Nathan Marsden came in from the Minibike wilderness, and after three years out in the cold, he came, saw and conquered Kieradan Park over the Easter Weekend to become the 2019 Pro Minibike World Champion.
Images courtesy of Harry Lessman – Picturebike
With the weather on their side, the MBC once again did a sterling job on the track and with the presentation of the third staging of the Minibike World Championship, and following qualifying on Friday, they hosted the first ever Minibike of Nations. (Click here for separate report)
Before the Nations though over 200 Minibikers took to the track to pay tribute to little Mickey Bennett #7 who sadly lost his brave battle with cancer the week previous and was a fantastic remark of respect to a young lad that touched the hearts of the moto community.
There was a great line up in the Kids 50cc group and the action at the sharp end saw 4 different winners from the 5 points scoring races. With two moto wins, in addition to a further three solid point scoring races it was Finnley Barker who emerged from the three full days of action as the World Champ. Kobe Tetley ended the weekend just three points down on Barker taking the chequered flag in the penultimate race for second overall. Sonny Burton was the early point scoring pacesetter on the Saturday with a second and a win but his challenge fell short on the Sunday, but he still came away with the third spot on the podium from Lexi Waite who would take the chequers in moto 3. MBC regular Ethan Georgiou was solid all weekend long and impressed with 5th overall as did Mason Flynn with sixth.
Ben Casey was an absolute machine in the brand new Kids 65cc class winning all 5 moto’s in sublime style and taking a well deserved World title. Finley Pickering and Lucas Moncreiff battled it out for the runners up spot with Pickering have the better over Moncreiff on Saturday only for Moncreiff to fight back on Sunday. In the end, the Number 2 spot was occupied by Pickering with Moncreiff third and Max Pridmore who rode well throughout in 4th.
The Youth Junior group was a bit thin on the ground with a bunch of the class of 2018 moving up into the Seniors. This presented the perfect opportunity for last years runner up Harry Lee to pounce and he did with style notching all five race wins for the title. Behind Lee the race results remained the same for the duration with Harris Goddard second in each moto for second overall and Ben Johnstone third in each moto for third overall.
Reigning Youth Senior Champion Daniel Agea Moreno from Spain was back for a second helping of World Championship glory and he did so in majestic style winning his first four motos before coming second in his last race. Harry Streeter and Senna Ace Summers swapped their positions from 2018, with Streeter this time ending the weekend in second with Summers third. The challenge for the top from Jake Speller failed to materialise and he would finish fourth overall with Leo Vowles in fifth. Michael Scriven will be wondering what could have been as he turned in some great motos with two seconds and the final moto race win, but with a couple of DNF’s his chances of the title went down the drain, but watch out for this lad in the future as he has got some serious speed.
From the Youth to the Experienced… Frenchman Gregory Riaux was a class act, and like fine French wine he has matured well and fired home all 5 race wins to take the Vets World title back over the water with him. Last years champ Christopher Rose had no answer to Riaux but still put in a good shift to finish second overall with Jonathan Maw in third.
Lee Mitchell overcame the fierce challenge of Portugal’s Marcio Ferreira to win the title, although it was Ferreira who would win more races with 3 to his name. Matthew Chamberlain would occupy the third step on the podium that he frequented at this event last year.
Jeremy McKnight cut a determined figure having travelled from the other side of the world to have another stab at taking the coveted World title in the Super Mod class, and the New Zealander duly obliged with a master class of minibike racing to put one over on last years 110 champ Ash Gorman. So it was McKnight with the win, ahead of Gorman with Simon Vowles in third.
In the Super stock category, Oscar Stearn took a clean sheet of five moto wins to gain the title ahead of Craig Powell and Simon Crowther third.
With a stacked field of 160 racers, the riders were split based on their qualifying times into the Pro class or the B class with Cole Howard victorious in four races to take the B win, with Simon Gummer second and Steve Ledger third.
The Pro class as always is a fraught affair and from moto 1 there were no quarters given on the track as the aforementioned Marsden took first blood from Dom Foreman and Blaine Blackwell. Foreman would then fight back with double motos wins and with Marsden struggling in his third ride, and with Blackwell, Daniel Fisher and Jody Burton all having two good rides going into Sunday it would be Dom in control, with the other 4 rides all bunched up around the second position.
