BRITISH YOUTH WEEKEND REPORT
THE 2026 British Youth Championship Rounds 4 and 5 for all classes 500cc, 250cc, 125cc and 125cc Support were held at Redcar and Leicester last weekend.
Ther were good numbers across all classes with 8 x 500cc at Redcar and six at Leicester, fewer numbers mainly due a clash of fixtures with Buxton v Middlesbrough fixture also taking place meaning series leader Stene Pijper and Charlie Southwick had to miss the Leicester round.
In the 125cc Championship class, six riders competed at both rounds and the 125cc Support Class had eight riders at Redcar and nine at Leicester.
In previous seasons the 250cc class has had the biggest numbers, but this season the majority of the rounds have had just three riders competing and this was the number at both Redcar and Leicester.
The racing this year has been particularly breathtaking and this includes all four classes, even the 125cc support class, and the weekend’s fixtures did not disappoint with the racing as good as you will see at any event.
The Redcar circuit always produces good racing and was the perfect venue for a Youth round, and in the 500cc class credit to all 8 competitors. However in Pijper, Southwick, Casper Kluczniak, Oli Bovingdon and Ollie Binns you could see that they are all either NDL regulars or in Kluczniak and Bovingdon’s cases they are ready for the NDL.
There were some fast times along with the fantastic racing and it was home favourite Pijper who just did enough in the Final to finish ahead of Kluczniak, Southwick and Bovingdon and not only end the night in first place with a championship score of 18 points, he did it in style by winning all of his five heats.
After being controversially disqualified in the qualifying heats after clashing with Southwick, Kluczniak picked himself up and claimed second on the night with Southwick in third. Bovingdon was placed fourth, just missing out on a rostrum place, and Binns missed out on a place in the final on countback and was placed fifth overall.
Even though there were only three riders in the 250cc class – Archie Rolph, Kane Newby and Demi Blu Harris – the racing was as good as any that you would see anywhere in the UK with Rolph and Newby in particular having some breathtaking rides.
Rolph won his fourth round out of four, with Newby taking a very credible second place and Blu Harris not out of contention completing the rostrum places in third.
The most competitive class in 2026 is the 125cc with six riders in this class – Fraser Buckle, Lewis Hague, Douglas Marshall, Oscar Berwick, George Climo and Ella Marshall – and any of these six are capable of winning a round.
The final at Redcar was full of drama with first Hague crashing in the final, then in the re-run Climo crashed which left Buckle and Marshall to have a match race with Buckle doing enough to win his second round in 2026 and Marshall claiming second, with Climo being awarded third place on countback.
The Support class was won by Redcar home favourite Seb Kelly with Aston Knott dropping his first points in 2026 claiming second place and Rex Austin completing the rostrum in third.
If the Redcar round was exciting then the next day at Leicester did not disappoint.
Fewer numbers in the 500cc class but just as exciting with Binns and Bovingdon matching each other in the qualifying heats on 11 points, and a coin toss had to take place for which would have first pick of gates in the final, with Binns winning the choice having selected heads in the coin toss.
Kluczniak made his second final of the weekend and Kayden Mundy claimed the fourth place just out scoring Liam Morris by one point.
For almost the whole four laps of the final there was just a whisker between the top three of Binns, Kluczniak and Bovingdon and that’s how it stayed with Binns claiming his first 500cc win.
In the 250cc class it was again a battle between Rolph and Newby with Rolph again claiming victory ahead of Newby and Charlie Fletcher.
For how good the whole weekend, was the highlight for everyone who attended both rounds was the 125cc final at Leicester where sensationally nine year old Oscar Berwick who rides on a scaled down bike with miniature wheels raced to the front in this final in front of the impressive Hague, Buckle and Climo to claim his first Championship win, and that included almost crashing on the last lap which made everyone watching gasp!
Berwick got the bumps after the heat and it’s probably fair to say he was the most popular winner.
Aston Knott won his third out of four Support Finals ahead of series leader Seb Kelly after the unlucky Callum Hague and Rex Austin retired with bike issues.
The Young Lions would like to thank both the Redcar and Leicester Promotions for their continued support
Current scores after 5 rounds –
500cc – 1) Casper Kluczniak 73, 2) Stene Pijper and Oli Bovingdon 64 , 4) Ollie Binns 63.5, 5) Charlie Southwick 53, 6) Liam Morris 45.5, 7) Harry Fletcher 27, 8) Rocco Webb and Seth Norman 25, 10) Kayden Mundy 24, 11) Dylan Huthwaite 22, 12) Charlie Luckman 12, 13) Jayden Bailey 10, 14) Emerson Betty 3
250cc – 1) Archie Rolph 90, Kane Newby 80, 3) Demi Blu Harris 56, 4) Charlie Fletcher 26
125cc – 1) Fraser Buckle 80, 2) Lewis Hague 74, 3) Oscar Berwick 69, 4) George Climo and Douglas Marshall 60, 6) Ella Marshall 51.5 7) Callum Hague 10.5 8) Rex Austin 9
125cc Support – 1) Seb Kelly 80, 2) Aston Knott 70, 3) Cody Smith 55.5, 4) Junior Travers 46.5, 5) Jenson Braithwaite 46, 6) Callum Hague 36, 7) Jessica Cox 34.5. 8) Rex Austin 28, 9) Ezra McNair 23.5, 10) Cody Evans 22, 11) George Sheasby 19, 12) George Climo 18, 13) Lukas Astley 11, 14) John Cox 10
