Travis shows his Steel! 2023 Acerbis Amateur Nationals Round 5 – Race Report & Results

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The Acerbis Amateur Nationals moved into the second half of the 2023 series at the legendary Farleigh Castle circuit just outside of Bath and with heavy rain on Friday and some excellent track prep from the team, the circuit was prime all weekend even with a couple of torrential downpours.

Race Report by Arran Murphy – Images courtesy of Matthew Rudd Photography

First up to hit the grassy hillside were the Acerbis sponsored MX1 class and what a tight affair it was too with some seriously close action. Travis Steels was a wildcard at the event and snook the overall victory in the final moto by taking a win to back up his previous 2-6-2-1 results. Just two points further back was another wildcard and a former 125 champion of the series in Jimmy Margetson, who claimed the final moto win on Saturday which helped him to runner up overall just ahead of current series leader Jack Beniston who was just one point further back. Will Hughes and Mark Roberts were there or there abouts all weekend to take home fourth and fifth places respectively.

Everything got tightened up in the Craigs Motorcycles MX2 category as we left Farleigh with a new points leader. Enduro ace Lee Sealey excelled on the old school circuit and especially in the wet conditions taking home two wins and three runner up spots to claim the overall victory and with it the series lead heading into Culham. Louis Vincent was a wildcard and was always in the mix claiming the three remaining race victories on his way to runner up overall while the ever consistent Alfie Calvert kept his championship hopes very much alive taking the lower step of the rostrum and leaving just 6 points down in the championship chase. Logan Wilcox took his Suzuki to fourth while former points leader Jake Winnard took fifth overall just 11 points back from Sealey in the series.

Alfie Calvert battling one of the heavy rainstorms

Returning to the circuit which was part of his 2013 British MX1 championship winning year, Kristian Whatley showed up to Farleigh in fine form claiming a maximum points haul in the ultra competitive Moto Connection 125 2 stroke class. The Yamaha man fended off the attentions of series regular Ash Harland who pushed Whatley all the way to the flag but ultimately had to settle for runner up overall but most importantly claimed a maximum score for the championship points. Fresh from his World Junior championship outing in Romania Freddie Gardiner took third overall even after a disappointing third race where he finished a lowly 13th while Paul Neal and Matt Ridgway rounded out the top five overall.

It was business as usual in the MX Dreams California Open 2 stroke class as Josh Spinks extended his already hefty margin at the top of the standings to a solid 62 points after claiming his third maximum points haul of the season as he dominated the weekend. Rory Jones pushed hard all weekend and ended up runner up in all five races to stand on the second step of the podium ahead of rival and fast starting Cumbrian James Dent. Drew Roe had a solid weekend with a 3-6-4-5-5 scorecard putting him back into the top five and consolidating his fourth place in the standings with just two rounds left to go. Mitch Armour claimed fifth just five points behind Roe overall on the weekend.

After a sixth place finish in the first moto, championship leader Riley Voase went on the take the remaining four race wins in the Manchester Xtreme Junior Open category and extended his lead to 94 points capitalising on closest rival Dan Nevitt not having the best of weekends. Lewis Petfield fresh back from injury took the opening race win but eventually had to settle for runner up overall after being pushed all weekend by Lewis Griffin who stood on the lower step of the podium. Marcus Feltham took a pair of runner up spots in the wetter races of the weekend which helped him to fourth overall finishing the weekend tied on points with James Milne.

In the Motoverde Ladies class reigning champion Grace Richards put her Honda on the top step of the podium once again taking four wins backed up by a fourth in the final moto extending her lead at the top of the standings to 90 over closest challenger Rebecca Newham. Even though she lost points Newham had a consistent weekend with 2-2-4-4-3 results for second overall just fending off Grace Packman who had a sterling final moto where she took a very convincing race win in the wetter conditions to help her finish third overall. A pair of former champions in Nadiya Jones and Tanisha Thomas rounded out the top five.

In the LS2 Helmets Vets Over 40 class the 100% win record is still well and truly on the cards as Ryan Voase once again went on to claim five race wins from five starts even having to come through the pack after a bad start didn’t hinder the Kawasaki man on his way to the maximum. Craig Chamberlain had a solid weekend and was mega consistent with 2-3-3-3-3 results on his way to runner up overall while Danny Tollett managed to fend off Carl Stannard and Lee Martin for the lower step of the rostrum, all three riders separated by just 6 points come the end of play Sunday.

The final group to hit the track were the Roberts Plant Engineers Vets Over 50 riders where Simon Bonsor extended his points lead with the overall victory but he didn’t have it all his own way as Ady Bradley took a couple of moto wins over the weekend to secure the runner up overall on the tie break with Richard Miller. The fast starting Cumbrian put up a strong fight in his quest for a race victory but unfortunately came up short and had to settle for third overall ahead of former champion Chris Brown, while Andy Watkins was always in the mix and eventually finished fifth overall.