Sunday would be disastrous for Foreman though, and two DNF’s meant there was a heap of spilt guts but no glory in site for the Welsh rider. Marsden would come back quicker and tougher on Sunday and with both moto wins he would take the World title by 7 points over second position, which would be Fisher who rode a stormer all weekend long. Blackwell finished third with 5 great rides with Burton 4th, French racer Raphael Besacier 5th, young charger Ewan Goddard a fantastic 6th, and the unfortunate Foreman 7th.
Once again the MBC crew pulled off a great weekend of racing, and their attention now turns to the second round of the British Minibike Champs which takes place at FatCat Motoparc on May the 25th and 26th.
Results
Kids 50cc
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3 r 4 r 5
1 84 Finnley Barker 112 25 18 22 22 25
2 17 Kobe Tetley 109 20 22 20 25 22
3 257 Sonny Burton 103 22 25 18 20 18
4 1 Lexi Waite 101 18 20 25 18 20
5 275 Ethan Georgiou 79 15 16 16 16 16
6 278 Mason Flynn 73 14 15 14 15 15
7 12 George Goodacre 69 16 14 12 13 14
8 314 Talen Hodgson 54 13 10 10 12 9
9 709 Aaron Shepherd-Smith 53 12 11 11 9 10
10 203 Aman Eschoe 51 – 13 13 14 11
11 21 Jacob Hackett 48 4 12 15 10 7
12 311 Alfie Pincher 40 9 5 9 11 6
13 163 Dylan Scott 39 11 – 8 8 12
14 31x Corben Rowan 38 6 6 7 6 13
15 913 Zach White 27 10 8 2 7 –
16 900 Jake Pridmore 24 5 3 5 3 8
17 22 Jessica Cooling 24 8 7 4 1 4
18 829 Jenson Batner 21 1 9 6 5 –
19 112 Junior Wiggiesworth 20 7 1 3 4 5
20 118x Lacey May Adams 10 3 4 1 – 2
21 31 Oakley Summers 5 2 – – 2 1
22 07 Ethan Collins 3 – – – – 3
23 36 Harry Banks 2 – 2 – – –
Kids 65cc
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3 r 4 r 5
1 53 Ben Casey 125 25 25 25 25 25
2 357 Finley Pickering 106 22 22 22 20 20
3 310 Lucas Moncreiff 102 18 20 20 22 22
4 900 Max Pridmore 92 20 18 18 18 18
5 100 Jayden Gregson 78 14 16 16 16 16
6 229 Mason Care 76 16 15 15 15 15
7 106 Ollie Jewitt 67 15 14 14 14 10
8 239 Ashden Walsh 65 13 13 13 13 13
9 46 Billy Garnder 61 12 12 11 12 14
10 411 Jonathan Payne 53 11 10 10 11 11
11 221 Harvey Collins 45 – 11 12 10 12
12 07 Ethan Collins 28 10 9 9 – –
Youth Junior 125’s
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3 r 4 r 5
1 117 Harry Lee 125 25 25 25 25 25
2 8 Harris Goddard 110 22 22 22 22 22
3 19 Ben Johnstone 100 20 20 20 20 20
4 16 Jamie Clarke 72 18 18 18 18 –
5 36 Maddie Banks 48 16 16 16 – –
Youth Senior 125’s
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3 r 4 r 5
1 118 Daniel Agea Moreno 122 25 25 25 25 22
2 109 Harry Streeter 99 20 22 22 15 20
3 31 Senna-Ace Summers 94 16 20 20 20 18
4 02 Jake Speller 85 18 18 16 18 15
5 288 Leo Vowles 80 15 15 18 16 16
6 211 Jack Perry 73 14 16 15 14 14
7 217 Michael Scriven 69 22 – – 22 25
8 10 Rocco Lanza 65 12 14 13 13 13
9 94 David Maw 64 13 13 14 12 12
Masters
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3 r 4 r 5
1 14 Lee Mitchell 116 25 22 22 22 25
