Slade stars at Cusses Farewell! BSMA Apico Nationals Round 6 – Race Report & Results

The BSMA Apico national visited the long-standing popular circuit of Cusses Gorse situated between Salisbury and Amesbury in Wiltshire for the very last time for the penultimate round of the 2023 championship with double points up for the taking!

Race Report and Images by Ady Cowshall – Images of Speed

Thankfully, after weeks of bad weather, the days leading up to the weekend were dry with a heavy shower on Friday replacing the need for the bowser and creating perfect track conditions, apart from mother nature throwing a few gusts of wind about on Saturday.

The future of the sport were the first groups out, starting with a crushing show of speed and dominance from John Slade taking all 4 wins. The racing was a lot closer behind him, with Tyler Peaty hanging with Slade initially and Callum Harper on the blucru Yam showing that they are just as competitive only losing 3rd on the final lap to a hard charging Oscar Bird. Rhys Jones started the weekend well inside the top 5 until a slip up dropped him down to an eventual 8th in the first race. Mason Staddon looked to tire as the race went on, slipping back to 7th. Marc Bonnefin and Harper Powell both lost out to the trio of bad starters as these lad seared through the pack, led by Bird, Ronnie ‘Mac’ Morgan was hot on Bird’s exhaust and for the most part so was Francis Nellist as they went 3rd, 5th and 6th respectively.

Race 2 saw Slade again run off and hide while Bird started better and was hassling Peaty for the runner up spot – at half way he’d made the pass and held to the flag. Peaty got the hurry up as Nellist was coming on strong towards the end, and responded with his fastest lap on the 4th penultimate lap. Thomas Bailey got out of the gate well and held 3rd for a few laps crossing the line 6th. Morgan was the last to pass him with 2 laps to go.

Sunday saw very slippery conditions with the water that had been put down to combat any dust with the sun shining. Bird looked to have the jump on the pack as they came into the first turn but washed out the front almost collecting Slade in the process! Peaty came past the lap van behind Slade, but Nellist was relishing the conditions and powered by to hold onto 2nd over the line. A lot of fallers saw a lot of place changing throughout. Peaty, Jones and Staddon all tasted the Wiltshire soil. Peaty reclaimed 3rd by the flag and Jones 4th while Thomas Bailey was riding a steady race for 5th. The final race was a bit of a procession with the #288 taking another win from Nellist, Peaty, and Harper just holding off Staddon. Shout out to the Ronnie Mac, done more times than anyone coming back with the second fastest lap time in the final moto for 6th.

The Auto riders came to the line second, still with a relatively smooth track. Two riders stood out from the rest here; championship leader Mason Foreman and his closest rival Blake Bracey. Neither can afford a major slip up or the championship will be lost. Foreman took both races Saturday then on the slick Sunday conditions landed off the finish line table to lose both wheels from under him allowing the never far behind Bracey an opening to take the win. Foreman redeemed himself in the final encounter to go 3 out of 4 but everything is to play for in the final round.  Roy Townley headed the rest of the field with Sam McEvoy and Freddie Dennis crossing the line seconds apart. Louise Pengelly and Hugo Jackson traded places all race with Jackson finally getting the upper hand.  Race two saw Townley with work to do as he crossed the line in 8th on the opening lap. It wasn’t until over half distance before he’d caught Jackson and the final lap he managed to outdo Dennis leaving McEvoy with a fine 3rd.

Moto 3 had Townley too far adrift to make up a place with Foreman going down, but he had a safe distance over the rest. Dennis had to push hard in tracky conditions finally moving into 4th in the final lap at the expense of Jackson who was the first rider to pass the fast starting young lady Pengelly, who unfortunately fell foul to conditions a lap later dropping out of the top 10. Last moto was another “start where you finish” kind of affair with Townley getting a bit of a closer run thing this time from McEvoy in 4th. The romance between Jackson and Pengelly was struck up again as they took 6th and 7th. Well done to Oscar Morris on possibly the oldest bike in the class just missing out on a top 10 finish in 11th just a second behind that illusive 10th held by Leo Edwards.

