The sounds of top-class Motocross rang out over the Devon hill’s last night as the historic Wincanton Print Patchquick Trophy staged its 73rd event at a sun-drenched Little Silver circuit near Exeter.
Images courtesy of Dave Rich
The crowds piled in to watch the action, and with the sun beating down the track received a heavy dose of watering before the racing commenced which kept the dust down to almost non-existent levels throughout the evening.
The heavy watering made it tricky for the first Patchquick Trophy race where the top 40 qualifiers from practice would ply their trade, and it was these tricky conditions which caught out pre-race favourite Elliott Banks-Browne in the opening salvo, falling no less than three times. It was two times winner Jake Shipton who looked the smoothest in the first race and with the holeshot and some super smooth and quick early laps he took control of the moto from start to finish. All the action was behind him however with Michael Ellis making a fantastic start and holding second, from Luke Hawkins, Luke Burton, Taylor Hammal, making his first appearance on a 450, and the fast charging Banks-Browne. Banks-Browne would yo-yo between himself, Hammal and teammate Burton, eventually pulling clear of this duo to chase down Ellis, and move into an eventual third behind Hawkins who rode a stormer in second, with Ellis fourth, Burton fifth and Hammal sixth, ahead of the two-stroke duo of Brad Anderson and Todd Kellett.
After some frantic first lap action in Moto 2, it was Banks-Browne who emerged from lap one in the lead after moving past the fast-starting Shipton. Banks-Browne kept Shipton at arm’s length for the whole moto, although this wasn’t without controversy, as Elliott, after making a mistake which forced him off course, cut through the infield wilderness before rejoining the track, which caused complaints from a few. To be fair to Elliot, he backed it off on the next downhill so as not to make up any ground on the detour. Backmarkers came into play in the latter quarter of the moto with Shipton bearing down on the leader, but Banks-Browne held on for the win. Hawkins once again showed he has the speed and fitness to race at the top level still and although Hammal got close on a few occasions, Hawkins would stay in third, with Hammal fourth who fought past Burton and surprise early front runner Aiden Williams. Burton would hold onto fifth from Anderson, Kellett and his teammate James Dunn in eight with Ellis in ninth and Luke Dean rounding out the top ten.
The gate was set for a final moto showdown and as the gate dropped the two main protagonists of Shipton and Banks-Browne were setting a fierce pace at the head of the field. The gap hovered around the two-second mark with Banks-Browne not being able to quite get on Shipton’s back wheel until they hit the backmarkers where on a couple of occasions Elliott got a sniff. Shipton kept his cool the whole moto long and with three laps to go and some swift moves on the lappers he edged ahead with Banks-Browne giving up the challenge and leaving Shipton to cruise home to take his third Pathquick Trophy. Again behind the lead duo, the racing was intense as the remaining podium places were still to be decided. After seven laps of trying to pass Burton, Hammal moved his way into third where he would stay, rounding out an excellent 450 debut for the young racer. Burton would hold fourth, while Hawkins was battling with Kellet for fifth with the two trading places before the Honda-mounted Hawkins would take back control into fifth from Kellett, Ellis, Anderson, Charlie Cole, and James Dunn.
When it came down to overall, it was Shipton, from Banks-Browne, with Hawkins taking a phenomenal third from Hammal and Burton.
A beaming Shipton said of his win “Its been a really good night. I came here straight from Desertmartin, so qualifying and the first race I was a bit set in the sand, but I went back to the hardpack days and remembered how to ride it. The second race was good with Elliott, I closed him in towards the end but couldn’t make the pass, then in the last one, he was on me from the get-go. The main thing I was thinking about was not to make any mistakes as the track was really slick, and I think I broke him three or four laps from the end. The sun went down way before our race, it was getting a bit sketchy, but I am really chuffed. It’s great to win three, but I want to beat Badge (Badger Goss) who has won it four times and Thorpey (Dave Thorpe) who has won it five times so I will keep coming back.“
The second fastest 40, aka the B Group, were racing for the Speed Trophy and it was to be Elliot Cooks day notching up a pair of moto wins for the overall ahead of the young charger Tobias Sammut who fended off the old hands Mark Cornish in third and Chris Brown fourth.
In the C Group, it was Matt Clarke with double moto wins who would take the Holne trophy ahead of Matt Daines and Marcus Alba.Once again the Patchquick trophy provided an entertaining evening of racing with a great atmosphere, and full line up’s so roll on the next one and well-done everyone involved for putting it on.