2 106 Marcio Ferreira 111 18 25 25 25 18
3 201 Matthew Chamberlain 100 22 18 18 20 22
4 77 Carlos Silva 94 20 20 20 18 16
5 107 Scott Joyner 81 15 15 15 16 20
6 33 Pat Crump 63 16 16 16 15 –
Vets
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3 r 4 r 5
1 45 Gregory Riaux 125 25 25 25 25 25
2 95 Chris Rose 108 22 20 22 22 22
3 11 Jonathan Maw 100 18 22 20 20 20
4 918 Jay Taylor 88 20 18 16 18 16
5 272 Richard Davies 84 16 16 18 16 18
6 144 Russell Mason 66 14 15 13 12 12
7 18 David Luke 64 12 14 12 13 13
8 67 Peter Boyd 59 15 – 14 15 15
9 367 Jan Willekens 43 – – 15 14 14
10 71 Colin Blackwell 26 13 13 – – –
Super Mod
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3 r 4 r 5
1 2 Jeremy McKnight 125 25 25 25 25 25
2 1 Ash Gorman 108 22 20 22 22 22
3 282 Simon Vowles 62 20 22 20 – –
Super Stock
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3 r 4 r 5
1 779 Oscar Stern 125 25 25 25 25 25
2 87 Craig Powell 110 22 22 22 22 22
3 17 Simon Crowther 96 18 18 20 20 20
4 110 Rob Carter 40 20 20 – – –
5 4 Spencer Howard 36 – – – 18 18
6 7 Ashley Phethean 31 – – – 15 16
7 44 Dan Greenwood 29 – – – 14 15
8 00 Daniel Hall 16 – – – 16 –
160cc Pro
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3 r 4 r 5
1 313 Nathan Marsden 105 25 22 8 25 25
2 34 Daniel Fisher 98 18 16 22 20 22
3 71 Blaine Blackwell 95 20 20 15 22 18
4 717 Jody Burton 85 16 18 20 16 15
5 45 Raphael Besacier 77 15 14 10 18 20
6 57 Ewan Goddard 74 11 15 18 14 16
7 121 Dom Foreman 72 22 25 25 – –
8 32 James Lee 67 13 13 14 13 14
9 920 Indalecio Trindale 65 12 12 13 15 13
10 871 Dave Lamb 51 14 11 16 1 9
11 126 Jake Pearce 46 9 8 9 12 8
12 32 Steven Rhodes 44 7 4 11 11 11
13 110 Ruben Scares 36 8 9 1 8 10
14 167 Michael Willekens 35 10 7 – 6 12
15 614 Fabio Neves 35 4 3 12 9 7
16 9 Scott Pohlman 31 3 5 7 10 6
17 181 Andrew Luke 22 6 10 6 – –
18 28 Alex Amery 21 5 2 5 5 4
19 16 Pryce Howard 15 2 1 4 3 5
20 144 Sean Mason 14 1 6 – 7 –
21 100 Callum Radford 10 – – 3 4 3
22 109 Rhys Streeter 2 – – – 2 –
23 916 Jon Slack 2 – – 2 – –
160cc B
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3 r 4 r 5
1 13 Cole Howard 120 25 20 25 25 25
2 146 Simon Gummer 108 22 22 20 22 22
3 319 Steve Ledger 91 18 15 18 20 20
4 247 Mathew Cole 76 12 13 15 18 18
5 66 Tom Burril 74 16 14 14 15 15
6 155 Paul Benham 67 20 25 22 – –
7 106 Alex Cheshire 65 14 11 11 13 16
8 595 George Noyes 65 15 18 16 16 –
9 170 Diago Barbosa 53 13 16 10 14 –
10 710 Antony Dalton 47 9 8 7 11 12
11 505 Teagan Parnell 41 – 7 8 12 14
12 421 Aaron Robertson 40 8 6 9 6 11
13 82 Jake Speller 39 6 5 5 10 13
14 411 Michael Gwilliams 36 11 12 13 – –
15 926 Michael Mackman 30 4 3 4 9 10
16 77 Jordan Burton 29 5 4 3 8 9
17 743 Brayen Callaert 28 7 9 6 – 6
18 38 Ashley Edwards 22 10 – 12 – –
19 212 James Scott 19 3 2 – 7 7
20 116 Josh Cheshire 15 – 1 2 4 8
21 192 Scott Aitchison 11 1 10 – – –
22 311 Ricky Tatam 6 – – 1 5 –
23 35 Shawn Clarke 2 2 – – – –