The Small wheel 85’s saw championship leader Jack Brown have to battle hard in moto 1 with Lewis Jenks as he tried to claw back some points, but Brown found a line past at half distance to hold on for the win, with Jenks less than 2 seconds out over the line. Aiden Burke and Charlie Ward went at it hammer and tongs as Burke didn’t want to lose valuable ground on the lead duo with double points. Arthur Pozzoli lost out to Trent Walkley on the 4th lap as did Theo Stead to Edward Luker as the latter fought through from a poor start.

Race 2 saw Burke with the early lead but Brown was in contention and again at the halfway point moved to the front. Jenks seemingly had nothing to respond to the pair in front taking the flag 3rd. Walkley and Stead chucked away chances of a top 5 finish in the slick conditions both going down in the early going. Pozzoli looked a top 5 but faded back to 7th in the last couple of laps allowing Rylea Tilbury to take 5th with a safe 4th for Ward. Sunday morning saw Jenks hounding Brown all the way from start to finish but with no way past. Walkley held 3rd until the final lap allowing Burke past and nearly getting caught by Ward. Timmy Pengelly took 6th with Luker passing Bixby with a lap to go to re-gain 7th. The final showdown saw a rejuvenated Jenks lead from the gate to flag with Burke in pursuit while Brown and Walkley passed each other 3 times before Brown took the flag 3rd. Ward and Luker swopped places a couple of times under the watching eye of Stead as all 3 crossed the line in close proximity.

The Big wheel 85’s are always good to watch and with some wildcards in the mix all the better. The duo of Ryan Clift and Chris Brindley had the edge on the rest of the pack as this pair dominated. However both riders made mistakes proving you need to keep trying even when your rivals are quicker.  Clift and Brindley took the 1-2 with a big margin in race 1. Local rider and regular to Cusses, Fabian’Bubba’ Junior Morrison charged hard from a poor start to get to 3rd by the halfway mark with championship contenders Finlay Stead and Ashton Soerville following each other until Alfie Vevers split the pair putting Somerville down to 6th. Clift led them away in moto 2 with Brindley tucked in behind, but on lap 5 Brindley got his chance and while Clift took his time to re-compose himself Brindley was gone and away to the black and white flag.  Stead got passed for 3rd a few laps in by Vevers but was a few places to the good of Somerville again. Morrison needs a tyre sponsor as again a poor gate left him with an uphill struggle, eventually claiming 4th at the expense of Stead. Sundays slippery conditions did nothing to slow Clift as he went untroubled for another win. Somerville made a late charge passing Stead early in the race then claiming Brindley and Vevers to grab a fantastic 2nd, with Brindley slipping off back to 4th.  Stead was too far back to capitalise in 5th. Clift was back to the front in the last with Morrison hanging in initially before Brindley passed and tried to stay in contact with Clift. Somerville again beat rival Stead to basically keep them in the same position they started the weekend! All to play for!

Seniors as usual mixed 125 and 250f scored separately. With Harry Ridgway 250f and Max Corke 125 taking 2 wins each. With less than 10 seconds covering the top 4 crossing the line this looked to be the races not to miss. Ridgway led from the gate and stayed out front despite intense pressure from behind. Travis Laughton, Harry Lee and George Corke all kept the pressure on. Max Corke had been in the mix, but in the dying laps made a mistake to put him back to 6th behind series leader Kai Thorpe. At the second time of asking Ridgway again hit the front, but Max Corke had a mistake to make up for and the pair started trading places half way through, with Corke coming out on top to make amends for race 1. George Corke was up there in 3rd until Tom Goodfellow got by on the third time round only to lose another place to Thorpe as he then took off after Goodfellow passing him a lap later. Harry Lee again struggled out of the blocks but somehow charged through to 4th.

Race 3 saw Laughton take the lead, but it was short lived as Ridgway wanted it bad. By the second time round he had it, but couldn’t shake Laughton off. Harry Lee was actually inside the top 5 by lap 2 this time but could only manage to get within 6 seconds of race leader and ended up 3rd, 3 seconds down on Laughton. Max Corke slugged it out with Goodfellow for 4th with Thorpe a distant 6th.

