Irwin out for some fun at Wickwar! UK EVO MX – Race Report and Results

Back on October 11th the Uk EVO MX series made its second visit this year to Wickwar in Gloucestershire.

Report and Images by Dave Rich

The event had previously been organised for the weekend before, but with the weather being so wet the meeting was postponed to a week later and what a good decision it turned out to be as the track was in prime condition and the weather was good as well.  With it had attracted many competitors and a few surprise entries like 2017 British MX1 and Pro MX1 MX Nationals motocross Champion Graeme Irwin who had switched to road racing more recently, but he was back on a dirt bike and was out to have some fun along with other well-known names like Tom Church and Jordan Booker to name a few.

As with other rounds and other events, no spectators were allowed in attendance and restrictions were to a high level with temperature control on entering the venue as well as strict ruling on masks to be worn at all times and social distancing.

In the Evo 125 class, the question was asked who was going to take the overall as there was plenty of talent capable of doing so. In the opening race, it was Elliot Barrs who had the best start and led into what was a hectic first turn with Glen Bixby in 2nd and Tom Church tucked in 3rd who was soon all over Bixby who he got past on the opening lap. Jordan Booker was soon to get the better of Bixby as did John May by the end of the second lap and they were pursuing Church who on lap 3 took the lead when Barrs bike came to a halt with a slight electrical fault. By the end of lap 4, Booker was all over Church desperate to find away past which he did a lap later when Church ran a bit wide on a right-hander, but Church was to stay with Booker ready to pounce on any opportunity that arose, but Booker held on to win by less than a second from Church with May taking 3rd.

Tom Church chasing Daryl Bolter in the Evo 125’s

In race 2 it was John Butler who led early doors before Booker, Daryl Bolter and Graeme Irwin who was now racing in two classes all passed him. Booker was easing away on lap 2 and looked as if he was going to run away with this one, but he was to make a mistake on lap 4 and dropped down the field. Bolter took over the lead who now had Church in 2nd after Irwin had slipped off and it was soon a battle at the front with Church all over Bolter, but Bolter held on to take the win again with Church less than a second adrift taking 2nd with May after not the best of starts taking 3rd.

Top class action in the opening Evo 125 class race led by Jordan Booker

The last 125 race saw Booker this time hit the front from the off followed by Church and May, but on lap 2 Booker seemed to slow and was soon caught and passed by Church and May. Both Irwin and Bolter were to close on May in the closing stages with both passing May entering the last lap with Irwin closing in fast on Church who he caught, but Church dealt with the pressure and took the win with Irwin just half a second behind taking 2nd with Bolter 3rd. This was to give us three different race winners, but the end of the day the overall went to Tom Church with Bolter 2nd overall and Booker 3rd.

Jamie Skuse was on a mission in the Evo 250 class

In the Evo 250 class, there was great drama and luckily no one got hurt as the second race was red-flagged when George Wolff’s bike caught fire when his fuel tap got broken and fuel was to leak out on his exhaust. The racing saw a fine display of riding from Jamie Skuse who ran away victorious in all three races, but fingers were crossed by Andy (dad & mechanic) as they came to the last race as the bike was starting to smoke a bit which was worrying them, to say the least, but it held out too much relief. James Kensington was again consistent finishing behind Skuse in all three races to give him second overall with Dean Stutt taking 3rd overall finishing 3rd in all three races.

George Wolff looks at his Rotax 600 after the flames had been put out

The Evo 500 class was dominated by Nicky Jones who won all three races from Alex Wallis with Ben Vincent taking 3rd overall after pipping Lee Hayward in the last race.

In the Super Evo under 45 class expectations were high as to see how Irwin would favour. Welshman Ashley Greedy was to lead the opening race from Irwin with Nathan Davies tucked in 3rd. Both Greedy and Irwin eased away from the pack on the opening lap and were to have a real close encounter for a couple of laps before Irwin took the lead on lap 4 and from there went on to take a comfortable win from Greedy with Ben Milward after a couple of mistakes mid-race coming back to take 3rd. Race 2 saw Greedy again quickest out of the gate from Milward and Irwin, but Creedy’s day would come to an end as his bike stopped and it was Irwin who had got the better of Milward who was now leading and with a clear track in front of him was to go on to take the win from Milward with Gary Brown taking 3rd. In the last race, there was no Greedy and Irwin hit the front from the off from Brown with Jordan Carter there in 3rd who was soon to get the better of Brown and was up into 2nd but he wasn’t going to catch Irwin who made it a hat-trick of wins, Carter finished 2nd with Milward again coming on strong in the latter stages taking 3rd. Irwin took the overall from Milward with Davies taking 3rd overall.

