Davies does the Business! 2022 AMCA British Motocross Championship Finale – Race Report & Results

Following six previous rounds, which had produced plenty of great racing, drama and, sadly a couple of tragic incidents, the destination of the 2022 AMCA British Motocross Championship titles were to be finally decided on Sunday.

Race Report, Images and Interviews by Mike Wood

The venue for the finale was the hillside circuit at Nympsfield and although there was little further movement at the top of the standings in the respective classes, this last round promoted by the Uley MXC still served up some simply super action!

Going into Nympsfield, nine of the ten titles on offer were still to be sorted, and it was the first class in the programme that was to arguably produce the main drama of the day! Just 7 points separated the top three Vets riders before the final round, with Gary Davies leading the way from Shane Holmes and defending Champion Phil Mercer. After campaigning just about all of the series on 250F Honda, Holmes then arrived at the decider armed with a 350F KTM which he had borrowed from Jamie Wainwright and only tested the previous day at Apex Practice Facility. Quickly dialling in with his new mount, Holmes then proceeded to win the opening moto with Mercer in 2nd ahead of Davies, James Lane, Simon Lane and Matt Chaplin. In the second clash of the day, Davies then fought back to take the win but dramatically, Mercer was to crash out. With his hand slipping off the handlebars, Phil lost control, going over the top of a banked turn, hitting the ground hard and suffering concussion.

So that meant the title race was now between Davies on 1483 points v Holmes on 1482, it couldn’t be much closer than that, and as per the script, these two battling aces hit the front in the last and deciding moto. However, before the completion of lap one, Holmes challenge was over, crashing after making contact with Davies when the Championship chasers landed off a jump. From here onwards, it meant that Davies had done enough to confirm the crown, and he completed the job in style with another moto win.

The Vets crown was Gary’s 12th AMCA title; what a truly remarkable achievement that is! Making it a double success, Gary also won himself a motocross holiday in Spain courtesy of Planet Moto and their First lap leader award. With both Holmes and Mercer out of the event overall reckonings, Gloucester-based brothers James and Simon Lane took full advantage to finish their own season off in style with a place on the top three podium. In the separately scored Vets Over 50 class, the battered and bruised Mercer did gain some consolation by just about hanging on to take the title, 39 points clear of the always consistent Brian Staples.

It was always going to be a case of one from three in the battle for the MX1 crown following an outstanding season of close racing produced by Luke Burton, James Dodd and Josh Waterman. Arriving at Nympsfield, Burton held a single point advantage over Waterman, with Dodd just a further 5 points in arrears.

All three moto’s on Sunday were then to produce a fairly similar pattern as Burton and Dodd broke clear at the front to indulge in some no-holds-barred, all-action battles in which they were never more than a few yards apart, simply stunning! The win count went 2-1 in Burton’s favour, enough to earn him the title, his 7th AMCA crown. With Dodd taking the silver medal position and Waterman in 3rd, Adam Wells recorded his highest final MX1 finish in 4th. In the MX1 Cup, Sion Talbot had already secured the title but still gave it his all, chasing Waterman hard in both moto’s two and three.

It was also a case of one from three in the Youth 85cc class as Jack Evans held a 11 point lead over Sebby Moore with Will Turner a further 23 points in arrears. Whilst the day did not start well for Turner, dropping down to 11th place in moto one, Moore kept his own hopes firmly alive with victory from Evans, Oakley Kettle, Wyatt McGregor, George Bromley and Oliver Bebb. The fast starting Kettle then won moto two chased by all three title contenders.

So going into the final contest, Evans was still in charge of his title destiny, 10 points better off than Moore, whilst Turner could not now mathematically take top slot. Determined to take the fight all the way, Moore then led the last moto before McGregor came through for the win as Evans confirmed his crown with a controlled 3rd spot. In the Small-Wheeled 85cc Championship it was a case of Oliver Bebb v Harley Piper for top slot, a contest which Bebb won finishing the season 29 points clear of his rival.

Having already won AMCA 125cc, MX1 and MX2 titles in consecutive seasons, Welsh ace Shane Carless was determined to add another crown this year. In defence of his MX2 success though, it’s not gone exactly to plan for Shane, and he’s certainly faced a whole host of very determined challenges in the form of Tommy Alba, the injured Henry Williams, Rory Jones, Corey Hockey and a whole host of others! Shane had clearly stated before Sunday’s event that he wanted to settle the nerves by starting with a moto win and thus increase his current 20 point Championship chasing advantage. And, that’s just what he did, quickly passing Jaydon Murphy as Howard Wainwright took a strong 2nd from Alba and Jones who had both come through the pack from 8th and 20th places, respectively.

Although Carless then also grabbed the second moto holeshot in MX2, the very determined duo of Alba and Jones both got through. Satisfied with a safe 3rd, Carless was followed home by Ray Rowson, Adam Cook, Jake Preston and Jack Timms. So going into the last clash of the season, Carless was still favourite for top honours holding that same 20 points advantage over Alba, a rider who always gives 110% effort and so much more! Knowing that a top ten finish would now be enough to retain his crown, Carless rode a careful, controlled final moto to get home in 5th behind winner Alba, Cook, Wainwright and Jones.

