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2008 saw Herefordshire Twinshock Club
host their annual “King of the Castle”
meeting at the world famous Farleigh Castle circuit. This year marked
a special year for the venue, as it is 70 years since the first Grass
track event was held there in June 1938. Since then the venue has
hosted both National and International motocross events and continues
to make history through its more modern day meetings.
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The weekend of the 5th/6th of July was a weekend of two
half’s; with fine dry conditions on Saturday and muddier wet
conditions on Sunday.
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One of the most popular classes for both entries
and spectators was the over 50s class. The racing was dominated by
the former world champion and peoples favourite Graham Noyce, former
American Champion Chuck Sun and top British Over 50s Twinshock rider
Peter Lightfoot. In race one on Saturday it was Lightfoot who shot
from the gate to take the initial advantage over Jack McEwan, Chuck
and Noyce, however by the end of lap four Noyce had slip past all of
his competitors to take a much deserved opening race win. In race two
Chuck had found his form and blasted his big Maico, lent to him by
main Maico man Bill Brown, to the front. Although pushed had by
Lightfoot all the way to the line, Chuck managed to hang on to a fine
victory. The overnight rain made conditions a little tricky on day
two of the event but the experience of top ex world champion Noyce
shone through in the opening race of the day as he took a great start
to finish victory. In the final encounter of the day the best hole
shot of the weekend was taken by Ken Shuttleworth as he was nearly
half a start straight in front of the others by the first corner. It
was however Chuck Sun who battled his way to the front and took the
final race victory of the weekend. A third in this race was enough
however to give Noyce the overall for the weekend and the biggest
cheer at the presentation at the end of the day’s events.
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In the over 40s class Saturday’s racing was a
complete French affaire, with French visitor Martial Briens taking
two much deserved victories. On day two however the trickery
conditions were more at home to National Twinshock over 40s champion
Chris Woodward who fought to take two fine race wins. These combined
with his consistent results on Saturday was enough to give him the
overall for the weekend.
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The 125cc and 250cc classes were combined together
to give some excellent racing. In the 125cc class day one saw James
Cole take two class victories ahead of Mark Hobbs and Andrew
Davidson. A non appearance from Cole on Sunday however handed two
much deserved class victories to Tim Young. It was however the
consistent riding of Ryan Newbury with top four finishes in all four
races across the weekend that gave Newbury the overall top spot for
the weekend.
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In the 250cc class two third places on the
Saturday for Dean Warren combined with a fourth and second position
on the Sunday resulted in him taking the overall for the weekend
ahead of Wayne Twidle and Lee Hartill.
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The 4-Stroke and CCM classes as in previous years
were combined together to give some excellent racing. In
the CCM class three wins and a third was enough for Richard Carter to
retain his CCM overall class victory for 2008. In the 4-Stoke class
the main racing was between Bryan Wythers and Tim Carter. In race one
on Saturday Carter took the first win of the weekend, but by race two
Wythers was into the swing of the conditions and over the next three
races dominated by taking three near perfect victories and the
overall class victory.
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In the
Clubman 1 class there were some great battles between eventual class
winner Tony Dinham and runner up over the weekend Toby Lightbown.
Dinham took the overall by taking three great victories and a second
position in race two on Saturday behind Lightbown.
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In the Clubman 2 class both victories in the dry
conditions of Saturday were taken by Jon Rutherford, however the more
tricky conditions on day two put paid to an overall victory, this was
taken by Chris Nunn who, with two seconds on Saturday and two wins on
Sunday was the most consistent point’s scorer.
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The International /
Expert class provided some excellent racing of the highest order. As
the gate dropped for the opening race of the weekend it was Tim
Carter that shot from the gate, but Gary Parker was not far behind
and by lap two he had managed to slip by and went on to take the
opening race victory. In race two however Carter was determined to
make amends and although pushed hard by Parker, Carter went on to
take a great start to finish victory. The overnight rain made the
track conditions more like an enduro and this played right into the
hands of top enduro man Jason Fraser who stormed to two fine
victories. Consistent riding however by Parker across the whole
weekend earned him the overall top spot.
