Henry enjoys the good Life! 2021 Apico BSMA Nationals Round 1 – Race Report and Results

After all the complications of covid the Apico BSMA Clubman’s championship finally got underway at the Welsh hillside circuit of Pen-y-Bont nestled in the rolling hills the rocky track didn’t take long to kick up some big dust clouds despite overnight watering on the Friday night.

Report and Images by Ady Cowshall – Images of Speed

In contrast, nature did the watering overnight on Saturday to turn it into a game of two half’s producing near-perfect conditions for Sunday’s racing. With it being such a long time since the last time the BSMA nationals ran there were a lot of new faces and many returning in different groups making the racing unpredictable.

Group B adults were the first to see the gate drop and from the off, it was clear to see Guy Jacobs had been seeded in the wrong group being untouchable in both days racing putting on a clinic even after not throwing his leg over a saddle in close to 10 years! Behind him however it was a different story as the first moto had Brendon Eva clocking up the fastest lap time coming from a poor start right through to 2nd at the line, Jacobs had stretched out a comfortable margin and did not have to worry about the charging Honda pilot. Losing 2nd to Eva in the final laps was Martin Luckwell after a solid performance while behind it was chaos as riders were dropping like flies to a bug zapper! Ashley Simmonds, Jamie Hibbard suffered bad starts to pull through to round out the top five. With the demise of Eva in leg 2, Jacobs had it all his own way crossing the line with only 3 riders remaining on the same lap! Jordan Harris got out of the blocks well to hold down 2nd place for the first quarter of the race but then got overhauled by Luckwell and Simmonds. Joel Worthington claimed 5th spot.

Group B were the only riders to complete 3 races on Saturday as the conditions were deemed unsafe to continue and it was no surprise to see Jacobs charge to the line again with a commanding lead. Luckwell held of Simmonds for the podium places and behind them, Luke Price held 4th from the start to flag. The tussle for 5th saw the slow starting Milstead catch Thor Tucker on the final lap. With the overnight rain changing conditions somewhat this didn’t affect the lead for overall winner Jacobs, again a country mile in front by the finish showboating his way over the tabletop for the crowd. Behind the entertainment the action was hot despite the drop in temperature, Milstead, who seemingly likes to make things hard for himself charged through the pack in his best ride of the weekend to narrowly miss nabbing himself the middle step, thwarted only by Tuckers best ride of the weekend overhauling Harris and Luckwell in the early going to claim what would have been a victory had it not been for Jacobs. Luckwell slipped down the order, maybe due to fatigue or overnight beer! but did enough to round out the weekend in 2nd.

Adult A provided the fastest racing of the weekend with a surprise return to racing by Glen Phillips who gated and set off at a blistering pace to put a safe distance on the chasing pack. Nathan Frayne was heading the charge to catch the ex British championship regular and as the laps wound down the gap tightened and with the anticipation of Phillips fitness in doubt, it looked like Frayne would find his way to the front. It wasn’t to be the case though, Phillips responded and maintained position until the final lap when he buried himself too deep into a big dust berm going down allowing Frayne to take the win and Jake Curtis-Stevens to slip through eventually picking up a disappointing 3rd. Reagan Skinner held a lonely 4th ahead of an all enduro battle for 5th between 250 Kawasaki mounted Lee Sealey and 350 Husky mounted Carl Jones who had qualified fastest, Sealey taking the place.

The second encounter again saw Phillips blast off the gate to hold a flag to flag win with arch-rival Jones coming past Frayne in the latter stages to finish in the dust of Phillips. Frayne had the freight train of Skinner and Stevens hot on his tail as all 3 crossed the line with less than 3 seconds separating them. A notable charge through the pack from Jason Down saw him improve on his first race 9th with a 7th second time of asking.

The 3rd moto was held off until Sunday and with it being the first race on track conditions were slippery to say the least, catching Phillips out on the first turn going down leaving the door open for the nimble 250 Kawasaki of Curtis-Stevens to hit the front and despite early pressure from Jones on his 350 he stretched out an unassailable lead over the field. Dan Maule half 3rd for a few laps slowly dropping down to 6th before being gifted 5th by Down as he himself was having his best ride up to 3rd before throwing it away. Frayne had gone down in the first turn also and mounted a charge back to 7th one place behind the remounted Down.

The last encounter saw an atrocious start from Jones make his way back to 5th place with Frayne starting well but going backwards after an early pass from Curtis-Stevens and a mid-race pass by Down ending up one place behind Phillips who had again blasted out front only to have his trademark brake pad failure drop him to second as Curtis-Stevens scorched past seemingly loving the damper conditions going on to take a second win and the overall. Star ride had to be Down the youngster on his 450 Honda improving with each race and could be a contender for the championship moving up from a good start to take 2nd.