In the Championship table, Jones took 3rd after overhauling Williams, unable to compete due to a broken leg sustained during round 6. In the separately scored MX2 Cup competition, just a single point was the difference on arrival at Nympsfield between Adam Cook and Cory McShane at the top. Cookie though has been superb all season and really mixing it up, typified by taking 5th overall at this finale, enough to also earn the Cup title aboard his 250cc 2T KTM.

With 32 points separating Matt Bayliss, a rider who has won the vast majority of 125cc moto’s this season and his main challenger Luke Dean, many must of thought that the superb Bayliss had the 2022 AMCA title just about in the bag! Dean though, was having none of it and was determined to try and take the fight right down to the wire, and what a performance he was to produce! In a spectacular opening two moto’s, Luke was right on it and playing his part in a brace of stunning clashes which saw the two aces passing and repassing! These two top pilots won a race each, so the Championship gap was still 32 points going into the last moto of the 125cc season.

Whilst Dean zoomed away to lead the pack, Bayliss was in trouble with his clutch expiring as he left the start gate. Then also suffering brake issues, could the impossible happen and Bayliss record a DNF thus handing Dean the crown? Well, despite those mechanical issues, Bayliss remained cool, collected and calm to bring it home in 6th behind Dean, Matt Ridgway, Jordan Wright, Liam Gale and Joel Fisher. That result meant that a relieved Bayliss was indeed the Champion, 21 points clear of Dean with Chris Povey in 3rd. All of the above-mentioned lads and others have featured in what has been a superb 2022 Championship chase and Fisher, who took 5th overall also topped the 125cc Youth Championship ahead of Yarin Evans.

Many congratulations to all of the 2022 AMCA British Motocross Championship winners, AMCA Events team and organising clubs for delivering the goods despite the very difficult circumstances which arose during the first couple of rounds!

Final Championship Positions

MX1 1 Luke Burton 1467 points 2 James Dodd 1458 3 Josh Waterman 1454 4 Adam Wells 1229 5 Sion Talbot 1201 6 Mark Roberts 1046 7 Jake Shipton 682 8 Ashley Greedy 633 9 Josh Canton 577 10 Rory Merchant 564.

MX1 CUP 1 Talbot 1519 points 2 Canton 777 3 Merchant 703 4 Jack Griffiths 485 5 Sunny Thompson 413 6 Josh Greedy 135 7 Joe Roberts 121 8 Jack Waterman 113 9 Connor Newell 109 10 Peter Hamlett 82.

MX2 1 Shane Carless 1442 points 2 Tommy Alba 1431 3 Rory Jones 1308 4 Henry Williams 1208 5 Corey Hockey 1161 6 Jake Preston 1131 7 Harry Linton 1090 8 Lee Truman 932 9 Brooklyn Evans 914 10 Adam Cook 870.

MX2 CUP 1 Cook 1181 points 2 Cory McShane 1130 3 Jordan Meredith 981 4 Callum Baldwin 790 5 Ben White 706 6 Ray Rowson 694 7 Jaydon Murphy 645 8 Josh Peters 572 9 Joshua Fletcher-Williams 558 10 Billy Duke 551.

125cc 1 Matthew Bayliss 1511 points 2 Luke Dean 1490 3 Chris Povey 1330 4 Jordan Wright 1282 5 Joel Fisher 1241 6 Liam Gale 1180 7 Matt Ridgway 1101 8 Cameron Jackson 1076 9 Yarin Evans 1056 10 Troy Jones 1003.

125cc Youth 1 Fisher 1473 points 2 Evans 1427 3 Logan Jay-Powell 1254 4 Wesley McGavin 1192 5 Sion Wright 1174 6 Benjamin Sullivan 1157 7 Joe Jordan 1048 8 Harry Bebb 1040 9 Alfie Bebb 1013 10 Ezra Blackwell 907.

Vets 1 Gary Davies 1533 points 2 Shane Holmes 1482 3 Phil Mercer 1428 4 James Lane 1400 5 Simon Lane 1354 6 Matthew Chaplin 1225 7 Brian Staples 1164 8 Richard Tudor 1100 9 Russell Grove 976 10 Alan Reese 946.

Vets Over 50 1 Mercer 1500 points 2 Staples 1461 3 Reese 1300 4 Steve Sankey 1147 5 Stuart Kilmarten 1113 6 David Bullock 962 7 Sean Smith 907 8 Gareth Dunsford 681 9 Shaun Brooker 651 10 Gary Hurst 462.

Youth 85cc 1 Jack Evans 1395 points 2 Sebby Moore 1387 3 Will Turner 1330 4 Oakley Kettle 1239 5 Wyatt McGregor 1199 6 Oliver Bebb 1110 7 George Bromley 1082 8 Harley Piper 1076 9 Ollie Bubb 941 10 Tyler Lane 885.

Youth SW85cc 1 Bebb 1526 points 2 Piper 1497 3 Lewis Day 1133 4 Alfie Finch 485 5 Jack Couzens 268 6 Kaleb Copeland 139 7 Oliver Walker 129.

Final Round Results

MX1

MX2

125’s

Vets

85’s