Diss MCC staged round 4 of the Dave Barkshire on Sunday 21 August. Fifty-two teams of 2 riders faced the 3 mile course around parts of the Wattisfield Hall MX circuit including links via the ditches and banks with a fast flowing section in the adjacent stubble fields. Diss MCC staged round 4 of the Dave Barkshire on Sunday 21 August. Fifty-two teams of 2 riders faced the 3 mile course around parts of the MX circuit including links via the ditches and banks with a fast flowing section in the adjacent stubble fields.
The action kicked off at 10:00am with a planned four hours of racing. However, dust was more of a problem than expected and the wind was blowing the dust towards the village of Wattisfield. Additionally, rider feedback confirmed that visibility on the fields was challenging. The hugely experienced Clerk of the Course Andy Waters had to make the very difficult decision to cut the event short and the event was stopped after the first 2 hours.
With 2 hours of racing the leading championship class riders managed to complete 18 laps. Jamie Roper on the 450 Walters Medical/Jim Aim GasGas and his partner Ian Tutton on the 350 KTM managed to come out on top. With Roper slotting in 5 laps each session and only losing 3 minutes overall, Tutton backed this up with 2 sessions of 4 laps and lost no further time. Late entries, Craig Roper 250 Walter Medical/Jim Aim KTM and Rob Blackman 125 KTM showed that, despite running at the back of the experts, they were fast enough to take the runner up slot. They followed the same pattern as the winners with Craig clocking up 10 laps whilst losing four minutes and Blackman backed this up with 8 laps. The young Sudbury pairing of Jake Roper 250 AJN Steel Stock KTM and Billy Sargeant on the 250 Sarge Utilities KTM slotted into third. Jake managed to set the fastest individual lap with a blistering 6 minute 1.27 second lap but lost 2 minutes each session with Billy losing one each session. Jake’s faster lap, used as the special test meant they were able to relegate the experienced Tim Rose, 350 KTM and Dan Willis, 250 Honda to fourth.
The Diss club pairing of Adam Ranson 450 Ranson Racing Yamaha and Mark Chapman 250 KTM took victory in the Expert class with Ben Jones and Jack Gatland slotting into second.
The clubman class saw veterans Tim Ford 250 Beta and Paul Bennett 510 KTM take victory from the equally experienced Graham Mays 300 Husqvarna and Nigel Ross 250 KTM. Both pairs used their last lap to secure 17 laps but Ford and Bennett managed this by running 5 minutes late while Mays and Ross needed 6 minutes. These were the only 2 pairs to go for the extra lap and this secured them the top two positions, a lap clear of the rest of the significant clubman field.
The hard-working organising team faced huge challenges with posts almost impossible to get into the rock hard ground but the course rode well and gave good competition in each of the classes making all their hard work worthwhile.
With the final Dave Barkshire 2 man championship round being run by Sudbury MCC at Pebmarsh on 11 September. The Diss team hope the weather is kinder for our Sudbury mates.
Results
Watt_2Man_Res.2022
