GH Motorcycles G&B Finch Team Update

This past weekend saw most of the team riders racing in motocross and enduro events for the Eastern Centre Championships. Round 6 of the Eastern centre motocross championship was held at the Cadders Hill circuit in Lyng. To a surprise the circuit was in fantastic condition considering all the rain we recieved leading up to the event, and the Norwich Vikings club was even able to get a machine up the infamous Cadders Hill and repair most of the holes and square edges up that have developed over the years of racing up the hill.

Qualifying started just before 11AM after a last minute struggle to get all the marshalls in place as a few didnt turn up. The three MX riders didnt have the best of sessions with the highest placed rider only being 7th fastest which was Brad Woodroffe with a time of 01:45.564. Brad Tomlin ended up 10th with a 01:46.611 and Brendon Mayers being 13th with a 01:47.585. the good news was that the times were fairly close overall so a good start would put all 3 riders in good contention.

Just before race one the rain started to come done very gently, knowing it wouldn’t play any factor on the track as the deep sand soaks it up well it was just going to be a vision issue for the three riders. Brad Woodroffe and Brad Tomlin got fairly good starts to put them just in the top 5 but they both didnt really produce much from there as both riders lost a few positions and ended up 6th and 8th by race end. Brendon Mayers wasn’t as lucky on the start and spent the whole race fighting for positions to finally cross the line in 15th. Race two had Brad Tomlin get a great start and start in 3rd and maintain it for most of the race until he developed arm pump and dropped back to 6th where he finished. brad Woodroffe started right behind Tomlin in but unfortunately went down whilst trying to make a pass on his team mate which dropped him outside the top 10 but managed to work his way back up to 7th. Brendon Mayers unfortunately didnt get a good start again and then later lost his goggles whilst working through the pack of riders and got another 15th. Race three was a total opposite for Brendon Mayers as he started in 2nd place which was fantastic as he has struggled recently with starts, he also put up a big fight and stayed near the front for a few laps before once again having to abandon his goggles but still ended up 8th to end the day on a high. Brad Woodroffe started in 4th and was comfortable there after fighting off a few competitors but unfortunately suffered a mechanical and had a DNF( Did Not Finish). Brad Tomlin was steady in race 3 after not having a great start but he soldiered on to finish 7th to keep up his consistent top 10 finishes on a circuit that doesn’t come as naturally to him

Overalls For The Day

Brad Tomlin – 7th

Brad Woodroffe – 11th

Brendon Mayers – 12th

Brendon Mayers racing with no goggles

Brad Woodroffe

Brad Tomlin consistent top 10

 Motocross Pictures Supplied by Ashley Bryant From Bryant Photography 

Final Eastern Centre Enduro Championship Round

In the prestigious Championship Class the current leader Aston Bird (GH Motorcycles/G&B Finch) was spending time with his family in the Isle Of Man and was a non starter which left Jamie Roper (Sudbury) needing third place on the day to retain his Title. He got off to a good start in the first Special Test beating Chris Hockey (Sudbury) by point 95 seconds while in the second Special Test he dropped his machine and Hockey won it by 3.90 seconds. All Hockey had to do was to ride the remaining sessions without losing time penalties and the win was his. For no apparent reason on the penultimate session Hockey clocked early which incurred a penalty of 60 points. This then put Roper in the lead with only the very tight for time last session to ride and he was a minute late incurring 60 penalty points and with Sam Toy (Sudbury) incurring the same penalty it gave Roper a 1.5 second win over Toy. It was a bad day for Hockey incurring another 120 penalty points putting him in 5th place behind Craig Roper (Sudbury) 3rd and Steve Mason 4th. Will Hughes had already won the Expert Class Title and was out to win a round for the second time this year but he was out of luck unfortunately he was forced to retire after the moose and tyre slipped off the rim.

Gavin Hockey

Gary Drage

Steve Mason

In the Expert Veteran Class the Title needed a win on the day by team owner/rider Gavin Hockey else Mark Chapman would retain his Title from Event Sponsor Gavin Hockey who could not add to his score unless he won on the day because as Chapman had missed a round and the best 4 scores out of 5 count all his points would be credited to him. These two fought it out tooth and nail with Chapman leading by point 23 seconds at the start of the last session; Chapman was a minute late while Hockey was 2 minutes late giving Chapman the win and the Title. Gavin Hockey said he just had no energy left on the last lap and after bouncing off a few trees decided to play it safe and bring the bike and himself home in one piece.

Overalls On The Day

Steve Mason – 4th – Championship

Wil Hughes – DNF – Expert Class

Gavin Hockey 2nd – Expert Veteran Class

Enduro Pictures supplied by Anthony Ridge and Paige Clarke