Highlights edit to follow…
Results
Patchquick Trophy
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3
1 731 Jake Shipton 132 45 42 45
2 144 Elliot Banks-Browne 127 40 45 42
3 8 Luke Hawkins 118 42 40 36
4 575 Taylor Hammal 113 35 38 40
5 14 Luke Burton 110 36 36 38
6 10 Michael Ellis 104 38 32 34
7 998 Todd Kellett 102 33 34 35
8 60 Brad Anderson 102 34 35 33
9 200 James Dunn 96 32 33 31
10 172 Rob Holyoake 89 31 28 30
11 44 Luke Mellows 87 29 29 29
12 2 Daryl Bolter 85 27 30 28
13 161 Aiden Williams 83 30 27 26
14 140 James Kensington 72 24 24 24
15 505 Ross Parkinson 62 22 15 25
16 52 Luke Dean 59 28 31 –
17 15 Ross Kersey 58 15 16 27
18 221 Todd Leadbitter 58 18 19 21
19 56 Jamie Buckingham 53 14 20 19
20 95 Brad Thornhill 52 9 21 22
21 5 Harvey James 52 19 13 20
22 616 Troy Jones 49 13 18 18
23 41 Dan Wade 47 21 26 –
24 11 Ben Clayton 43 20 23 –
25 711 Louie Kessel 42 10 9 23
26 13 Ben Gibbons 37 – 22 15
27 77 Luke Oldfield 37 26 11 –
28 338 Ben White 34 – 17 17
29 195 Jack Gribble 33 8 25 –
30 82 Charlie Cole 32 – – 32
31 101 Thomas Townrow 29 16 – 13
32 22 Pete Bulley 27 11 – 16
33 611 Callum Gordon 26 12 14 –
34 961 Reagan Skinner 25 25 – –
35 181 Aiden Newitt 24 – 10 14
36 951 Bradley Maddever 23 23 – –
37 152 Luke Sturgeon 17 17 – –
38 177 Cameron Packer 12 – – 12
39 139 Aaron Austin 12 – 12 –
40 177 Cameron Packer 7 7 – –
41 181 Aiden Newitt 6 6 – –
42 338 Ben White 5 5 – –
Speed Trophy – B Group
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2
1 86 Elliot Cook 90 45 45
2 771 Tobias Sammut 80 42 38
3 51 Mark Cornish 78 38 40
4 97 Chris Brown 73 31 42
5 35 Caius Hill 69 35 34
6 761 David Ford 69 36 33
7 115 Taylor Edan 69 40 29
8 17 Harry Matthews 65 29 36
9 814 Jordan Meredith 64 32 32
10 53 Kyle Breslan 61 34 27
11 *55 Josh Caddy 59 24 35
12 702 Adam Treen 54 23 31
13 111 Dave Colton 52 26 26
14 773 Dan Hartley 51 33 18
15 208 Lewis Hunt 50 22 28
16 242 Mathew Wells 48 18 30
17 199 Kieran McLelland 48 27 21
18 777 James Chard 45 21 24
19 72 Carl Mcilroy 44 25 19
20 241 Kona Jenkins 42 28 14
21 251 Tom Brown 39 17 22
22 554 Jamie Knight 36 16 20
23 901 Colby Walker 35 12 23
24 356 Brendon Phillips 32 19 13
25 156 Josh Griffiths 30 30 –
26 151 Cole Baker-Edwards 29 4 25
27 339 Dominic Stoneman CH 29 14 15
28 20 Josh Symons 27 15 12
29 80 Luke Heaver 23 7 16
30 511 Scott Williamson 22 5 17
31 923 Jak Ford 21 10 11
32 *3 George Jones 21 13 8
33 703 Matthew Treen 20 20 –
34 69 Reegan West 18 9 9
35 95 Dalton Sprake 16 6 10
36 6 Jack Matthews 15 8 7
37 82 Ashley Monks 11 11 –
Holne Trophy – C Group
Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2
1 55 Matt Clarke 90 45 45
2 3 Matt Daines 84 42 42
3 137 Marcus Alba 78 38 40
4 121 Dean Milden 78 40 38
5 510 Dave Abraham 68 36 32
6 76 Alan Packer 65 31 34
7 5 Danny Miller 63 27 36
8 311 Ian Legg 62 29 33
9 762 Paul Ford 62 32 30
10 191 Morgan Limpus 61 33 28
11 135 Ben Harding 58 34 24
12 601 Tom Sharpe 57 26 31
13 62 Oli Coate 57 28 29
14 251 Ryan Lock 57 35 22
15 12 Paul Bennett 55 30 25
16 63 Dan Cox 48 22 26
17 60 Jon Jones 46 11 35
18 500 Dan Cook 39 19 20
19 169 John Trevelyan 37 14 23
20 244 Tom Milton 37 16 21
21 775 Kieran Palfrey 36 17 19
22 26 Nick Grenney 33 21 12
23 321 Che Weller 31 13 18
24 614 Sam Warren 25 9 16
25 371 Simon Ring 25 10 15
26 175 Simon Harding 25 25 –
27 46 Zoe Deacon 24 7 17
28 94 Kester Wood 24 24 –
29 211 Tyler Volz 23 23 –
30 25 Dean Lewis 22 8 14
31 14 Mik Hill 20 20 –
32 84 James Read 18 5 13
33 495 Zak Sprake 18 18 –
34 33 Robert Coles 15 4 11
35 187 Mark Britton 15 15 –
36 711 Ashley Volz 12 12 –
37 617 Dan Hazeldine 6 6 –