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The Sidecar Expert class action was all about the
battles between Rob Wilkinson & Martin Hutchings and Paul Morris
& Mark Snell. Over the whole weekend both outfits took two first
positions and two seconds, resulting in a tie in points, however
Wilkinson and Hutchings took the top spot due to their final race
victory.
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In the
Junior Sidecar class top spot for the weekend was taken by Matt
Bodfish and his passenger Aaron Chatwyn.
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RESULTS
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Classic
2-stroke: 1 160 Keith Best, 2 7 Rich Warner,
3 677 Rupert Copping, 4 59 Rick Verbeeten 5, 398 Gerard Copping, 6 14
Tony Verbeeten
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Classic
4-stroke: 1 359 Carl Pope, 2 216 David Bell,
3 355 Phil Edwards, 4 721 Shaun Lovegrove, 5 31 Scott Faulkner, 6 58
Martin Perrett
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Over 50s: 1 33 Graham
Noyce, 2 63 Chuck Sun, 3 66 Peter Lightfoot, 4 28 Stuart Miller, 5 19
Martin Snape, 6 72 Ken Shuttleworth
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Best Over 60s: 53 Bill
Brown
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Over 40s: 1 62 Chris
Woodward, 2 76 Martial Briens, 3 14 Richard Carter, 4 511 Nigel Parker, 5
461 Chris Stone, 6 10 Chris Barker
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125cc:
1 157 Ryan Newbury, 2 98 Mark Hobbs, 3 169 Tim Young, 4 142 Craig
Gabbitas 5, 02 James Cole, 6 91 Dave Rowsell
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250cc:
1 716 Dean Warren, 2 174 Wayne Twidle, 3 193
Lee Hartil,l 4 185 Stephen Rowlands, 5 115 Richard Wood, 6 122 Warren
Berthiaume
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CCM: 1 14 Richard
Carter, 2 175 Dean Gray, 3 417 Nigel Andrews, 4 121 Andy Collins, 5 58
Mark Coo,k 6 67 Rob Waddington
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Fourstroke:
1 170 Brian Withers, 2 5 Tim Carter, 3 8 Lee Davies, 4 101 Thomas McEwan
5, 149 Richard Penhaligon, 6 221 Paul Webb
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Clubman 1: 1 7 Tony
Dinham, 2 771 Toby Lightbown, 3 311 Ashley Wainwright, 4 123 Paul
Hodgkins, 5 157 Ryan Newbury, 6 181 Robbie Savill
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Clubman 2: 1 94 Chris
Nunn, 2 331 Jon Rutherford, 3 176 Martin Small, 4 162 Nigel Rees, 5 97
Darren Mills, 6 787 Darren Pocock
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International
/ Experts: 1 191 Gary Parker, 2 13 Jason
Fraser, 3 5 Tim Carter, 4 611 Howard Standfield, 5 137 Walter Bickmore 6
76 Martial Briens
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Sidecars
Expert: 1 5 Rob Wilkinson & Martin
Hutchings, 2 1 Paul Morris & Mark Snell, 3 26 Pete Batt & Dug
Wood, 4 138 Tony & Scott Beeching, 5 7 Terry Parsons & Doug
Boyd, 6 99 Tucker Dow & Ross Parmenter
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Sidecar
Juniors: 1 30 Matt Bodfish & Aaron
Chatwyn, 2 111 Charlie & Ross Chivers, 3 74 Arthur Walton &
James George, 4 241 Dave & Steve Burge, 5 10 Keith & Jack
Patterson, 6 417 Andy & Leigh Carter
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Solo
King of the Castle: 1 170 Bryan Withers, 2 13 Jason Fraser, 3 359 Carl
Pope (Best Classic)
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Sidecar
Expert King of the Castle: 1 1 Paul Morris & Mark Snell, 2 5 Rob
Wilkinson & Martin Hutchings, 3 26 Pete Batt & Dug Wood
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Sidecar
Junior King of the Castle: 1 111 Charlie Ross Chivers, 2 10
Keith & Jack Patterson, 3 30 Matt Bodfish & Aaron Chatwyn
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