Hill Tops the Castle! 2023 Wulfsport King of the Castle MX – Race Report & Results

The annual pilgrimage to the Wulfsport King of the Castle meeting at Farleigh Castle, hosted by Cumbria Twinshock did not disappoint, as over 370 riders converged on the rolling fields eager to get their best paddock position. Everyone has their favourite spot whether it’s down by the river or trackside to get closer to the action.
And you still get that warm feeling when entering the Field of Dreams even after all these years.

Report by Geoff Shuttleworth – Images courtesy of Andrew Fairclough Photography

The club did a fantastic job, considering there had been no real rainfall for over six weeks, and a Friday night shower did help, added to the gallons of bowser water to keep the dust at bay. The track was prepped to perfection come practice, and although it got dusty by the end of day one, it was perfect for day two.

The event started with a minutes noise for the sadly departed Dennis Slythe, which was a great touch, and it was also good to see the Steadman family in attendance, in memory of Phil Steadman, who started this event way back in 2000.

The Club also managed to run the final race of the weekend, The King of the Castle race, where all the top riders from each class go for gold. It was a fitting conclusion to a great weekend and saw a titanic battle between young gun Luke Hill and the evergreen Terry House. Luke really had his work cut out to keep Terry at bay, as each lap they could not be separated and had the crowd hanging over the fencing cheering them on, until Terry had a bike problem with two laps to go, which ended the terrific battle, and meant Luke took the crown.

As usual all eleven classes had two races per day, with some memorable racing in them all, and riders from all the UK. It would be difficult to give a report on every race, so here a few highlights to take away.

In the Inters Seb Dexter managed three wins to take the overall, from race three winner Matt Wells.
The Four Strokes were totally dominated by Scott Faulkner with a clean sweep, from Scotlands Mark Kenny in second.

There was a split start for the Over 60’s and Classic bikes, and some of the best racing was reserved for the Over 60’s, with Farleigh legend Dave Watson coming out on top with three wins, and only losing race one to Kevin Reed who made an audacious pass on the final downhill. Alan Bott would have finished in the top three but for machine gremlins in race four, but Chris Woodward took the third place on the podium behind Watson and Reed and Irelands Trevor Calderwood in fourth.

Cecil Pearson brought his Jap team over from Ireland to do battle with the Classics, and it looked like James Thompson was going to win the overall going into the final race, but Keith Rice on the CZ had other ideas. James had problems and finished sixth, meaning each rider had two wins with Keith taking the overall. John Griffiths on another Jap took third.

Lewis Cole took three wins to take the Clubman class from Steve Dyer and Shaun Thomas.

All the 125’s were in a split start race, and the Air Cooled riders put on a good show with Mark Warttig dominating with three wins, from race two winner Mark Beeston and Mark Fereday.

Ryan Allen was on fire in the Pre 83 125’s with three wins, but a DNF in race one meant that James Cole took top step from Allen and Gary Benham.

Kris Winder on a 125 Twinshock was up with the more modern bikes and had four easy wins to win the Twinshock class from Rick Gardner and Paul Lippitt.

Wayne Twidle had a great win in the Over 50 B class from Tim Cole and Steve Matthews.

Willie Burgess was unbeatable in the Over 50 A’s with four wins on the Gary Murphy Maico from Jason Morris and Mark Roberts.

The Experts put on a show as well with Luke Hill, Terry House and Alex Rach banging bars all weekend.
Alex had come out of retirement after four years, and but for bike problems may have been higher up the leaderboard. Luke ended up winning three to Terrys one, to take the laurels, and the speed was just great to watch. Kieren Genge took the final podium place on the podium.

Alan Pearce was top dog in the 250’s with three wins, from race one winner Matt Nash and Ryan Ireland from Cumbria took third.

Dean Warren on his Kawasaki took the Over 40’s with two wins from Matt Wells and Jody Barnes, and double winner James Price was fourth after an off in race one.

Danny Blakeley won the West Mids Evos 250 with three wins from Seb Dexter and Kyle Noble, and Jack Biddle won race two before having trouble in the final two races.

Bradley Briggs was flying in the West Mids 125’s to win the class from James Hudson and Jason Davies.
Matt Hitchman won three of the West Mids 500 races on his big four stroke, from race one winner Scott Reed on the Suzuki, with Sam Pocock third.

It was another great Farleigh catch up with friends old and new, and everyone is already looking forward to 2024 to meet up once again.

Results

Inters Twinshock
1 Seb Dexter, 2 Matt Wells, 3 Dan Roberts, 4 Steve Cadd, 5 Carl Benham, 6 Carter Burns.

Four Stroke Twinshock
1 Scott Faulkner, 2 Mark Kenny, 3 Marcus Feltham, 4 Sean Church, 5 James Humphries, 6 Ryan Palmer.

Classics
1 Keith Rice, 2 James Thompson, 3 John Griffiths, 4 Jos Goddard, 5 Sam Nicholls, 6 Philip Nicholls.

Over 60’S Twinshock
1 Dave Watson, 2 Kevin Reed, 3 Chris Woodward, 4 Trevor Calderwood, 5 Norman Emery, 6 Tom Lowe.

Clubman Twinshock
1 Lewis Cole, 2 Steven Dyer, 3 Shaun Thomas, 4 Same McEvoy, 5 Andrew Maddox, 6 Dave Lightbown.

Air Cooled 125 Twinshock
1 Mark Warttig, 2 Mark Beeston, 3 Mark Fereday, 4 Ian Knight, 5 Martin Stokes, 6 Charlie Johnson.

Pre 83 125’s
1 James Cole, 2 Ryan Allen, 3 Gary Benham, 4 Vince Price, 5 Darren Hoult, 6 David Bradbury.

125 Twinshock
1 Kris Winder, 2 Rick Gardner, 3 Paul Lippitt, 4 Paul Winstone, 5 Stuart Phethean, 6 Joseph Dent.

Over 50 B Twinshock
1 Wayne Twidle, 2 Tim Cole, 3 Steve Matthews, 4 Matt Milsom, 5 Jason Jenner, 6 Adrian Saunders.

Over 50 A Twinshock
1 Willie Burgess, 2 Jason Morris, 3 Mark Roberts, 4 Steve Wells, 5 Richard Benham, 6 Neil Eardley.

Experts Twinshock
1 Luke Hill, 2 Terry House, 3 Kieran Genge, 4 Phil Peaster, 5 Kristian Marshall, 6 Jack Alderton.

250 Twinshock
1Alan Pearce, 2 Matt Nash, 3 Ryan Ireland, 4 Sean Meighan, 5 Matt Bennett, 6 Luke Turner.

Over 40 Twinshock
1 Dean Warren, 2 Matt Wells, 3 Jody Barnes, 4 James Price, 5 Ryan Barker, 6 Andy Liddington.

West Mids Evos 125
1 Bradley Briggs, 2 James Hudson, 3 Jason Davies, 4 Dave Frampton, 5 Alan O’Brien, 6 Paul Ford.

West Mids Evos 250
1 Danny Blakeley, 2 Seb Dexter, 3 Kyle Noble, 4 Dave Russel, 5 Kevin Butcher, 6 Nicky Jones.

West Mids Evos 500
1 Matt Hitchman, 2 Scott Reed, 3 Sam Pocock, 4 James Reeves, 5 Ben Millichap, 6 Jack Jenner.

King of the Castle
1 Luke Hill, 2 Terry House, 3 Kristian Marshall, 4 Jack Alderton, 5 Scott Faulkner, 6 Ryan Allen.