Gilbert wins the Patchquick Trophy – Race Report & Results

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Josh Gilbert finally got the job done and will now have his name etched on the famous Patchquick Trophy after a solid performance at Little Silver last night.

Race Report & Images by Dave Rich

A healthy crowd of spectators turned out to see Gilbert take two race wins and a second, ahead of Harri Kullas who took the final moto win. Conrad Mewse, rounded off the podium trying to hang on to them on his 250.

A bumper crowd attended Little Silver Moto Parc, Exeter as returning since 2019 was the famous Patchquick Trophy motocross event which had kindly been sponsored by Monsters of Dirt and was hosted by (SWOR) South West Off Road in conjunction with the West of England Motor Club. This year’s entries had flooded in and there were a full 120 riders in attendance which included many top names in the sport and even included Estonian Harri Kullas and many past winners of the Trophy including the likes of Jeff Perrett who won it back in 1999. The track had been watered the previous day and during the day and evening to try and keep the dust down the best they could, but with the sun out all day and a little breeze things soon dried, but never the less there was still some good racing to be seen.

To get the event underway every rider had to practice and put in a qualifying time to determine who would go in to group A the Patchquick Trophy class, Group B and Group C.

In the opening Patchquick Trophy race it was the last winner of the Trophy back in 2019 Jake Shipton on his 450 Fus Marsh Geartec Husqvarna with the best start from Kullas on the Cab Screens Yamaha followed by Cornishman Josh Gilbert on the S C Sporthomes Husqvarna but not the best of starts for one of the South West top riders Conrad Mewse who was up against it abit out of the gate against the big 450’s to his 250f. With the opening lap completed Kullas was now leading from Gilbert with Shipton back in third who was to lose ground on the leading two as they were gradually getting away at the front. Mewse was flying on his Stebbings Car Superstore KTM and with four laps gone he was up in to fourth and was all over Shipton and was to pass the latter a lap later and was now in third, but all eyes were on the leading two as Gilbert was pressing Kullas at the front and it seemed to rattle Kullas as he went into a sharpe righthander at the bottom of the hill and his front wheel washed out and through went Gilbert who was to go on to take the win from Kullas with Mewse a respectable third.

In the second moto this time it was Kullas at the front from Gilbert and Shipton with several riders going down just after the first corner which held up a few riders with Mewse being one of them, so he had a lot to do as by the end of the opening lap he was still back in sixteenth. Kullas and Gilbert just as they did in the opening race were to pull away, but Kullas was unable to shake off Gilbert who was to stay within striking distance all through the race until two laps from the end when Gilbert started to close right up on Kullas and literally shot around the outside to a big cheer from the spectators and took the lead and again was to go on to take the win from Kullas, Shipton third with Tom Grimshaw on the Chambers Gas Gas just holding off Mewse who came home in fifth.

The last race saw Kullas again head the pack with Gilbert in tow from Dan Thornhill fellow Cab Screens Yamaha rider with Shipton in fourth who was soon all over Thornhill who he passed on the second lap and moved up in to third with Mewse also passing Thornhill on the same lap who was soon to be pressing Shipton and really piled the pressure on which saw Shipton go down hard and unfortunately Shipton was forced to retire from the race with a twisted bike. Kullas was well gone at the front in this one with Gilbert knowing all he had to do was bring it home in second to win the Trophy and that was exactly what happened Kullas took the win with Gilbert who had loads of support being clapped home in second with Mewse taking third which was to give him third spot on the podium and leading MX2 rider.

In group B there was some really close racing with Brandon Baker leading the opening race to begin with before being pursued by Bradley Taylor who manged to get pass Baker on the second lap and Baker was soon under pressure from James Kensington who was all over him with Kensington finding away pass mid race, but he had no answer to Taylor who took the win. In the second encounter it was Baker again with the best start from Jordan Gosling and Taylor. Baker was to pull away a bit at the front, but moving up through the field after not the best of starts was Kensington who by the end of the opening lap was in second and was closing in all the time on Baker who he was to catch and pass on the third lap and from there Kensington held off Baker to take the win and with it the overall.

In group C it was a start to finish win in the opening race for Troy Gillet with Kieran McClelland after a long hard battle with Jamie Knight taking second where as in the second race it was Knight who led early doors before being passed by McClelland and Ben Harding with McClelland going on to take the win to add to his second place in the opening race to give him the overall.

