Craig Branney and Craig Cook at the presentations
continued from previous spread
The fourth place in the A final went to Newcastle Diamonds’ exciting seven-year-old mascot Archie Freeman. This kid is one to watch – his no fear style of racing entertained the crowd no end!
The A final in the 140cc class was voted ‘Race of the Day’. Winthrop took an early lead, but Ditchburn was relentless around the outside, and then switched to the inside until he squeezed past to take his maiden victory in his first ever meeting. Behind them, Hitchen and Freeman had a close race, and on the last corner Freeman made his move to pass Hitchen. However, Hitchen used his knowledge of the track and made an excellent cut back to overtake young Archie as they crossed the finish line. The B final consisted of Josh ‘Geordie’ Armstrong, Luke McKenna and Whitehaven lad Kieran Taylor. Josh took an early lead, but Luke fought to snatch the victory. Josh then slid off on the last corner and as mechanical gremlins had claimed Kieran Taylor, young Josh pushed the bike over the line to claim second place.
In the 160cc novice class, Kyle Bickley from Moss Bay stole the show, recording four tapes-to- flag finishes in his heats, producing some very fast times. Kyle has a big future on the shale, and hopefully Northside can help him to achieve his dreams. The second highest scorer in the heats was Joe Lawlor, who is the Belle Vue mascot, and was very close to Kyle in all of their battles. Third place in the heats went to Kieran Douglas – a young man from Berwick who has only been riding for a year. Stephan Heanan from Newcastle completed the group, scoring a very credible seven points in his heats.
The final was expertly won by Kyle Bickley, who was closely followed
home by Joe Lawlor and Kieran Douglas. All riders in this group handled the tricky conditions superbly and showed a riding maturity way beyond their years. Everyone was intrigued to see how the riders in the 500cc class would handle the tight turns of Northside. The stand-out rider of the heats was Tommy Fenwick, who mastered the conditions and recorded four straight wins. Tommy was closely followed by the ‘ever-young’ Glyn Picken from Carlisle who had the biggest crash of the day, but as always, kept smiling and bounced back. Luke Crang from Darlington, a young rider who has unbelievably only been riding for a month, took third place in the heats. Completing the line up was Stefan Farnaby from Berwick, who has only recently moved up onto a 500cc bike.
In the final, Crang made an excellent gate, closing the door on Fenwick. However, Fenwick used the skills he learned this year riding National League for Scunthorpe, and made an excellent pass on the first lap.
Crang raced hard after Tommy, and this tenacity unfortunately forced him into making a ‘schoolboy error’ and Farnaby was able to steal second place from Crang, who eventually finished third. Glyn Picken retired with bike problems, but was still voted the rider of the day.
Congratulations to all the riders who took part in this inaugural racing event – they all did themselves and their families proud. This Saturday sees Northside’s last training session of 2012, followed by a Christmas party in the Waverley Hotel. However, after the success of Saturday’s meeting, we can promise big things for 2013. When the track re-opens in February, we will be using our new air fence, and can promise that there will be more Amateur meetings in the very near future.
words: Craig Branney CHARLOTTE BRANNEY
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