After an extra long winter, it’s nearly that time again when Darren holds up the 15-second board and the gates drop for the Acerbis Amateur Nationals championship to kick into life, and what a series there is planned. 6 rounds at brilliant circuits all over the UK, starting with Fatcats in March before quickly moving up to Scotland and the superb Drumclog track. May sees Brookthorpe on the calendar before a summer break of 3 months before finishing the year off with 3 rounds in 6 weeks at Farleigh, Culham and Preston Docks.
Words by Arran Murphy – Images courtesy of Matthew Rudd
The 125 class is looking ultra-competitive with 2 times defending champion Damon Strydom running the number 1 plate for the second year, but he’ll have his hands full once again. 2024 runner-up Ryan Waggott returns to the series again alongside Ash Harland, Luke Newman, Matt Ridgway, Charlie Palmer, Stu Owen and Samuel Jackson. Josh Spinks is the biggest new name to the class after back-to-back Acerbis titles in the Open 2 stroke and MX1 classes in 23 and 24, while young gun Finley Pickering is signed up for the year, and Frankie Jubb will also be fighting up near the front.
In the Open 2 stroke class, Patrick Jackson will be looking for revenge after losing the title in what turned out to be the final round to Joe Jones after Jones made a second half-of-the-year run. Both riders return again, with Lee Truman also signed up for a second year while the ever-fast former 125 champions Cory Nemeth and Archie Hicks join the trio for what promises to be an exciting year of action.
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In MX2, the three dominant riders from last year are back. Josh Waterman, Henry Williams, and Dominic Newbury have all re-signed up to the series, and Scott Hamilton, James Lassu, Alfie Calvert, and David Plank are all ready to do battle with newcomer Jake Walker. Walker is taking his Honda to the line for a shot at an Acerbis title for the first time in 2025. Last year’s Junior Open champion, Jack Griffiths, has also moved up into the class.
After the closest MX1 championship in years in 2024, Chris Mills has to be starting as title favourite in 2025 as Josh Spinks has moved to the 125 class after the pair dominated the year last year, and with the first 2 rounds on Mills’ favourite surface, the sandy tracks of Fatcats and Drumclog will play right into the Yamaha man’s hands. However, he’ll have Arenacross man, Jayden Ashwell, FUS Marsh Honda’s James Dodd, Simon Booth, Dan Parry and Scot Tommy Fenwick all breathing down his neck throughout the year in what promises to be a thrilling year of action.
Paul Johnston will be fired up and looking to take the Over 40 championship after crashing in the eventual final round at Farleigh and losing the title due to a knee injury. Lee Martin was always nipping at Jonty’s heels, however, and will be there again this year to defend his title. Carl Stannard, who came into form towards the end of the year, will be looking for that top spot come the end of play at Preston Docks, along with Alan Pearce, who should be around the podium placings.
Phil Mercer will be looking to defend his 2024 Over 50s title aboard his FUS Marsh machine. Last year’s runner-up, Danny Tollett, is also in the mix once again, looking to take away that number one plate. Adrian Bradley is back for another go alongside former champion and fast-starting Richard Miller. Sean Smith is also fast and would love to put it on the podium, as would Simon Bonsor.
The Ladies has been dominated in the past few years by the 145 machine of Grace Richards, and she’s signed up again to try and successfully defend her crown once again. Amber McGregor and Caitlin Newman are both back after finishing runners-up and third, respectively in 2024 and looking to take the fight to Richards in 2025. Sasha Tollett, Hannah Jones and Sophie Jones will all be in the mix for a podium place.
The Junior Open class will once again be a tightly fought affair, with consistency generally being the key to this class. Aidan Carney is back in the series alongside Hayden Stevens, who came on strong towards the end of 2024, while Dan Nevitt moves back to the class he finished runner-up in back in 2023, along with another former podium finisher Luke Price. AJay Simpson, Billy Wieczorek, Frank Elwell, Ben Hughes, George Pool and James Milne will all be in the fight for the podium places throughout the year, it will certainly be an interesting season to see who comes out on top of this one.
The series kicks off this weekend 22nd & 23rd March at the Fatcats circuit, and it is definitely set to be a cracker.
