British 2 Stroke Championship, Round 5  (Mar 16, 2010)

The incredible circuit of Skelder Bank, overlooking the famous seaside fishing town of Whitby, was to play host to round five of the British 2 Stroke Championships this weekend. The challenging course with its large tabletops, fast uphill and downhill jumps and numerous rhythm sections was to create some exciting 2 stroke racing once again.

TM 125cc expert rider Jim Davies, who was currently leading the championship by 35 points after round four of the series, went to Whitby with little hope of a good result after a crash in the previous weekends British Motocross Championships qualifying session saw him withdraw from the event due to his injuries, x-rays later confirmed he had indeed broken three ribs.

With the track slowly drying from the persistent rain showers that fell on Saturday afternoon and with a rather ominous looking sky looming overhead qualifying began. Group number one took to the track and for Jim it was a 'damage limitation exercise', to qualify into group 'A' was enough but 'racing instinct' took over and at the end of the timed session Jim had posted the sixth fastest time.

With the sky now clearing and the sun trying to make an appearance race one got underway. As the gate dropped Jim's TM 125cc machine hooked up perfectly and launched him into the first turn in second position. Trying to ride his own race and stay out of trouble, yet still on a good pace, Jim succumbed to his rivals in the first few laps and fell down the order slightly, however as the laps counted up Jim slowly managed to regain places lost earlier, taking no excessive risks he made sensible passes and did enough to secure more valuable points over his rivals, passing the chequered flag in fourth position.

Race two was nearly a replica of race one for Jim, a decent start again saw him at the sharp end of the field where he rode his own race once more, clean, tidy but still on the pace he pushed on. Howeve, Jim's competitors were still battling and some rather aggressive passing had left Smith and Redman tangled allowing Jim to slip into second place, Redman would later DNF, Smith remounted and fought on and in the closing stages would relegate Jim back into third position. With only a couple of laps to go and now in incredible pain and discomfort Jim knew third was good enough and secured another haul of points to add to his tally.


Race three was not to be the easiest for Jim, with the sun now blazing down and with the air becoming rather humid the gate dropped. An average start had left him with work to do, now running on adrenalin and struggling for breath due to the immense pain from his ribs, this was not the time to have to do battle. Jim fought on bravely and made up places lap after lap, knowing he was tied on points with Plowman he was determined to make a pass and that he did, latching on to the tail of Redman in the process. As the clock counted down on the last 125 expert race of the day and with Redman only yards in front sadly it was all over, fourth was to be Jim's final result of the day.

For his incredible efforts Jim was awarded with second overall on the day, first on points once wild-card riders are taken from the results, and, more importantly, he has now secured himself a bigger margin in the championship standings, he now leads the series by 140 points ahead of his nearest rival.


Jim, very well done, you done yourself proud.
And thanks to everyone else who helped on the day, Bob's as always !, Lauren, Lisa, Steve and Abi from KLEENRITE, and to all the sponsors and supporters, thanks.

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