Watts powers to SB Series success in the absence of leaders
With the SB Series joint leaders Jonathan Mills-Keeling and Tomos Hales both absent, chasing riders took the opportunity to make up lost ground in round 12 – Wrekinsport CC’s Gordon Davies 19.
Wrekinsport CC’s Gordon Davies 19 doubled up as round 12, held over two laps of the club’s normal Shawbirch-Cotwall Bank circuit.
Dan Watt took a fine win in a solid 42 minutes 27 seconds, seeing off a strong challenge from the promoting club’s Chris Halford by 1:12.
Watts looked to be trying with all his might as he strained to reach the finish line, but his 10-mile split showed he faded a little on the second lap having already taken 56 seconds out of Halford.
Halford is having a quiet season by his standards, entering a limited number of races, but still took overall runner-up spot with 43:39 as well as being veterans winner from Bridgnorth CC’s Christopher Wood.
There was a real battle for third spot with Ian Bond holding a 12-second lead over Phil Roberts at the 10-mile point. However, Roberts came back strong, stopping the watch on 46:32 to push Bond into fourth by 26 seconds.
In the women’s race Emma Horne took a great win from Wrekinsport’s Clare Cotterill.
In the SB Junior Series, Ben Southgate took gold after taking another 20 points and putting himself into a mighty 110-point Series lead with his 48:01 effort – good enough for sixth spot overall.
The hottest day the UK has seen since records began saw riders keep in the shade for round five of the Mower Mec 2-Up Series, with just three teams braving a rare red weather warning and scorching conditions at Brimfield for the Ludlow CC 10 earlier this month.
A trip from Market Drayton proved well worth it for Sarah Grant and Mark Milton, who took a rare overall and mixed team win in a superb time of 21 minutes 59 seconds.
This effort lifted the pair up to the silver medal position in the overall standings as well as to the top of the mixed team table.
Revolutions Racing pair Graeme Donnell and Andrew Lacon were pushed into the runner-up spot by 11 seconds. The only other team in competition were Ludlow CC’s Nicky Doherty and Neil Taylor, who stopped the watch on 28:12.
There had been more teams involved in round four as Chris Riley and Rob McGregor sealed this year's title with another perfect score as Mid Shropshire Wheelers promoted their 10-mile event on the Queen's Head to Gobowen course.
They took the win by 13 seconds from mixed team winners Grant and Milton, with Emma Serjeant and Mark Hill third overall.
Having ridden the Hafren CC 2-Up with Karen Proctor, Jan Davies had the highly unusual distinction of tying with herself for top spot in the women’s series after this time teaming up with Olivia Hughes, posting 25:12 on their maiden outing together.
