Grittenham - Wilts (10/10/2013) - Richard Avis claimed his second ACU British SXS Championship title following an exciting final round at Grittenham MX track. Dean Hyde took the overall win on the day with Paul Rowlands finishing second on joint points with Alfie Hyde in third. Avis had already given himself an unassailable lead, finishing the day in fourth. Organised by NORA SXS, perfect weather conditions complimented the superbly prepared Wiltshire based track as competitors fought for their final championship positions.
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Richard Avis earned his second British SxS Championship title at the final round piloting his Polaris RZR XP 900 SxS |
The Hyde brothers dominated qualifying with Dean 0.6 seconds faster than younger brother Alfie. Rowlands, Avis, Mark McCann were close behind with newcomer Dave Short impressing on his first ever time out to finish qualifying in sixth.
Dean Hyde took the holeshot and led for the first lap in race one until Alfie went for the lead and managed to battle past. The two opened the gap from Rowlands and Avis while Tom Fletcher was fighting his way up from ninth, making his way past Josh Barrett and Mark McCann. Alfie Hyde held onto the top spot to win the 15 minute plus two lap race after taking the best lap time and finishing 0.9 seconds ahead of Dean who had matched his brothers pace throughout the race. Rowlands and Avis took third and fourth with Fletcher making fifth and McCann just behind him in sixth.
Current overall Team Class leader Oli Beswick didn’t finish race one and sadly was unable to continue the challenge. That left the overall team standings wide open. After his excellent race one win, Alfie looked confident as he powered his way into the lead on the opening lap of race two. As the track smoothed out, the lap times were beginning to fall. Alfie was lapping two seconds a lap faster in this race with only Dean looking able to challenge him. In third and fourth place, Rowlands was keeping ahead of Avis who looked to be enjoying himself knowing he had the points to secure the championship overall. Fletcher was still aiming to secure enough points to challenge for the team class title and managed to pass Avis moving up into fifth on lap eight.
After a faultless race, Alfie took the chequered flag and secured his second race win of the day. Dean was close behind and only 0.3 seconds slower than Alfie’s quickest time! Rowlands took third ahead of Fletcher with Avis and Barrett in fifth and sixth.
In the final race, Alfie took the lead with Dean just behind. As he pushed to extend his lead, he rolled his RZR leaving him two laps down before he was able to rejoin the race. Grabbing his opportunity, Dean maintained his lead ahead of Rowlands. Avis passed Fletcher with Berry passing Barrett. The action was fast and furious and lap times continued to drop. Alfie Hyde was still the quickest on the track, taking the fastest lap time of the day as he pushed hard to make up time and places but it wasn’t enough to beat Dean as he won the final race. Rowlands, having had a super consistent day finished second followed by Avis, Fletcher, Berry and Jason Rowlands. Alfie finished eighth, having driven incredibly to bridge the points gap he was facing after his off.
It finished overall on the day with Dean winning on 114 points and Rowlands in second, joint on 107 points with Alfie. Avis was fourth with Fletcher (who won the overall team class with maximum points) and Berry in sixth.
Those results were added to the season overall and with each competitors worst round points dropped, the championship title had been retained by Richard Avis. Rowlands finished in second with Fletcher in third.
In the team class, Fletcher won the championship ahead of Berry and Beswick. Avis won the solo class with Rowlands second and Alfie Hyde in third.
Park Lane Group Challenge Cup
The round 9 Park Lane Group Challenge Cup was a fiercely competitive affair with five competitors battling it out for overall victory on the day. It had started well for Brad Visser after he took the first two race wins before being unable to finish the final race. John Thorne took that win but it was Scott Hughes who took the overall win with three superb second place finishes. Adrian Loveridge finished second with Visser in third.
With the 2013 Championship now finished, the next event will be the presentations day. More details on this will be emailed and made available on www.rzrracing.co.uk. Exciting plans for a winter series are underway with further details coming soon. We have new sponsors on board and exciting plans which will ensure that the 2014 British SXS Championship will remain one of the most exciting MX series around!
For more details about the British SXS Championship,
please visit rzrracing.co.uk.
