BYJL: Midlands region concludes in Wednesfield
The Midlands regional rounds have been a great success this year, with plenty of good racing and most importantly plenty of new faces, and these came to a conclusion yesterday at Wednesfield where the overall trophies were decided.
In the U8s it was a win on the day for Boyd Haines, but second place for his Wednesfield team-mate Corey Burt was enough to see him claim the overall title with 90 points ahead of Boyd on 70 points.
The 33/18 News trophy cabinet finally got something in it as third place on the day overall went to Autumn Smith on 63 points. Young Sophie Ball deserves a mention for her consistent performances which made her fourth overall.
Two other diminutive figures made a big impression yesterday with Kylan Bould taking fourth in the A final while Leicester’s Liam Jones entertained everyone with his passing moves. But best of all everyone enjoyed themselves.
It was same again in the U10s as Connor Steel claimed his fourth win and 100 points overall, but he has been made to work hard this year.
Second placed Kyle Wells (78 points), third placed Wyatt Jacobs (70 points) and fourth placed Dylan Hawtin (64 points) have made this a very competitive section, with plenty of excellent races, which can only have helped to improve all their performances.
The closest fought section was the U12s with the final positions all depending on the A Final. In the Coventry corner of the pits Joe McLaughlin’s abacus went into meltdown as he calculated all the permutations.
Leicester’s Sophie Sinclair-Black had won all the qualifying races in fine style, which earned her an invite to the next Women’s League event. She had to win the final to be guaranteed a share of the title.
Jack Reynolds, still suffering from the after-effects of a fall at the previous round which was not helped by a nasty fall in his second ride, needed a second place to share the title.
Coventry team mate, Jacob Slezak needed to beat Megan Rowley to take third. It looked to be heading that way until Jacob took a fall which earned him an exclusion.
In the re-run Sophie made no mistake in taking the win, but behind her the much improved Megan Burt withstood all of Jack’s attempts to pass her to take second.
This meant Sophie was overall winner on 86 points, Jack second on 84 points and Megan and Jacob were joint third on 68 points.
The U14s were far more straightforward with the day’s top three taking those places overall with Ben Wells winner on 90 points, Tyler Bould second on 76 points and Josh Whetton third on 68 points.
Sitting in the pits was the unlucky but still cheerful Jimmy Wassall, winner of the two rounds he took part in, but sidelined again with a broken shoulder following a fall in training.
Brandon Whetton’s choice of gate 4 in the U17’s final nearly back-fired as only noise from the pits earned him a reprieve for moving at the start.
After a re-run following a crash, he made the gate to take the win as Jake White and Ewan Hancox battled for second spot. Overall Brandon was winner on 91 points, with Jake second on 76 and Ewan, despite missing a round, third on 58 points.
First place in the Girls was never in doubt as Lizzie Rigley took the title with 100 points. Completing the trophy haul for the Burt family, Georgia took second with 68 points and Danielle Hickie-Stokes was third on 63 points.
Wednesfield were again team winners, with the final positions being Wednesfield 20 pts, Coventry 16pts, Leicester 9.5pts, Birmingham 7.5pts and East Park 7pts
Everyone is now looking forward to the National rounds which start at Leicester on 25 June, where the Midlands welcome the other regions.
Series Podium photos
Thanks to Craig Burt and Michelle Steele for the photos. If you have the podium photos for the Under 14s and Under 17s, please email them to newsroom@3318news.co.uk.