With Farleigh now in the rear view mirror all attentions turn to the penultimate round being held at Culham on the banks of the River Thames on the 12th and 13th August.

Results

MX1

Pos	Competitor	Points	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5
1	TRAVIS STEELS	186	38	30	38	40	40
2	JIMMY MARGETSON	184	36	36	40	38	34
3	JACK BENISTON	183	40	40	29	36	38
4	WILL HUGHES	176	34	38	34	34	36
5	MARK ROBERTS	158	28	32	36	32	30
6	JAMES HUTCHINSON	154	30	34	32	30	28
7	KEELAN HOPE	142	26	27	28	29	32
8	BRADLEY FLAGG	137	24	26	30	28	29
9	SIMON BOOTH	130	27	28	25	25	25
10	JAY LEWIS	118	23	23	23	26	23
11	ED BRISCOE	116	22	29	26	22	17
12	KIA THIRLWELL	111	21	22	21	21	26
13	GLEN PHILIPS	110	29	–	27	27	27
14	BRADLEY BARFOOT	109	20	25	24	19	21
15	DAN WHITEHEAD	108	15	24	22	23	24
16	ADAM THIRLWELL	101	14	21	20	24	22
17	LUKE TURNER	88	17	19	18	16	18
18	LEWIS BARFOOT	84	16	17	17	15	19
19	TED BAILEY	77	18	20	19	20	–
20	CORY NEMETH	43	25	18	–	–	–
21	ARRAN WELLS	38	–	–	–	18	20
22	MICHAEL OGDEN	36	19	–	–	17	–
23	ANDY WILSON	32	32	–	–	–	–

MX2

Pos	Competitor	Points	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5
1	LEE SEALEY	194	38	40	38	38	40
2	LOUIS VINCENT	186	40	30	40	40	36
3	ALFIE CALVERT	180	34	38	34	36	38
4	LOGAN WILCOX	158	36	34	27	27	34
5	JAKE WINNARD	152	32	32	32	30	26
6	PATRICK GILLIGAN	150	27	36	25	34	28
7	TROY JONES	140	25	28	30	25	32
8	LEWIS MEADOWS	140	29	29	26	26	30
9	OLLY JONES	140	28	21	36	28	27
10	BEN WHITE	139	30	27	28	29	25
11	MITCHELL MEADOWS	134	18	26	29	32	29
12	HATDEN STEVENS	120	24	25	24	23	24
13	CONNER CHALLINOR	116	23	24	23	24	22
14	JORDAN HEARN	114	26	22	21	22	23
15	ADAM NEVITT	103	20	23	22	20	18
16	ARRAN MURPHY	98	22	19	19	21	17
17	LUKE PRICE	93	19	20	16	19	19
18	ALEXANDER MORRIS	86	16	16	20	14	20
19	KYLE NOBLE	74	21	18	18	17	–
20	ALEX CHAMBERS	69	14	14	14	13	14
21	DANNY BOORER	68	13	15	13	12	15
22	JAKE BAKER	49	17	–	17	15	–
23	LUKE POSS	47	15	17	15	–	–
24	TALLON C	39	–	–	–	18	21
25	KEIRAN WEBB	36	12	13	–	11	–
26	LEWIS COUSENS	32	–	–	–	16	16

2 Stroke Open

Pos	Competitor	Points	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5
1	JOSH SPINKS	200	40	40	40	40	40
2	RORY JONES	190	38	38	38	38	38
3	JAMES DENT	178	34	36	36	36	36
4	DREW ROE	164	36	30	34	32	32
5	MITCH ARMOUR	159	30	29	32	34	34
6	JAY CHEEL	154	32	34	30	29	29
7	ROSS BENTON	145	29	32	28	28	28
8	JAMES HANSCOMB	137	28	26	29	27	27
9	REECE WAINE	136	26	28	27	25	30
10	GEORGE BAYLISS	119	24	25	24	22	24
11	ALEX NEEDHAM	116	21	27	25	20	23
12	OLIVER BARNES	112	22	24	21	26	19
13	TYLER WILCOX	110	20	23	22	23	22
14	JASON MARTIN	110	23	22	23	21	21
15	JOE JORDAN	94	25	–	26	17	26
16	FRED BOX	79	19	21	–	19	20
17	JAMIE CASSIDY	56	18	–	20	18	–
18	JORDAN BARRS	55	–	–	–	30	25
19	CHAE JENKINSON	27	27	–	–	–	–
20	BEN WALKEN	24	–	–	–	24	–