The final Senior race saw Max ‘Cork’ it with a gate to flag win. Lee got his bast start of the weekend and then lost a place to Jamie Kuehn taking another 3 laps to get into his groove before re-taking the position and holding 2nd to cross the line a comfortable distance ahead of 3rd placed Laughton who in turn had a sizeable margin over Ridgway who didn’t seem to find his flow from a mediocre start. Noel Brooks took his weekends best result clear of 7th placed Goodfellow with Thorpe Bell and Alfie Smith rounding out the top 10. Smith clinched the senior 250f title despite being sick.

Vets was another mixed class scored separately, and saw both groups have a rider take a maximum, Mark Morris in the over 45’s and Luke Spence in the over 35’s. Spence cleaned up in the joint racing pretty much un-challenged after a couple of laps in. Dain Traylor looking a lot more feisty with a weekend’s sleep in him, gave Sam Callow a lot to think about all weekend up until the final moto when the strain became evident. Morris started off right in the mix with his younger rivals, losing out to Steve Martin early on, but then using his pace to keep up the sharp end with a 5th at the flag.  Ian James got a good start and battled in the early going with Lee Baggs and later with Roy Towney before finishing 8th. Richard Green stunned everyone with one of, if not the first Stark Varg to race the UK scene, starting off well he’s quoted as saying’ “I didn’t know what to do on the start!” not knowing how to get it off the line. But boy it certainly flew up the straight but spat him off on the increasing rough track having not been able to ‘set up’ the suspension in time to go race.

Race 2 Spence was out the gate and gone again Morris followed him then settled into 4th after the dicing pair of Traylor and Callow came by. Callow finally found his way into 2nd with just over 2 laps to go. Towney held Martin at bay for a lap before he set off after Morris to again finish just in front of the team doughnut rider.  Green had elected to go back to his 450 and park the Varg up until it was set up properly and managed a better result of 8th after Baggs pipped him with a lap to go. Race 3 was almost a carbon copy of the second but for the gaps being a lot closer as Spence noticeably took it steady with the slick track conditions. The same could be said for the final moto with everyone well spaced out and looking to go home in one piece such is the thinking of the vet rider.

The most entertaining racing came from the MX1 and 2 combined race with showman Ash Greedy busting moves most wannabe freestylers dream about. Greedy threw down a massive whip over the finish line on lap 1 showing his intentions to the following field. Greedy went unchallenged to take the first win. Behind him Louis Vincent and Josh Taylor both passed quick starting Sion Talbot with Taylor holding 2nd until the last but one lap when Vincent took over and held on by less than a second over the finish. Josh Greedy came through next with Sam Winterburn on an old evo Honda in close company. Race 2 and Talbot again got his machine moving quickest for another great start but Greedy was not to be held up and was soon into a commanding lead. Reagan Skinner started well but Taylor passed him and Talbot but had no answer for Greedy out front. Ben Zeale got his mojo flowing as he powered up the leaderboard coming to a stop behind Vincent and Josh Greedy in 7th before that old Honda of Winterburn caught him on the last but one!

Race 3 saw Talbot gate yet again. Vincent was 2nd, Taylor was 3rd and Greedy was down in 6th behind his brother. Josh Taylor saw his chance and moved into 2nd while Greedy was still dealing with traffic. Taylor was in front by lap 4 but Greedy was with him. Greedy passed him but Taylor immediately responded to re-take the lead. Again Greedy lunged to the front only for the lead to be regained. You had to be a nervous leader with ‘AnimalAsh’ behind you. All eyes were on the long whoop run up to the finish line as Greedy threw everything at Taylor crossing the line 3 tenths off the win! Last race of the day had the large crowd lined up along the fencing overlooking the track. Greedy was not to be outdone, he wanted the prize money most and he proved it with another faultless ride to take the win from Taylor who put up a good fight with Talbot getting his second podium ahead of Vincent, Greedy and Steve Bixby and Ben Zeale 6th and 7th.

Results

Auto’s

Junior 65’s

Small Wheel 85’s

Big Wheel 85’s

Senior Open

Senior 125

Vets Over 35

Vets over 45 

MX1

MX2