Hopkins shines at 2026 Badgers Bash Scramble – Race Report & Results

Back on the weekend of August 15th & 16th, the annual Badgers Bash Scramble took place at Cotley Nr Chard in Somerset. Unfortunately, this was the last meeting to have Keith Taylor (Flip Flop) after nine years at the helm as he thinks it’s time to say good bye.

Race Report and Images by Dave Rich

A lot of work had gone into running the event with many people helping. The track was a fast-flowing track as with other years and proved very popular with riders, even though the woodland section was not used as it was very stony and dry, which would have been awkward to control the dust if they used it. There were six blocks of racing over the two days, but only the first five blocks would count for the overalls.

In the mixed Classic class there was a good performance from the Pre 74 360 Mx Yamaha of Martin Stephens who dominated the first two races on the Saturday before a new name appeared in the classics in the shape of Ryan Hooper who was having his first ride on his dads Cz 380 who seemed to like it like a duck to water as he took the remaining race win on the Saturday and took both race wins on the Sunday, but the consistency of Stephens saw him take the overall with Luke Hickie taking second overall with Thorne Pett third overall.

The Evo Under 50’s class saw the Cr 250 of George Hopkins win the opening two races on day one, but an ongoing ankle injury saw him sit out the third race, Finley Evans on his Cr 250 Honda had the best result on the opening day with two seconds and a win, but Sunday was a different day as Hopkins was on fire and won both races beating Daniel Hartley also on a Cr 250 Honda on both occasions, but this was enough for Hartley who with his consistency on both days took the overall from Stuart Cole on his 500 KX Kawasaki second overall ahead of Hopkins who took third overall, whereas in the Evo Over 50’s class there was three different winners on the opening day in the shape of Jason Alba, Matt Evans and Justin Carpenter and Carpenter continued his fine form on Sunday winning both races which gave him the overall, Andrew French and Ian Allen went into the last race tied on points so it was all down to the better result in the last race and it was French with the better result who took second overall from Allen.

This year’s event, for the first time, had a class for Super Evos, which was good to see. In the Under 50’s class it was Jamie Knight who won the opening race, but he had no answer in the other two races which were won by the Rm 250 Suzuki of Tyler Green who went on to win both races on the Sunday and took the overall with second overall going to Kyle Richards with Ellitt Warren taking third overall, but in the Over 50’s Super Evo class there was a fine display of riding from the YzF 400 Yamaha of Chris Brown who won all five races with North Devon rider Richard Tapscott finishing second to Brown in all five races taking second overall with Jamie Winbourne third overall.

In the Twinshock A class, the overall was to go right to the fifth race to determine who was going to take it. George Hopkins, who was out on a 1979 250 Red Rocket Honda which he had kindly been loaned by Flip Flop, was to win the opening two races on the Saturday ahead of the big 510 TC Husqvarna of Marcus Clare; however, the tables were turned in the third moto as this time it was Clare who managed to hold off Hopkins in the closing stages who took the win. Sunday again was all about Hopkins and Clare as they were to battle it out in the first race on Sunday, with Clare just taking it by two seconds from Hopkins, which meant as they went into the fifth race they were tied on points. Ryan Hooper again was having a good ride on his 490 Maico and did lead early doors before both Clare and Hopkins found a way past. Hopkins was all over Clare and did close going down into the corners, but the power of the Husqvarna coming out uphill was too much for Hopkins to keep with, and Clare just held off Hopkins by less than a second at the line to take the win and the overall from Hopkins, with Hooper taking third overall.

In the Twinshock B class, there was a fine performance of riding from the 250 Maico of Tom Kirby, who took the overall unbeaten, with second overall going to Chris Brawn, with Steve Dyer taking third overall.

In the Twinshock C class it looked as if Rich Ingersent on his 490 Yz Yamaha was going to take a clean sweep of wins, but he was denied that by the Craig Ruck who only rode on the second day who beat Ingersent in the first race on the Sunday, but Ingersent got the better of Ruck in the last race which gave him four wins out of five and he took the overall with James Pellow taking second overall ahead of Jason Back who took third overall.

For a change the decision was made to run a Over 60’s Twinshock class which proved very popular but in the end, there was only one winner and that was Alan Obrien on his little 125 Yz Yamaha who took the overall after taking four of the five race wins only to be denied a clean sweep by the Rm 500 Suzuki of Clive Price who with four second place finishes to add to his win took second overall and third overall went to Andrew Batten.

See the Full Results >>HERE<<