125 2 Stroke

Pos	Competitor	Points	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5
1	KRISTIAN WHATLEY	200	40	40	40	40	40
2	ASH HARLAND	182	36	38	34	38	36
3	FREDDIE GARDINER	173	38	36	38	23	38
4	PAUL NEAL	166	30	34	36	36	30
5	MATT RIDGWAY	150	34	27	28	29	32
6	DAMON STRYDOM	149	28	32	30	30	29
7	HARRY LINTON	144	32	29	27	28	28
8	LUKE NEWMAN	140	25	25	29	34	27
9	COREY HOCKEY	135	7	30	32	32	34
10	ALAN PEACRE	130	26	28	24	26	26
11	TROY WILLERTON	129	29	22	26	27	25
12	HARRY BARKER	116	23	23	25	25	20
13	RYAN WAGGOTT	111	27	26	17	22	19
14	SEAN VENESS	103	21	24	20	15	23
15	WYATT McGREGOR	100	15	21	21	21	22
16	ASH CROSSLEY	96	5	20	23	24	24
17	OLLY HATHWAY	91	20	18	16	16	21
18	WILL TURNER	89	22	15	19	19	14
19	CAMREN JACKSON	80	24	–	22	17	17
20	JACK EVANS	80	19	16	18	11	16
21	ADAM DYER	70	11	19	15	13	12
22	SONNY NOBLE	68	17	14	14	12	11
23	BRYN BROOKES	63	16	10	13	9	15
24	ARCHIE TAYLOR	63	18	17	8	20	–
25	LOUIS PERRIN’BROWN	60	10	11	12	14	13
26	CRAIG REYNOLDS	52	12	12	11	7	10
27	TOM BLACKWOOD	39	8	9	10	6	6
28	OLIVER ELMS	35	6	7	9	5	8
29	JACK TOTTLE	28	–	–	–	10	18
30	JAMIE ALLAN	28	9	8	–	4	7
31	LEWIS COUENS	27	14	13	–	–	–
32	KRISTIAN HUTHINGS	18	–	–	–	18	–
33	JAKE CHAMBERLAIN	17	–	–	–	8	9
34	BENJAMIN SULLIVAN	13	13	–	–	–	–

Ladies

Pos	Competitor	Points	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5
1	GRACE RICHARDS	194	40	40	40	40	34
2	REBECCA NEWHAM	180	38	38	34	34	36
3	GRACE PACKMAN	174	32	26	38	38	40
4	NADIYA JONES	174	34	36	36	36	32
5	TANISHA THOMAS	163	36	25	32	32	38
6	CATLEN NEWMAN	144	26	29	30	30	29
7	LILLY MORELAND	141	29	27	28	27	30
8	AMBER McGREGOR	139	28	28	27	28	28
9	KADY MOORE	136	27	32	25	26	26
10	EMILY NOON	133	25	30	26	25	27
11	TAYLOR SCOTT	122	30	34	29	29	–

Vets Over 40

Pos	Competitor	Points	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5
1	RYAN VOASE	200	40	40	40	40	40
2	CRAIG CHAMBERLAINE	182	38	36	36	36	36
3	DANNY TOLLET	174	36	30	38	38	32
4	CARL STANNARD	170	30	34	34	34	38
5	LEE MARTIN	168	32	38	32	32	34
6	DAVID EVANS	152	34	28	30	30	30
7	ANDY LILENTHALS	139	25	32	28	27	27
8	NEIL GRIFFTHS	138	28	26	27	28	29
9	DAVID WILCOX	138	29	23	29	29	28
10	DALE SILK	119	23	22	24	26	24
11	MARK SUTHERLAND	117	24	21	22	25	25
12	MARK SLADE	110	19	27	20	21	23
13	GAVIN HALL	105	21	18	21	24	21
14	CHRIS ROWLANDS	94	18	20	18	18	20
15	STE MARLOW	92	26	25	19	22	–
16	RICHARD BRYCE	91	17	19	17	19	19
17	ANDY DUFILED	89	22	–	25	20	22
18	ANDREW LITTLE	82	27	29	26	–	–
19	JOHN CARRUTHERS	67	20	24	23	–	–
20	NEIL LONG	49	–	–	–	23	26
21	GARY CHESHIRE	49	16	–	16	17	–

