The famous Farleigh Castle circuit will again be ringing to the sounds of 2 strokes as the Farleigh Castle Vets Motocross Championship takes place there this weekend, 9th and 10th September.
Feature Image courtesy of Dave Rich
Team USA are sending a strong squad to Farleigh Castle in an attempt to lift the coveted Wulfsport Team trophy. Led by Tim Ferry – a legend in his own right – Cody Williams, Keith Johnston and Regis Harrington will face strong competition from both England and Great Britain in the five-race contest.
Of course, Team Belgium, last year’s winners, cannot be discounted, and they have introduced GP Legend Patrick Capps into their already successful squad.
Team Manager Danny Scheers has included two proven riders from recent years, Laurent Lacasse and Wim Couwberghs – both true Twinshock specialist, whilst the big news is that Patrick Capps will lead the Evo charge on his first visit to the West Country circuit. Also new to the event, David Segers takes the second Evo seat to take on strong teams from the USA and England.
England Manager John Marsh has announced a strong team for the home nation. Second in 2022, the quartet will aim to go one better with crowd favourite, Brad Anderson leading the squad on the Evo Honda and ably backed up by course specialist Ryan Voase, who has won previous races at the Farleigh Castle circuit. Jamie Law makes his first appearance for the team in the Twin shock category and Kris Winder is the fourth rider.
Wales were the first seeded Team to break cover and announce their four riders for 2023. With Glen Phillips taking over the role of Team Manager for the first time this year he has decided on an unchanged squad from the four who finished third last year. Phillips will be leading Andrew Gillett (Twinshock), Adam Cook (Evo) and Nathan Davies (Twinshock) with the aim of beating their third place finish in 2022.
Team Great Britain have plenty of quality in their line up which includes Jamie Skuse, Phil Mercer, Terry House and Ben Millward, while Team Northern Ireland are also packing a punch with Tommy Merton, Richard Bird, Trevor Cubitt and Chris Lappin in the squad.
With a minimum age of thirty two for riders, the event once again mixes two riders on Evo machines and two on Twin shocks in every race, so the Team Managers have their work cut out deciding on start gate positions. At least one rider in each team will have to start on the second gate (15 second delay) so they will have to fight their way through the pack on the traditional flowing Somerset circuit.
The team format will be the same as 2022 with Free Practise, Timed Qualifying, Qualifying race and one Moto on Saturday, followed by three Motos on Sunday. That adds up to seven track sessions throughout the weekend, whilst some of the riders will also feature in the support class races.
Of course there is plenty of other racing taking place with classes with stacked Super Evo, Evo and Twinshock classes doing battle throughout the weekend on Farleigh’s hallowed turf.
On the track front the big news is that the “middle hill” right in the centre of the main field is back in after a three years absence. Always a place for overtaking the fast uphill, which gets rough as the event progresses, is back in and of course right in view of the main spectator area. The exit from the woods has also changed this year whereby the first view of the riders will be from the top right of the main field, again giving more exposure time to the race fans.
Venue
Farleigh Castle MX
Farleigh
Hungerford
BA2 7RR
Tickets
Tickets can be purchased in Advance via https://www.farleighcastlevetsmx.co.uk/ or can be obtained on the gate
Weekend Adult Admission – £40
Weekend Child Admission (5-16 years) – £25
Sunday Adult Admission – £30
Sunday Child Admission (5-16 years) – £20
Weekend Camping Pass – Friday – Sunday (one vehicle) £45
Gate Opening times
Thursday Noon – 8pm
Friday 8am to 9pm
Saturday 7.30am to 7pm
Sunday 8am onwards.
Much hype has been placed about the USA – Belgium – England / GB battle so we look forward to seeing the everyone in the “Field of Dreams” this weekend.
Race Order
As usual all of the support classes will receive a free/timed qualifying session on Saturday followed by four motos over the weekend. The feature Team contest will follow the lines of last year, giving race fans plenty of on track action to see top riders from around the globe in action. A separate Free Practise session is scheduled for around 10am, with a ten minute Timed Qualification session at the end of all groups.
The Teams will then have a qualifying race for gate positions and one counting moto on Saturday plus THREE on Sunday, giving spectators excellent value for money.
9am Super Evo Qualifying 10 Mins
Evo 250 Qualifying 10 Mins
Evo Over 50 Group A Qualifying 10 Mins
Vets MX Team Race FREE Practise 10 Mins
Super Evo Over 50 Qualifying 10 Mins
ALL 125s Qualifying 10 Mins
Evo Over 50 Group B Qualifying 10 Mins
Twinshock Over 40 Qualifying 10 Mins
Evo Open Qualifying 10 Mins
Vets MXTeam Race Qualifying Practise 10 Mins
