After bursting into life at Culham, the 2025 Bridgestone British Masters powered by Rock Oil moves north to Lancashire this weekend, with Preston Docks hosting the second round of the championship.
Words by Chris Czora – Feature Image courtesy of Ellie Jones – RDS Media
The venue returns to the national calendar for the first time in several seasons, and for some of the younger riders, it will be the first time they have ever raced on the circuit. They can certainly expect a tough test, with the rather loamy sand often being said by some riders to resemble the former ‘Honda Park’ training facility in Belgium.
Preston Docks is now back under the guidance of ace track builder Lee McGarry, and his attention to detail means an excellently prepared all-weather track is in order, with difficult gnarly sand creating plenty of racing lines, along with some spectacular jumps to thrill the crowds.
The Masters is the first national championship to visit Preston Docks in 2025, so the frontrunners in the series may also expect to be joined by some non-championship wildcard riders, eager to get some early season race experience on the track.
The Fix Auto UK Pro Expert open class saw some great racing in the first round. After an incident-filled two races, Jamie Carpenter (Crendon Tru7 Honda) took the overall title.
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At the time of writing, Josh Spinks (Triumph West London), who took second overall, sits amongst the names to look out for as he aims for the red plate. However, he’s likely to face some tough opposition, with Carlton Husband (Phoenix Tools Fantic) amongst Spinks’ main rivals.
In the 65cc Junior class, Harley-James Barrow takes a narrow lead into the second round. Max Jones, who also looked impressive at Culham, is just two points behind Jimmy Ball and Alfie Cotter. On the technical sand track, it’ll be interesting to see how the riders cope with what, for many, will be a new venue.
The 85cc Small Wheel class looks like it could be a closely fought affair, with Jett Gardiner and Arthur King battling very closely at Culham, they go to Preston Docks tied on points at the head of the championship. Teddy Merriman looked strong at Culham, and with a bit more pace to match, the two leaders could make an early title fight.
The Big Wheel 85 class also looks exceedingly close with Olly Waters the narrow leader from Arthur Moore and Archie Stapley. Others to watch out for include Cohen Jagielski who looked impressive on the jump up from the 65s, with Joel Winstanley-Dawson looking to fight back after a final race DNF cost him early championship ground.
The 125cc class sees the usual mix of top adult and youth riders, at Culham the kids led the way with young guns Freddie Gardner and Charlie Richmond taking the spoils. However the experience of Matt Bayliss, Neville Bradshaw and the former champion Jordan Bachelor cannot be discounted moving to the sandy Preston circuit.
MXY2 sees Ollie Bubb as the narrow pace-setter, but he cannot afford to rest on his laurels, as George and Max Corke both look like potential championship contenders, whilst the impressive Will Haddock will be hoping to convert his Culham pace into wins. With all four riders looking like championship hopefuls and plenty of others capable of challenging, MXY2 again looks to be a cauldron of race action.
The adult amateur classes both look healthy with packed grids. In MX1 Scott Aldridge takes a small lead to Preston Docks, after finishing second overall to wildcard Rob Wood at Culham.
Sebastien Berthiaume looks to be a potential title challenger, with Ben Knight, Seth Manners and Daniel Maule being established names in the mix, whilst series newcomer Charlie Hamlet sits close behind and is certainly an experienced name to look out for.
Over in the Amateur MX2 class, Leon Williams is the early pacesetter, but Liam Bennett and former IMBA European championship rider Zac Stealey will be making life difficult for him. Harrison Greenhough suffered mixed fortunes at round one, and will be looking to have a better weekend to build on his fourth place in the standings.
In the Clubman category, the usually closely fought category actually saw the only runaway leader, as Elliott Pugh arrives at Preston Docks as the only rider to achieve a clean sweep of wins at Culham.
Whilst Adam Hardy challenged occasionally, Pugh was the runaway leader and the question is if he can extend that lead yet further at round two.
It will be interesting to see if Hardy can challenge again, with Matt Fuller and Ryan Christian also looking good. Lee Clarkson is an experienced Clubman front runner and could also be a name for Pugh to contend with, against another full gate of riders.
Weekend admission is £10 for adults and £5 for children, with weekend camping also avaliable at £10 per vehicle.
The Preston Docks circuit is located off the A583 Blackpool road, just outside of Preston city centre, postcode PR2 2HW.
Action starts on both days at 9am, youth and amateur qualifying followed by a full day’s racing on Saturday, with the Fix Auto UK Pro class joining the action on Sunday, their free practice and qualifying starting the day off before an action packed day of racing to round off the weekend.
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