Vets Over 50

Pos	Competitor	Points	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5
1	SIMON BONSAR	190	40	38	40	40	32
2	ADY BRADLEY	182	36	40	32	34	40
3	RICHARD MILLER	182	38	36	36	38	34
4	CHRIS BROWN	172	32	34	34	36	36
5	ANDY WATKINS	170	34	30	38	30	38
6	NIGEL SMORFITT	144	29	28	28	29	30
7	DAVE DUNN	144	24	32	27	32	29
8	CHRIS ELCOCK	137	28	29	26	28	26
9	EWAN JOHNSTON	135	30	21	30	27	27
10	PAUL WIECZOREK	124	17	26	29	24	28
11	ADRIAN LEWIS	121	21	24	25	26	25
12	BRIAN FRASER	107	22	22	24	15	24
13	STEVE HOWES	100	16	23	16	23	22
14	PAUL CURTIS	99	18	20	21	17	23
15	ADRIAN JESSOP	99	20	19	17	22	21
16	IAN WILSON	94	19	15	22	20	18
17	DAVID HOPKINS	91	14	25	19	18	15
18	STEPHEN HUMPHIRES	87	13	13	20	21	20
19	MICHALE JOHNSTON	73	15	18	13	14	13
20	STEVE ELFORD	72	27	27	18	–	–
21	ALAN REECE	69	9	16	15	12	17
22	SIMON SMART	63	23	17	23	–	–
23	IAN POSS	56	11	10	11	8	16
24	NEIL PRINGEL	47	10	9	14	–	14
25	STEVE MATTHEWS	44	–	–	–	25	19
26	VINCE LARCOMBE	44	6	7	10	9	12
27	JOHN CARD	39	5	12	9	13	–
28	PHIL WEST	29	12	–	7	10	–
29	COLIN BERRY	27	7	8	12	–	–
30	JAMES WITLOW	26	26	–	–	–	–
31	CHRIS STEMP	25	25	–	–	–	–
32	ANDREW PROSSER	25	3	11	–	11	–
33	PAUL RODGERS	23	–	–	5	7	11
34	ANDY STEPHENS	20	–	6	8	6	–
35	JOHN PRISTLEY	19	–	–	–	19	–
36	CHRIS MURPHY	18	4	14	–	–	–
37	TONY PRIESTLEY	16	–	–	–	16	–
38	ROB BAYMAN	9	–	5	4	–	–
39	NEIL JENKINSON	8	8	–	–	–	–
40	BRIAN LINTON	6	–	–	6	–	–
41	ed briscoe	5	–	–	–	5	–
42	PAUL BUNN	2	2	–	–	–	–
43	MATT JONES	1	1	–	–	–	–

Junior Open

Pos	Competitor	Points	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5
1	RILEY VOASE	190	30	40	40	40	40
2	LEWIS PETFIELD	182	40	34	34	38	36
3	LEWIS GRIFFIN	166	34	32	32	36	32
4	MARCUS FELTHAM	161	27	38	29	29	38
5	JAMES MILNE	161	29	36	30	32	34
6	KIERON MULLOY CARD	158	38	24	38	28	30
7	LIAM GUNNING	147	32	22	36	34	23
8	BILLY WIECZOREK	139	36	21	28	30	24
9	DAN NEVITT	135	28	29	27	22	29
10	SAMUEL RAYNER	133	24	30	26	27	26
11	JAMES NEWBY	126	23	28	24	24	27
12	TAYLOR MISSELBROOK	114	19	27	19	21	28
13	SHEA RYAN	108	26	13	25	25	19
14	BEN HUGHES	106	25	25	18	17	21
15	STEFAN ROBSON	92	20	17	20	18	17
16	THOMAS CARRUTHERS	92	10	20	22	26	14
17	TOM CARD	85	22	26	17	–	20
18	DAN TIMBRELL	81	13	15	23	23	7
19	SAM HAMER	78	15	23	12	10	18
20	KERION DAVIES	76	18	11	15	19	13
21	DAN EVANS	74	16	19	14	15	10
22	JOE WINNARD	71	14	8	13	14	22
23	ANTONIO SOUZE	71	21	6	9	20	15
24	ADAM BARFOOT	68	11	12	21	13	11
25	MATT BENNETT	58	7	18	8	9	16
26	LLOYD CLARKE	56	17	9	7	11	12
27	JAKE BASHFORD	54	8	14	16	16	–
28	ZAC CHEEL	36	6	–	10	12	8
29	JOSH OATES	33	12	7	11	3	–
30	TY MAYTOM-JONES	29	9	4	–	7	9
31	ADRIAN WHITCOMBE	26	4	16	6	–	–
32	KEIRON WOODS	25	–	–	–	–	25
33	TOM BERRY	19	5	10	4	–	–
34	RYAN NEALE	17	3	5	1	8	–
35	RYAN WOODS	14	2	–	2	4	6
36	BEN PROSSER	11	–	–	5	6	–
37	STURAT BARFOOT	9	1	–	3	5	–