EXGB travelled over land and sea… well sort of… for rounds 3 & 4 for the 2023 EXGP British Electric X Championship for the Kids classes at the weekend.
The brand new Grove Farm venue on the Isle of Portland in Dorset created a fantastic and welcoming venue for the weekend with the grass/dirt combo on the circuit serving up some great action throughout the classes.
In the always competitive Auto E5 class, joint series leader after two rounds Jesse Barks made a late entry for Saturday and showed his liking for the circuit winning his three heats and the final for the round 3 victory. Local racer and former Revvi top gun Kolbe Red Sole kept Barks honest with a superb second with the hard charging Volt MX racer Frank Wallis in third. George Hutchings kept busy all day and put in a great day one performance for fourth ahead of the top E3 racer Maximus Hall who pushed hard all day to be in the mix with the bigger bikes. Elias Light had a good day in sixth while Oaklie Seldon on his E3 debut made a good impression to make it to the A final and finish seventh. The fast starting Millie England rounded out the A final finishers in eighth.
The Consolation final was won by another Auto E class racer Raife Western ahead of the Open E winner Darcy James who never gave up and battled with the Auto racers even with a power disadvantage. Ethan Kentch notched up some vaulable championship points in third ahead of Teddy Tarr, another rider to make their debut in fourth with Open E rider Sonny Laming fifth.
On Sunday Kolbe flourished without his championship rival Jesse on the track and rattled off two heat wins and a polished final to take the Round 4 top spot and to charge into the Championship lead with two rounds to go. Kolbe couldn’t relax though as Frank was always on the case and trying to reel him in. George made his way onto the E5 box for the first time with a great third. While Millie had a storming race to finish fourth which earned her a MotoTwenty5 Little Hero award for her efforts. Maximus was also on the gas on his E3 taking fifth and his class win ahead of Raife who made his first A final, finishing a superb sixth. Ethan also got in amongst it with seventh with Elias eighth.
Over in the B Final Sunday Racer Seb Phillips got the job done ahead of Oaklie who ended the day second in the Consolation Final and in the E3 class overall. Open E winner Darcy who had an action packed couple of days and ended the weekend with a double win in his class and third in the Consolation, with Teddy fourth, birthday boy Sonny in fifth, but second in the Open E and Isla Bargery sixth and third in the Open E class.
Kolbe, Maximus and Darcy would also take home EXGP Double Day Cups for accumulating the most points over the two days in their classes.
Anticipation was high for some more great action in the Mini E category which is stacked with Oset MX10 and 16″ racers. Last time out at Wheeldon George Hutchings and Ethan Kentch went hard at it winning a round each after some epic battles in both finals. Grove Farm was to be no different with these two again putting on a great show.
On Saturday it was to be George’s day, and the chequers in the Final would be his ahead of Ethan with stylish Portland native Nancy Good getting on the box in third. Oliver Fostun pitched in with a great result in the final with fourth, Mini-E debutants Louis Good and Harvey Nicol rode excellent to finish in fifth and sixth with Nina Squirrel riding well for seventh and Keyan Parry showing great improvement to make the A final in eighth.
Championship points are awarded in the Consolation final too, with the winner being ninth on the day and second being tenth and so on, so there is always plenty to race for in this one too. Lennie Lowe who just missed out on qualifying for the A final took a good win over Charlotte Cooke and Harri Fisher with all of these three riders showing lots of improvement over the weekend.
Sunday’s final was dramatic to say the least with crashes, falls and lots of battling throughout the field. Ethan was in a determined mood and make a fantastic start to take the early lead over George with the latter no answer to his rival who until the penultimate lap looked like he had the win in the bag. Lapped traffic would be Ethan’s downfall, getting caught up in a crash with another rider, he and George would both go down but it was George who would emerge from the carnage quickest and in the lead where he would stay to the flag with Ethan having to settle for second. Staying clear of the chaos was Lennie who had a tremendous race to finish third and land himself his first podium finish. Little Louis had a great race too for fourth, Oliver was fifth, Nancy would recover from a crash to finish sixth, Nina was seventh and Harvey was eighth and Devon Bargery was ninth.
Over in the Consolation Charlotte took a fantastic win ahead of Keyan who rode well, as did Harri. All of the Mini E racers deserve massive credit for putting on such a great show.
George with victories on both days also won the EXGP double day cup and now holds a six point lead in the series over Ethan with Oliver sitting in third.
The Oset 12.5 class is always a great class to watch with these littles certainly knowing how to rail their machines around the circuit.
Oakley Jones continued where he left off at round 2 at Wheeldon by winning all of races on both Saturday and Sunday for victories at Rounds 3 and 4. Great riding Oakley! Behind Oakley on Saturday there was a battle royal for the runner up spot with Kaylum Clark edging it the end by one point over Presley Purchase with Oliver Fostun just one point further behind in fourth. Epic racing guys. Harri Fisher and Eden Squirrel both rode superb for fifth and sixth.
On Sunday Oakley, as said rattled off three race wins with Kaylum following home on each occasion to end the day in second. Presley with his face painted like a tiger would also get on the podium in third with Harri fourth, Eden fifth and Oliver sixth.
Oakley would bring home the EXGP double day cup and now has a seven point advantage in the series over Kaylum with two rounds left which will take place at the Greenfield Dirt Track on the 19th and 20th August which is part of the Electric Dirt Bike Festival!
Julie and Paul would like to say a huge thank you to their team for their hard work over the weekend. A massive thanks go to the landowners the Laming family for letting us use their fantastic venue and for all of their support with this event.
A huge thanks also go to Graeme Gordon, Lauren and Will Thornton and Colin Ayles for helping us to secure the venue. Colin needs an extra special thanks for everything he did to help us get this event on. Lauren has also supported this event in so many ways too. Gratitude also goes to Liam Bargery for supplying the tyres, Ricky Good for helping at the track, Craig Rogers for bringing the digger over and working on the track and Tyler Nicol for working with Craig on this.
Other thanks need to go for Don at Revvi for always supporting our events, the team at Nora Motorsport for everything they do, the guys at Duck Smart, Moto Twenty5, Monsters of Dirt and Print Shop Express.
Thank you to Roxie @rox_shotz for her superb pics. Make sure you follow her on Instragram!
Onwards now to the epic Greenfield Dirt Track in Lincolnshire on the 19th and 20th August for the final two rounds of the Championship. Entries are now open here >> https://nora92.com/event/electric-dirt-bike-festival-exgp-rounds-5-6-revvi-masters/
For the Full Round 3 & 4 Results go to >> https://www.exgb.co.uk/2023-exgp-rounds-3-4-results/
For the Championship standings after four rounds go to >> https://www.exgb.co.uk/standings/
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