountain for second.
The two Clubman classes had a first race to determine who would be in Clubman 1 and 2, and it was British Quad Champion Dafydd Davies who stole the Clubman 1 title on his JBR with two wins and on a tie break from Matt Wells in second. Glyn Newton was only two points behind the leaders in third.
The Over 50 Twinshock B class managed to get all four races in and another tie break determined the winner with Neil Aldridge edging out Nick Dyer with a better last race result after winning two, but gallantly carrying on in one race with a flat rear tyre. Third place went to Mike Wheeler.
Some of the most exciting racing was to be seen in the Pre 83 125 class and the race of the day saw Oliver Ruddock hold off Lance Marshall in their fourth race. The crowd watched and cheered their favourites with Oliver just edging it. And with four race wins Oliver took the overall, with Lance second and James Cole third.
Kris Winder mixed it with the newer bikes, and took the 125 Twinshock class with ease winning three from four. Ian Knight the race one winner took second with Matt Rudd in third.
The Over 60’s also had some cracking battles at the front with Irelands Terry Bailie winning two races but a second race DNF dropped him to fourth in the standings. This left the maestro himself Pete Mathia, the second race winner to stand on the top step by fast-charging Alan Bott by a single point. Pat Rowe took third only three points behind.
Kristian Marshall had an absolute master class in the Classic Class and won all three races by a country mile. His nearest rival was Sam Nichols and Dad Phil Nicholls who came home second and third.
What must have been a first in Twinshock racing was Danny Laverton in the Clubman 2 class, who came out on top on a very rare Laverda bike. He beat Sam McEvoy by a single point with Steve Cadd in third.
The Over 50 class saw three very convincing wins by Willie Burgess, and apart from the final race where Dean Warren started to close in, he looked very comfortable on the Gary Murphy Maico. Dean managed to grab second overall on his Kawaki with Jadon Morris two points adrift in third. We must mention Keith Rice though who took fourth on a much older CZ.
As in 2021, Jon McBride dominated the Over 40 class with three faultless wins on his Maico, from Matt Coles in second and Martin Cuddy in third.
The crowds came out of their vans to watch the star-spangled Experts class and there was some really tight, fast and exciting racing over the three races. Lewis Tricket looked to be the fastest but his Triumph had a few issues throughout the weekend. Brad O’Leary ended up victorious for his second big Castle win in two weeks, following up his Drumlanrig win with another at Farleigh. Brad won two races and ended up ten points ahead of Luke Hill in second, and third race winner Terry House in third. Lee Holland was a point behind in fourth, with Trickett fifth.
Dylan Spencer was in a class of his own with three wins in the 250 class and Andy Hinchliffe squeezed second place by a point from third placed Alan Pearce.
The West Mids Evo races saw several riders score maximum points with Rob Mead in the 125’s, Chris Jones in the 250’s and Sam Pocock who won two from three in the 500’s. Stuart Priest was best West Mids Four Stroke rider.
All in all another cracking weekend, so roll on 2023.
Results
Four Stroke
1 Scott Faulkner, 2 Matt Thomas, 3 Jason Fountain, 4 James Humphrey, 5 Shaun Church, 6 Keith Jones.
Clubman 1
1 Dafydd Davies, 2 Matt Wells, 3 Glyn Newton, 4 Thomas Sorrell, 5 Tom Salt, 6 Craig Elwell.
Over 50 B
1 Neil Aldridge, 2 Nick Dyer, 3 Mike Wheeler, 4 Steve Matthews, 5 Wayne Twidle, 6 Tim Cole.
Pre 83 125’s
1 Oliver Ruddock, 2 Lance Marshall, 3 James Cole, 4 Paul Bennett, 5 Jack Biddle, 6 Jordan Hands.
125 Twinshock
1 Kris Winder, 2 Ian Knight, 3 Matt Rudd, 4 Mark Beeston, 5 Dean Hakes, 6 Chris Lambourne.
Classics
1 Kristian Marshall, 2 Sam Nicholls, 3 Phil Nicholls, 4 Stephen Hinchliffe, 5Tony Verbeeeton, 6 Gerrard Copping.
Over 60 (Stuart Miller Memorial)
1 Pete Mathia, 2 Alan Bott, 3 Pat Lowe, 4 Terry Bailie, 5 Tom Lowe, 6 Trevor Calderwood.
Clubman 2
1 Danny Laverton, 2 Sam McEvoy, 3 Steve Cadd, 4 Shaun Thomas, 5 Geoff Wiltshire, 6 Richard Gardiner.
Over 50 A
1 Willie Burgess, 2 Dean Warren, 3 Jason Morris, 4 Keith Rice, 5 Adrian Lappin, 6 Kelvin Tatum.
Over 40
1 Jon McBride, 2 Matt Coles, 3 Martin Cuddy, 4 Luke Dewey, 5 Michael McBride, 6 Craig Elwell.
Experts
1 Brad O’Leary, 2 Luke Hill, 3 Terry House, 4 Lee Holland, 5 Lewis Trickett, 6 Riley Lowe.
250 Twinshock
1 Dylan Spencer, 2 Andy Hinchliffe, 3 Alan Pearce, 4 Harvey Cashmore, 5 Dave Gane, 6 Matt Bennett.
West Mids Evo 125
1 Rob Mead, 2 Nick Mauger, 3 Jeremy Harris, 4 James Hudson, 5 Jason Davies, 6 Danny Sansom.
West Mids Evo 250
1 Chris Jones, 2 Phil Newman, 3 Seb Dexter, 4 Dave Russell, 5 Kyle Noble, 6 Stuart White.
West Mids Evo 500
1 Sam Pocock, 2 Kevin Reed, 3 Graeme Jellie, 4 Steve Titcombe, 5 Harry Titcombe, 6 James Reeves.
West Mids Evos Four Stroke
1 Stuart Priest, 2 Johnny Stagg, 3 Diesel Ibbotson, 4 Michael Sealey.