Laurence Wiltshire in action in the Super Evo over 45 class

The Super Evo over 45 class saw a fine performance from Laurence Wiltshire on his CR250 who once he hit the front it was no looking back and he took a comfortable hattrick of wins. Rob Mead did lead two of the three races early on but had to settle for 2nd to Wiltshire in all races to give him 2nd overall with Simon Dearing 3rd overall after three 3rd place finishes.

In the Vets Evo over 45 class there was no Brian Wheeler who had took the overall wins at previous rounds, so the door was open for a different overall winner and that went to Danny Blakeley who notched up a clean sweep of wins with Simon Jones taking 2nd overall after three 2nd place finishes and 3rd overall went to Dean Warren.

Lewis Trickett on his PDF Triumph in the under 50’s Twinshock class

In the Twinshock under 50 class it proved a good day for the PDF Triumph with Lewis Trickett on board as he took a hattrick of wins to take the overall, Matt Nash was 2nd overall after a hattrick of 2nd place finishes with Brad Perrett on the other PDF Triumph taking 3rd overall.

In the Twinshock over 50 class, there was some of the best racing of the day which produced three different winners. Mark Gleadhill won the opening race after passing the early leader Greg Cox with Jim Shand winning the second encounter again after passing the early leader Cox, but the last race saw Cox make no mistakes and he led from start to finish, Shand got the better of Gleadhill on the last lap to take 2nd. The overall was a three-way tie-on points, but by virtue of the results in the last race, it was Cox who took the overall from Shand with Gleadhill 3rd overall.

No 808 Mark Gleadhill and Greg cox battling it out in the Twinshock over 50’s class

In the WME PRE 85 class, the overall on the day went down to the last race with Ashley Hudson and Sam Russell both with the same points after a win and a second each in the first two races. Hudson had the better start but was soon under pressure from Russell who really turned it on in the closing stages trying all the time on the last lap to find away past Hudson, but Hudson was to keep him behind and took the win by literally 0.238 of a second which was to give him the overall, Sam Russell took 2nd overall with Dave Russell taking 3rd overall.

Chuck Davies on his TM 125 in the modern under 50’s 2-Stroke class

In the modern 2-Stroke under 50’s class, it was the TM 125 of Chuck Davies and the YZ 250 Yamaha of Tony Griffiths who went into the last race tied on points, so it was going to be whoever beat who in the last race would claim the overall. Griffiths had the best start and led from Tom Gilbert with Davies in 3rd who was to stay in 3rd until 2 laps from the end when he got the better of Gilbert and closed right up breathing all over Griffiths on the last lap and made his move going up one of the hills and took the lead and with it the win which gave him the overall, Griffiths took 2nd overall with Ryan Butler taking 3rd overall.

The over 50’s modern 2-Stroke class was a carbon copy to the under 50’s class with Chris Pritchett and Anthony Tanner tying on points going into the last race, but in the end, it was Pritchett who passed Tanner 2 laps from the end to take the win and with it the overall with Tanner 2nd overall and Darren Short a well deserved 3rd overall on the day with three consistent rides.

Results

Evo 125

Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3
1 24 tom church 168 54 54 60
2 12 daryl bolter 157 47 60 50
3 114 jordan booker 148 60 45 43
4 35 john may 147 50 50 47
5 1 john butler 125 43 43 39
6 13 glen bixby 119 45 37 37
7 2 bradley wheeler 115 39 41 35
8 111 graeme irwin 101 – 47 54
9 55 jasper uphill 101 33 35 33
10 32 tom moore 93 13 39 41
11 27 matt coles 87 27 29 31
12 136 paul jones 87 25 33 29
13 341 elliot barrs 86 41 – 45
14 58 neil long 86 29 31 26
15 42 tim pearce 76 22 27 27
16 11 jason davies 72 23 25 24
17 10 george boyce 72 26 24 22
18 151 lee brean 71 24 26 21
19 125 steve bundock 65 20 22 23
20 793 taylor levett 53 15 18 20
21 26 harvey wright 53 17 17 19
22 37 nick pritchett 53 14 21 18
23 75 richard dors 48 – 23 25
24 8 daniel gissing 47 10 20 17
25 124 simon barry 47 12 19 16
26 43 jack may 37 37 – –
27 31 neil carroll 35 35 – –
28 7 dean bachelor 31 31 – –
29 93 ian mead 21 21 – –
30 241 finley jai trueman 19 19 – –
31 73 theo prince 18 18 – –
32 251 kelvin tatum 16 16 – –
33 25 mathew jakeways 11 11 – –

