BRITISH YOUTH UPDATE

REDCAR held the second and third rounds of the British Youth Championship for the 125cc and 250cc classes respectively on Friday night, with two entertaining events taking place.

First was the 125cc class who ran before the Cab Direct Championship fixture between the Redcar Bears and the Plymouth Gladiators, where seven riders took part across seven races with the winner for this round based purely on points after each rider completed four heats.

Round 1 winner Oliver Bovingdon made no mistake and for the second consecutive round was untroubled and claimed victory with a 12-point maximum.

If Bovingdon’s win was clear cut the two remaining places on the rostrum were not so, where all the remaining riders took points off each other, and the three riders behind Bovingdon all ended up on seven points, meaning that the countback system was required to confirm the rostrum places between Reuben Marsh, Lewis Hague and Rocco Webb.

Marsh claimed the runners up position, as although he failed to score in his first heat he then claimed two second places and won his last heat to end up on seven points.

Hague then just pipped Webb for third overall by also winning a heat, whereas Webb in his heats did not have a race win.

If the 125cc class was exciting then the 250cc class that took place after the Championship fixture was simply breathtaking.

Although leader of the series Cooper Rushen won all his heats, he certainly did not have it all his own way and had to fight for his race wins. However, Rushen ended up on a 12-point score and for this class a Final was held and Rushen had first pick of gates, in which he selected gate 2.

Both Ollie Binns and Archie Rolph ended up on 10 points each and the only way to split them for the gate pick was by ballot as both riders had two wins and two second places each, and they had both beaten each other during the heats.

Binns won the ballot and selected gate 1 in the Final with Rolph then coming off gate 3, which left Seth Norman coming off the unfavoured gate 4 in the Final.

Norman was unlucky during the heats as in his third ride he was leading Binns and Rolph but made an error around the first and second bends which made him go up on the infield and he was disqualified from this heat.

The tension was high for the Final and this showed when Rushen was a bit too keen at the start and touched the tapes, meaning in the re-run he was penalised and had to come off a 15-metre handicap.

The first lap of this Final was quite incredible with Norman, Binns and Rolph all entering bend 3 side by side with Rushen just a fraction behind.

As the race continued Norman was determined to win his first 250cc Championship round and had good speed all night, and although Rushen manged to pass Rolph and Binns to claim the runners-up position there was no catching Norman who went on to claim 18 Championship points.

Our best wishes go to Emerson Betty who crashed in his first heat and suffered a broken collarbone.

The series now moves onto Belle Vue on Friday.

Redcar Scores – 

250cc –

1. Seth Norman 18 Championship Points
2. Cooper Rushen 16
3. Ollie Binns 14
4. Archie Rolph 12
5. Casper Kluczniak 11
6. Charlie Southwick 10
7. Harry Fletcher 9
8. Jayden Bailey 8
9. Liam Morris 7
10. Emerson Betty 6

125cc –

1. Oliver Bovingdon 18
2. Reuben Marsh 16
3. Lewis Hague 14
4. Rocco Webb 12
5. Charlie Luckman 11
6. Kayden Mundy 10
7. Archie Whitelam 9