Clean Sweep for Edmonds On Home Soil  (May 19, 2011)

With the TM UK teams resident Irishman, Stuart Edmonds, wanting to compete 'back home' on one of the very few free weekends free from British motocross commitments and with a host of sponsors wishing to see the TM UK team in action on Irish soil, the TM UK team packed it's bags and headed for Ireland to compete in round 3 of the Irish Motocross Championships. With a late arrival on Friday night into Dublin Port the team settled down to a well earned rest before setting off once more on Saturday for a leisurely 2 hour drive down the south-eastern coast to the Ferns circuit in County Wexford.

The TM UK team ran a four man squad for this event which combined both MX1 and MX2 classes in the three race program, Jim Davies and Ashley Greedy both competed in the MX1 class with Jim on a TM 250cc 2-Stroke machine and Ashley on a 450cc 4-Stroke machine, whilst in MX2 Stuart competed on his TM 250Fi 4-stroke machine and Electraction TM Enduro team rider, Jordan Scott competes on a TM 125cc 2-Stroke machine.

With a watered track and some rain in the early hours it was a slippery affair as the four man team went out for their practice and timing session for gate pick, with the short session over the TM riders were at the sharp end of the respective classes and it was now time to get prepared for the three races on the schedule today.

As the gate dropped for race one it was to be a bad start for young Jordan on the 125, riding a bike that was unknown to him and with little time to perfect his start technique on this new machine it was to be hard work from here on in but an unfased Jordan set to work, Stuart, Jim and Ashley were all in the mix coming out of the first turn but it was Stuart who had to do some chasing against his MX1 rivals to push through the field. As the race began to settle Jordan had climbed his way through the pack with some incredible 2-stroke riding whilst team-mates Jim and Ashley battled onward against their competitors and each other, Stuart posted the fastest lap of the race and had now worked himself into the top MX2 spot and right in with the MX1 competitors at the head of the field. As the race came to it's conclusion Stuart did not have time to close the gap further to take an overall victory and had to settle with third place, first in the MX2 class, Jordan fought hard and pushed himself into the top three of the MX2 field, Jim came home in 6th place in the MX1 class whilst team-mate Ashley placed in 5th.

Race two saw 450 mounted rider Ashley take to the front and after a lap he had begun to pull a small gap over his rivals, however a still 'not 100%' Ashley could not hold his position and he fell back into the clutches of his rivals as the race unfolded, Stuart worked through the top ten quickly and was soon on Ashley's tail and it was not long before Stuart made a move that would see him take the overall lead. Jim was coming on strong and in the mid stages of the moto and he made a move on team-mate Ashley and put himself into the top 5, sadly for Jim some earlier contact had damaged his rear brake caliper and his brake began to fail forcing him to ease his pace and relegating himself down the order and undoing all of his hard work. Jordan put in some blistering times on the 125cc machine and was no sitting in the number 2 spot in the MX2 class and was running just outside the overall top ten. Stuart was now in an un-catchable lead and looking comfortable as the laps wound down, Stuart went on to take the overall win and the MX2 class win with team-mate Jordan on the 125cc machine coming home in second place in the MX2 class but in huge discomfort after twisting his ankle on the penultimate lap, Ashley came home in 6th place in the MX1 class with Jim only a few seconds in arrears nursing his bike home to 7th in class.

The last race of the day saw Ashley get the jump and he took the lead once more as they exited the 'bowled' 180 degree first turn, Stuart and Jim were not far in arrears and were running nigh on side by side, young Jordan succumbed to the pain of the twisted and swollen ankle caused in race two and pulled out of the race in the early laps, sadly for Jordan losing the chance to take the overall runner up spot in the MX2 class. Stuart and Jim charged onwards and it was not long again before Stuart took the overall lead of the race snatching the lead from team-mate Ashley as he push forwards, Jim looked strong and settled into a good rhythm allowing himself to pass a tiring Ashley and soon found himself in the MX1 top three. With Stuart heading the race and pulling away from both his MX2 and MX1 class rivals it was to a relatively unexciting race for Stuart who just pounded out the laps until the flag, Ashley, who is still struggling slightly with race fitness after recuperating from injury gradually slipped down the order allowing team-mate Jim to push on in the MX1 class and Jim still sat comfortably in 3rd place even whilst suffering from a front brake problem this time after contact once more had bent his disc. As the flag waved and ended the days racing for the TM UK team it was a jubilant Stuart who took the overall race victory and MX2 class win with Jim coming home 3rd in the MX1 class with Ashley finishing in 6th place in MX1.

The results for the day saw Stuart taking a clean sweep of MX2 class victories with 2 overall race wins and a 3rd place against his MX1 rivals just to back up his dominance, Jim finished the day with a 6-7-3 scorecard after some superb battles and whilst fighting some mechanical gremlins caused by incidents in the early moto stages. Ashley showed that he has the pace to run at the sharp end but unfortunately needs some more time to work on his fitness after his return back to racing from injury and finished with a 5-6-6 scorecard, Jordan rode superbly on a bike that was unknown to him to finish right up there in the MX2 class only being beaten by his team-mate Stuart, sadly the injury sustained in race two was to much to overcome and Jordan missed out on a podium placing in the MX2 class after placing 3-2 in the first two races but failing to score in race three.

With thanks to all of our sponsors and supporters.

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