Results

Patchquick Trophy

Pos	Competitor	Points	R1	R2	R3
1	Josh Gilbert	132	45	45	42
2	Harri Kullas	129	42	42	45
3	Conrad Mewse	116	40	36	40
4	Tom Grimshaw	111	38	38	35
5	Dan Thornhill	107	34	35	38
6	Charlie Cole	100	35	34	31
7	Glenn McCormick	98	31	31	36
8	James Dodd	94	27	33	34
9	Liam Garland	94	32	32	30
10	Joe Clayton	88	26	29	33
11	Josh Taylor	88	29	27	32
12	Louie Kessel	88	30	30	28
13	Luke Mellows	76	24	26	26
14	Jake Shipton	76	36	40	–
15	Louis Vincent	61	17	21	23
16	Ben Zeale	60	10	23	27
17	Jay Hague	56	28	28	–
18	Luke Dean	54	–	25	29
19	Alfie Calvert	52	16	14	22
20	Henry Life	50	13	17	20
21	Jake Curtis-Stevens	49	25	24	–
22	George Hopkins	43	23	20	–
23	Harry Matthews	42	–	18	24
24	Jordan Meredith	42	11	13	18
25	Ben Clayton	42	20	22	–
26	Harry Linton	41	22	19	–
27	Ross Parkinson	37	–	16	21
28	Ryan Mundell	34	19	15	–
29	James Carpenter	33	33	–	–
30	Tristan Daniels	31	–	12	19
31	Leon Williams	25	–	–	25
32	Callum Watson	24	14	10	–
33	Bradley Cavill	21	21	–	–
34	Jason Down	18	18	–	–
35	Luke Sturgeon	15	15	–	–
36	Tom Moore	12	12	–	–
37	Tyler Westcott	11	–	11	–

B Group

Pos	Competitor	Points	R1	R2
1	James Kensington	87	42	45
2	Bradley Taylor	85	45	40
3	Brandon Baker	82	40	42
4	Jordan Gosling	74	36	38
5	Tom Day	70	35	35
6	Jeff Perrett	66	33	33
7	Christopher Milliar	65	29	36
8	Dan Hartley	65	31	34
9	Harvey Jones	61	30	31
10	Elliot Cook	61	32	29
11	Jack Stevens	61	38	23
12	George Pool	55	27	28
13	Josh Francis	51	19	32
14	Finley Abbot	50	20	30
15	Chris Brown	50	25	25
16	Lewis Hunt	49	28	21
17	Mathew Wells	48	22	26
18	Kona Jenkins	47	23	24
19	Brendon Phillips	45	18	27
20	Mark Cornish	43	24	19
21	Caius Hill	41	21	20
22	Josh Hurley	39	17	22
23	Oliver Samways	34	34	–
24	George Jones	31	14	17
25	Doug Wynne	31	16	15
26	Edward Lewis	30	12	18
27	Matthew Chaplin	26	26	–
28	Jon Jones	25	13	12
29	Colby Walker	25	15	10
30	Harry Jenkins	24	11	13
31	Ashley Volz	22	8	14
32	Jude Gaylard	20	9	11
33	Aaron Jenkins	18	10	8
34	Ross Dean	16	–	16
35	Ben Bowden	16	7	9
36	Reegan West	7	–	7

C Group

Pos	Competitor	Points	R1	R2
1	Keiran McClelland	87	42	45
2	Ben Harding	80	38	42
3	Jamie Knight	80	40	40
4	Troy Gillet	79	45	34
5	Dominic Stoneman	71	36	35
6	Ashley Blight	69	33	36
7	Danny Miller	68	35	33
8	Josef Scibilia	66	34	32
9	Arthur Macdonald	63	25	38
10	Jack Baulch	60	29	31
11	Richard Salway	60	32	28
12	Ollie Harris	56	31	25
13	Simon Harding	54	30	24
14	Ryan Spencer	51	21	30
15	Frazer Buckingham	51	22	29
16	John Haxton	49	28	21
17	Ashley Wigmore	46	27	19
18	Tom Sharpe	42	16	26
19	Luke Horsey	42	20	22
20	Paul Bennett	40	23	17
21	Mark Richmond	39	19	20
22	Sam Warren	34	18	16
23	Ricky Peacock	31	13	18
24	John Trevelyan	29	14	15
25	Mark Osborne	27	–	27
26	Andrew Townrow	26	26	–
27	Zoe Deacon	25	15	10
28	Richard Hawkins	24	10	14
29	Mark Britton	24	12	12
30	Tyler Volz	24	24	–
31	Joe Workman	23	–	23
32	Dan Hazeldine	22	11	11
33	Callum Carr	20	7	13
34	Sam Roberts	18	9	9
35	Lee Pringle	17	17	–
36	Spencer Watts	15	8	7
37	Shaun Anthony	8	–	8