The Auto’s was dominated by Cohen Jagielski going with a maximum. Will Kremer kept him honest in the first moto finishing with him in view but took no further part in the meeting. Jacob Hackett suffered a bad start to the weekend having to come through the pack, setting the fastest lap in the process to eventually grab the final podium place at Alfie Pincher’s expense after Pincher had held 3rd all race long. It was a close-run thing for the 5th spot which went to Oaklan Winnal hounded by Jimmy Whiston, Elliot Shawyer, Rafe Symons, Cameron Berry and Seth Nichlinson all crossing the line with less than 7 seconds between them!

Jagielski gated well again in moto 2 and went flag to flag for his second win, behind a right scrap brewed between Hackett and Jamie Currie, Currie who had been outside the top 10 in race one showing the pace between the riders was tight lost track position to Hackett but kept up the pressure and re-passed to take a close second from Hackett. Finley Rundle another rider outside of the top 10 in moto 1 held a narrow advantage over Shawyer after Berry dropped down the order with an ailing Cobra machine.

Day 2 didn’t change a thing for Jagielski out front. Behind it was Hackett and Currie in a reverse to the 2nd moto followed home by Winnal and Symonds. The final moto was more about the final podium spot with a close-fought battle between 3 riders. Whiston held 3rd under intense pressure as Symonds pushed him but it was Pincher who got passed to apply even more heat to the flag.

Glory was shared by the juniors on the 65cc machines, it was Arthur Moore who had set pole in qualification but going down at the start of race one left him with it all to do! William Evans had made a clean start and despite Sean Smout setting the fastest lap time it wasn’t until the final lap he managed to get past Gruff Morgan to set after Evans crossing the line 3 tenths off the win! Archie Stapley started off well placed but by midway had dropped out of the top 5 being passed first by Ifan Wyn Rees who went on to finish in 4th with Cameron Chapman making late passes to get 5th Moore made no mistakes in the second outing following Morgan round initially making the pass and pulling a healthy lead to take the win. Morgan lost out to Rees in the final minutes with Smout close to demoting him a further spot. Marty Spires rounded out the top 5.

Race 3 saw Evans with another good start but went down in the early wet conditions leaving him an uphill struggle to get going. Morgan inherited the lead but not for long as Moore was on a charge to the front having already disposed of Rees. Rees then followed Moore through past Morgan and kept up the pressure on Moore not allowing him to relax out front. All the time Smout was there ready to make a move if the opportunity arose. Chapman was a bit further back holding Spires at bay for 5th. It was all going down to the last race, Moore poor finish in race 1 had left the door open to any one of the top 4 riders being able to take the overall with a decent finish. It was that tight there was only 1 point separating the top 3 after it ended.

In the end it was Smout taking the final moto and the overall tied on points with Mr Consistant, Rees who lost out to the win from Smout. Moore only 1 point behind with 2 race wins in third and second in the race needed that final moto to clinch the overall.

The Small Wheel 85’s saw the fastest pilot with the worst luck, 4 seconds quicker than the next rider in qualifying Shane Jones took off for a convincing win in moto 1 with nothing much happening to the race order from start to flag, it was Reegan Rogers, Danny Flude, Gethin Morgan and Cameron Meades in that order.

Race 2 again saw early domination from Jones as he took off into the distance, Flude trailed along behind, but by half distance rapidly started to gain ground as Jones had suffered a rear puncture. With a tyre at risk of coming off the rim, Jones steadily dropped down the order. Flude stole the win and after a great first race, Rogers also suffered misfortune as he lost his seat and started to drop down the ranks. Morgan got promoted to second and with the top 2 from race 1 going down the order Harry Woodland claimed the last step on the box and Meades made a late-race charge to oust Jayci Dix from 4th. Flude and Jones were locked in battle for the start of race 3 but Jones went down in the slippy conditions allowing Flude to grow in confidence taking the lead for the second time of the weekend. Rogers pushed hard and managed to get in front and hold onto a very small advantage over Flude at the flag. Jones had made up huge amounts of ground but ran out of time having to settle for 5th. Woodland once again got inside the top 5 with another 3rd with Morgan just behind.

Flude set the pace in the final moto riding in total control of the situation, keeping him in check Rogers was unable to challenge but was there to pick up the pieces had it all gone wrong for Flude. Jones’s luck just wasn’t there this weekend as another incident left him with too much ground to cover to get back on terms with the lead duo again having to settle for a lower position than the lap times suggested. Morgan and Dix rounded out the top 5.