Evo 250

Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3
1 600 jamie skuse 180 60 60 60
2 140 james kensington 162 54 54 54
3 46 dean stutt 150 50 50 50
4 43 steven stutt 139 47 45 47
5 8 tyler green 137 45 47 45
6 4 billy saunders 127 43 41 43
7 18 scott allen 121 41 39 41
8 975 joel curtis 43 – 43 –
9 56 austin clarke 39 39 – –

Evo 500

Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3
1 3 nicky jones 180 60 60 60
2 11 alex wallis 162 54 54 54
3 85 ben vincent 147 50 47 50
4 76 lee hayward 144 47 50 47

Twinshock Under 50

Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3
1 214 lewis trickett 180 60 60 60
2 288 matt nash 162 54 54 54
3 511 brad perrett 140 50 47 43
4 181 andy bowles 125 37 43 45
5 43 dan dark 123 43 41 39
6 55 pete king 117 41 39 37
7 34 aaron baker 107 35 37 35
8 71 james king 105 39 33 33
9 598 allen waring 100 – 50 50
10 781 tom paulley 92 – 45 47
11 79 scott hooper 86 45 – 41
12 44 clyde thompson 66 – 35 31
13 712 gavin stearn 62 31 31 –
14 23 george wolff 47 47 – –
15 32 jay willis 33 33 – –
16 85 al king 29 29 – –

Twinshock Over 50

Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3
1 13 greg cox 164 54 50 60
2 329 jim shand 164 50 60 54
3 808 mark gleadhill 164 60 54 50
4 843 ade dark 131 41 45 45
5 144 vince crawley 127 45 39 43
6 156 graham challis 121 39 41 41
7 128 ady matthews 117 43 35 39
8 77 spencer briggs 109 31 43 35
9 54 derek mills 107 47 23 37
10 30 shaun church 94 – 47 47
11 25 derek cook 93 35 27 31
12 515 kevin spiller 90 24 33 33
13 53 mike sealey 80 29 25 26
14 661 steve davey 78 27 26 25
15 58 bob lees 74 26 24 24
16 84 adam tabrett 74 37 37 –
17 56 david smith 71 23 21 27
18 63 steve lees 67 22 22 23
19 596 mike hodges 64 33 31 –
20 321 tim walters 58 – 29 29
21 83 neil aldridge 42 – 20 22
22 602 lee perry 25 25 – –

Super Evo Under 45

Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3
1 111 graeme irwin 180 60 60 60
2 113 ben milward 154 50 54 50
3 29 nathan davis 135 47 45 43
4 241 gary brown 134 39 50 45
5 43 jack may 127 41 39 47
6 501 james price 127 43 47 37
7 30 jordan carter 123 45 24 54
8 39 kyle proctor 117 35 43 39
9 120 brett revell 113 31 41 41
10 541 richie frankcom 105 37 35 33
11 877 alex morris 99 33 31 35
12 16 ryan king 95 29 37 29
13 82 toby wright 81 25 29 27
14 72 simon marston 78 27 27 24
15 707 lewis patterson 76 26 25 25
16 7 nick ford 68 24 26 18
17 623 shaun adams 67 23 22 22
18 9 matt elliott 66 22 21 23
19 36 ryan reynolds 64 – 33 31
20 4 josh church 62 21 20 21
21 56 robert mills 57 20 17 20
22 95 liam walter 57 19 19 19
23 33 ashley greedy 54 54 – –
24 716 chris peaty 49 – 23 26
25 56 nathan grey 36 18 18 –

