Top 10 for Chambers Racing at FatCat Heatwave

On one of the hottest weekends of the year so far, the Chambers Racing team headed to FatCat for the sixth round of the Revo ACU British Motocross Championship fuelled by Gulf Race Fuels.

Report and Images by ImageRich Media

The extreme heat across the weekend made the challenging sand circuit even more demanding for the team as they looked to continue their current form while welcoming Ben Franklin back to British Championship action.

The qualification sessions saw Glenn McCormick go 7th fastest in the MX1 class, while in the MX2 Tom Grimshaw was 9th with Alfie Jones in 10th and Ben Franklin 22nd. In the Youth 250 class, Harvey Cashmore was 9th fastest.

As the temperatures continued to rise, McCormick headed to the line for the opening MX1 Race. Unfortunately, a crash on the opening lap saw Glenn at the back of the field and with a lot of work to do. After getting up 16th, Glenn suffered another crash and had to do it all again and came back to 14th at the finish.

In the second MX1 Race, Glenn started just outside the top ten and started to move forward into 9th by mid-race, only to slip back to 10th at the finish after struggling with the heat late in the race. The two results gave Glenn 11th overall on the day.

In the first of the MX2 races, it was Grimshaw who started around mid-pack but was quickly up into 7th on the first lap. A small mistake would drop him back to 10th place before pushing forward to 7th at the finish. For Alfie, the opening race saw him start around the top 15 before a crash dropped him to the back of the pack and he was forced to push hard and finish in 15th. Ben’s first MXGB race since he broke his leg last year, saw him riding well and finish just ahead of Alfie taking 14th.

The final MX2 race saw Tom and Alfie both make good starts before Tom was taken down by another rider and remounted at the back of the pack. Ben started well and was around 15th on the first lap and slowly pushed his way forward to claim 8th. Young Alfie was riding steady in 7th place for almost the whole race until he struggled with the heat and slipped back to 11th at the finish for 13th overall. Following his crash at the start of the race, Grimshaw pushed as hard as he could in the heat and recovered to 14th at the flag and 10th overall. The star of the final MX2 race was Ben Franklin who stormed forward during the race, picking off riders one by one to claim 8th in the race and 11th overall.

Also competing across the weekend was Harvey Cashmore in the Youth 250 class. For this weekend, the class had been combined with the 125cc class. In the Saturday races, Harvey rode well and scored 6th place in the opening race before claiming 5th in the second race. On Sunday Harvey had another 5th and a 7th to round off the weekend in 6th overall.

Glenn McCormick – It’s not been too bad of a day, in qualifying I was 7th fastest and the times were really close. Then in the first race, I was looking forward to having a good race but unfortunately got pushed wide on the first lap and landed in the soft sand and went down. Then a couple of laps later I had a big crash and got back up and rode the best I could to get back to 14th. I was then looking forward to the second race and got up to 9th early on but towards the end struggled due to the heat and backed it down to come home in 10th.

Tom Grimshaw – Today was a tough day but I knew it was going to be tough coming into the weekend as a struggle at this venue and with the added heat we knew it was going to be hard going. The day started ok with qualifying in 9th and then in the first race, I got 7th after riding well and working my way forward during the moto. I felt good going into the second race and got 4th off the start but got taken down by another rider on the first lap and picked the bike up in last. I had to put a sprint in to catch up to the other riders and then as the race progressed, I just hit a wall and had nothing left in the tank and had to survive to finish 14th, which I’m disappointed about but I’m glad to be leaving healthy.

Ben Franklin – Today was my first British in nearly a year and prior to that it had been another year out, so it was like my second British event in the last two years, and I went into qualifying a bit nervous and it was ok but gives me something to work on. Then in the first race, I made an ok start and got up to 13th and had a little off-track excursion that dropped me back 4 places, but I managed to get them back to finish 14th, which I was happy with. Then in the second race, I made an ok start again and was in 15th and managed to work my way up to 8th so I was really happy with that result considering the heat and it being my first big event back.

Alfie Jones – It was a good day for me, I started with 10th in qualifying and then in race 1 I went down early on and was about 20 seconds behind the pack and managed to come back to 15th. In the second race, I had a much better start and was in 7th place, but towards the end, I started to overheat and struggled so went into survival mode to finish 11th which I’m still happy with.

Harvey Cashmore – It was a good weekend, the weather was extremely hot. Qualifying was not the best in 9th, then in the first race, I had an ok start and got pushed out but finished 6th in the 250cc class. In the second race, I pulled it out to get 5th. Then it was extra hot on Sunday and I got 5th and 7th in the two races.

Tim Chambers- Team Owner – It’s been a good weekend in hot conditions, the biggest highlight was seeing Ben Franklin return to British Championship action after a year out. He had a good race 1 for 14th and then a great ride in the second race to go from 17th to 8th at the finish which was a great performance and I’m so pleased for him to be back to the form he was in before his broken leg. Tom qualified well and had a solid first race in 7th place and then got taken out on the opening lap of the second race and came back from dead last to finish 14th, it wasn’t his best day at the office but showed his determination to dig deep. Alfie crashed in the first race and rode with bent bars to finish 15th, then in the second race he made a good start and was in 7th for 20 minutes but hit a wall and rolled it off to come home in 11th for his best result. Glenn as always gave it 100% and after two crashes in the first race came back to score points and then had a solid 10th in the second race. Young Harvey had a solid weekend going 6-5-5-7 across the weekend, so I am happy with all the rider’s effort and results in the heat this weekend.