Davies And Pettitt Perform At Pontrilas  (Mar 24, 2010)

Round 7 of the British 2 Stroke Championships took place this past weekend at the incredible Howton Court venue at Pontrilas, near Hereford and the naturally shaped, earth circuit provided one of the best days of 2 stroke action we have seen this year.

2009 Championship series leader, TM 125 pilot Jim Davies, was joined for the first time this season by long standing TM campaigner and reigning British 125cc 2 Stroke Champion Jonathan Pettitt, Jonathan who was injured at the start of the year made his comeback at this event and showed he has not lost his touch with TM Racing's incredible 125cc 2 stroke machine.

With neither rider 100%, Pettitt still recovering and Davies suffering with a 'stitched' hand laseration, the result of a nail being ripped clean off and the finger torn open, qualifying began tentatively for both of the injured riders. At the end of the qualifying heats Jim posted the third fastest time in session A with Jon also third in session B.

The first Expert 125 race of the day saw both Jon and Jim get good starts, as they returned into view over the big downhill they were both in side the top six, Jon fairing a little better after the melee. As the race progressed the riders separated and making substantial ground became increasingly more difficult, Jon settled into second spot with Jim battling into fourth, holding those positions until the flag both riders started the day well.

As the gate droped for race two the threatened rain started to make an appearance, only light a light mist, but it was enough to make the polishing track a little more hazardous. Starting well again both TM 125 riders were in the thick of the action and leading at the sharp end of the field in no time, Jim however was to soon lose some ground on the front runners as he was very unceremoniuosly pushed wide over a berm in a very hard pass by Smith. With Jon slowly being pulled in by Smith a battle ensued that saw the riders swap places numerous times on different parts of the track whilst Davies was having his own battle with a line-swapping Dean. Dean pushed Jim a little too far on several occasions and Jim decided the championship points were more valuable than a battle that could see both himself and Dean crash out and settled for the points haul over his rivals. Pettitt was relegated to second and still being not 100% settled for the result as opposed to the satisfaction, crossing the line once more in second place with Davies again fourth.


The last race of the day saw the TM pairing getting the starts required again with Jon second and with Jim third, within a couple of laps Davies had made ground on Pettitt and was on his tail, however knocking his machine into neutral in the whoop section lead to Jim having a spectacular crash, being thrown over the bars and causing untold damge to the front end of his machine. Jim remounted his TM and continued to charge through the pack to regain lost places, with bent bars, the forks twisted in the triple clamps and with levers all over the place, it was not easy. Pettitt was now on a charge and was hunting down leader Morgan, Pettitt was relentless in his quest and posted some incredible laps on the slippery circuit which saw him reel in the KTM rider and sail past and off into a lead of his own to take the chequered flag with Davies incredibly making his way back to sixth place.

TM 's took two of the top three final positions with Jonathan taking the overall victory on the day and with Jim 3rd overall in the expert class, but more importantly Jim's Championship lead was increased over his rivals once more, with only 2 rounds of the series remaining Jim pretty much has both hands on the 2009 series trophy.

With thanks to all our sponsors and supporters: Electraction, ELF, Pirelli, Renthal, UFO clothing, Kleenrite, Carbone Lorraine, Regina, Pro-Clean, Fusion MX.

A big thank you once again to Bobby, Jim's tech, and a well done to everyone who helped on the day, to Jon on his comeback ride, to Jim riding again with injury (not that we would have known as he never mentions it !!) and doing the job as usual and finally to all the TM riders who competed on the day.

TM UK.

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