The Big Wheel 85 class was the second class to be dominated by one rider, Benjamin Sullivan, doing a Vialle in qualifying over 3 seconds off the pace he came out swinging leading from the off and building a comfortable cushion over the chasing pack. The pack headed by Alfie Crealock-Levell fended off the rest with a safe second. Behind them, Sebi Moore fell from 3rd allowing both William Murphy and Max Miles through for 3rd and 4th.

Second time of asking it was another comfortable win with a cruise to the line for Sullivan, again Crealock-Levell couldn’t match the pace coming home another safe second. Ryan Mckinney started off inside the top 5 but suffered from the track conditions dropping down to 8th by the flag Miles came home a lonely 4th and 5th was hotly contested by Philip Tchorek and Moore trading places. Sullivan was again out on his own in the 3rd moto but with the changed conditions Crealock-Levell had his hands full of Moore who was making him work hard for his trio of runner up spots. A distant 4th was held by Murphy who had passed Tallis Price in the early stages and kept a small buffer over him to the flag. Discounting the fact Sullivan again cleared off in the last moto it was an exciting race with the Yamaha of Mckinney gating better than the rest of the field to put him in a surprise 2nd both Murphy and Miles fell while chasing the blue machine allowing the turn of Levell to close the gap and apply pressure, despite the noticeable lack of punch out of the corners the Yamaha held its ground on the long fast uphill straight losing no time at all and it was Levell who cracked under the strain going down handing Moore another 3rd place, Tchorek 4th and Murphy remounted for 5th.

The vets split into 35+ and over 45 provided some epic action from seasoned riders with the top rider from each group both getting maximum points and battling each other for bragging rights. It was Darren King in the overs that set pole in qualifying but come race time the slender half second speed difference was nothing.

Race 1 got underway and it was Unders Vet Jamie Dobson who hit the front with King tucked in behind, Sam Callow occupied 3rd and the singing 125 of Wildman Willis in 4th. Bryan Tucker held onto an early 5th until Christian Seldon and Ian James both passed. James getting the better of Seldon later in the race. It was all set to finish that way until Dobson made a mistake right at the end allowing the ever-present King to sneak past for the victory.

The gate dropped on moto 2 and apart from the front 2 trading places it was somewhat a procession, Dobson this time getting revenge. Race 3 saw a tremendous scrap for the lead. King was stalking Dobson the whole race and made his move with 2 laps to go only to have Dobson counter the attack to come back for the win with only a knats whatsit splitting them across the timing line! Willis vastly underpowered on his 125 was playing tunes to delight the crowd as his flat out style roosted the berms to again chase the big bore bikes home in 4th behind Callow. Seldon managed to pull through into 5th dumping Jonathan Craig out of the top 5.

The final fight didn’t materialise as King went down early on giving Dobson a break or so he might have hoped for as this time Callow closed right in during the final 2 laps, maybe due to fatigue or bike issues but the gap came down to just 2 seconds while Willis held on to 3rd briefly before King got the mighty 450 back on track.

The Youth Senior 125/250 class again scored separately but ran together provided some great action. Henry Life was another to score a full house but was made to work for it. The first race saw a fantastic start from Luke Woolgrove but he was soon under pressure from Life who made a quick pass not to be headed again all race. Woolgrove found the pace too hot as Matt Tolley and Connor Jago both made early pass’s. Jago then overhauled Tolley to finish second in front of Tolley while Woolgrove lost out to Ben Zeale at three-quarter distance eventually finishing 6th after a last-lap pass made by Harvey James on a mission after a horrible start. Life got off to another blinding start and no one could stay with him, Tolley and Jack Peacey both tried to keep pace but were both caught and passed by Lewis Wiltshire on his charge to make up for his first race 8th. Wiltshire ended up 12 seconds down on race winner Life with Ben Zeale suffering a poor start pulling through to 3rd. Levi Davies closed the gap right in on Peacey but fell short of 4th by just over a second.

Peacey got the Apico holeshot award in the final moto and desperately tried to stay in front of the fast-starting Life. It was a short-lived lead but he managed to cling to the roost for most of the race for a great second place ride. Davies had a blinder of a start also and held 3rd for some time before the thundering 4 stroke of Jago got past followed later in the race by Zeale and after an early crash James was on the warpath to push him out of the top 5.

Results

Auto’s

Junior 65’s

Small Wheel 85’s

Big Wheels 85’s

Senior 125’s

Senior open

Adult A

Adult B

Vets