Super Evo Over 45

Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3
1 22 laurence wiltshire 180 60 60 60
2 141 rob mead 162 54 54 54
3 10 simon dearing 150 50 50 50
4 6 max hendy 137 45 47 45
5 119 dave white 129 43 43 43
6 242 ray chivers 125 39 45 41
7 7 steve matthews 119 41 41 37
8 111 mark mcgill 116 47 22 47
9 120 adrian saunders 109 33 37 39
10 36 stuart james 105 35 35 35
11 4 ashley brown 101 37 33 31
12 669 barry sills 93 29 31 33
13 210 ian prince 79 26 24 29
14 15 mike gould 76 24 27 25
15 19 rob hillier 76 27 29 20
16 102 kevin nash 73 21 25 27
17 3 mark finn 72 20 26 26
18 541 roger frankcom 70 31 39 –
19 41 simon klemice 66 22 20 24
20 24 mark upton 63 23 17 23
21 442 phillip jordan 62 19 21 22
22 115 paul harrington 57 17 19 21
23 137 tim palmer 36 18 18 –
24 43 paul woolford 25 25 – –
25 77 dan ridge 23 – 23 –

Vets Evo Over 45

Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3
1 739 danny blakeley 180 60 60 60
2 11 simon jones 162 54 54 54
3 116 dean warren 147 50 47 50
4 416 gary henson 142 45 50 47
5 70 andy lidington 135 47 45 43
6 168 peter archer 127 43 43 41
7 71 johnathan briggs 119 41 39 39
8 167 mark hutchinson 113 35 41 37
9 188 gary wright 107 37 35 35
10 68 martin king 104 22 37 45
11 149 kevin woolford 103 39 33 31
12 82 martin coleman 97 33 31 33
13 104 andy statham 83 27 29 27
14 156 steve angell 75 25 24 26
15 584 paul rainey 74 23 26 25
16 5 john annely 71 24 23 24
17 22 phillip jones 62 20 19 23
18 212 jon bloomfield 58 31 27 –
19 811 peter dixon 54 – 25 29
20 793 craig levett 42 21 21 –
21 7 mark pickard 40 18 22 –
22 245 martin haggerty 39 19 20 –
23 14 mik hill 29 29 – –
24 148 greg pascoe 26 26 – –

WME Pre 85

Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3
1 87 ashley hudson 132 45 42 45
2 72 sam russell 129 42 45 42
3 21 dave russell 120 40 40 40
4 288 jacob griffiths 108 35 35 38
5 123 james hudson 106 34 36 36
6 1 neil hudson 100 33 33 34
7 661 kyle banks 99 30 34 35
8 73 simon ells 96 31 32 33
9 46 jason winstanley 94 32 31 31
10 284 dean eggleton 91 29 30 32
11 63 paul parsons 86 28 28 30
12 164 nigel green 78 23 26 29
13 18 johnny stagg 77 22 27 28
14 15 craig jennings 77 26 25 26
15 66 john gerrish 76 25 24 27
16 212 zac hackett 74 36 38 –
17 246 stephen winstanley 56 27 29 –
18 27 neil mcmullen 47 24 23 –
19 118 kevin butcher 38 38 – –

Modern 2 Stroke Under 50

Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3
1 102 chuck davies 170 60 50 60
2 119 tony griffiths 164 50 60 54
3 204 ryan butler 148 47 54 47
4 606 matthew bath 135 45 47 43
5 71 blaine blackwell 131 41 45 45
6 749 sam russell 111 33 39 39
7 350 bradley clarke 111 35 41 35
8 45 matthew fews 105 31 37 37
9 40 tom herbert 103 39 31 33
10 211 jordan barrs 101 25 35 41
11 50 tom gilbert 93 – 43 50
12 131 mitchell gregory 86 37 18 31
13 44 ricky britton 85 29 29 27
14 36 josh crewe 79 23 27 29
15 24 henry smith 77 27 25 25
16 60 callum neate 73 21 26 26
17 28 greg wilcox 69 24 23 22
18 56 mark tiffen 66 20 22 24
19 12 wayne angell 66 22 24 20
20 171 dan turner 61 19 21 21
21 17 josh herbert 59 26 33 –
22 140 ryan zebedee 54 54 – –
23 86 dean chrippes 53 17 17 19
24 397 lewis sills 52 18 16 18
25 112 george gough 43 43 – –
26 84 james davis 42 – 19 23
27 402 james manning 20 – 20 –
28 156 gary heath 17 – – 17

Modern 2 Stroke Over 50

Pos Competitor Total Points r 1 r 2 r 3
1 19 chris pritchett 174 54 60 60
2 3 anthony tanner 168 60 54 54
3 196 darren shortt 147 50 50 47
4 1 jeff evans 142 47 45 50
5 8 jeremy timms 135 43 47 45
6 222 james adams 127 45 41 41
7 7 david loxham flyn 125 39 43 43
8 55 nick keen 119 41 39 39