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2008 Wrap-Up DEP Pipes 2 Stroke British Championships

Like the Himalayas, the DEP Pipes British 2 Stroke Championship has been consistently moving upwards over the last few years. Chris and Karen Barker put everything on the line when they started the series in 2005, but the exponential growth of the series has proven that there’s a cadre of hardcore two stroke racers out there still to be catered for – from a single class in 2005, by the start of 2008 we were looking at dedicated 2 stroke meetings with five classes and some real talent throughout the field.

It didn’t start off too brightly though, quite literally – as bad as the weather had been at Canada Heights for round two of the Maxxis British Championships in March, when the DEP series went there a fortnight later for their opener, the snow that had trickled to a halt for the Maxxis boys just kept falling heavier and heavier all day long. The rapidly-deteriorating track kept it to a single block of racing that saw full-time series returnee Jonathan Pettitt kick off his championship campaign with a smart win in the 125 A class, a league ahead of defending champion David Willett – super-consistent in ’07, Willett had a poor start and a mid-race excursion that left Pettitt well out of his reach. Jack Brunnel withstood early pressure from Adam Reynolds before a crash dropped ’07 Junior Champion Reynolds down the field. Brunnel was left to take third ahead of Greg Hanson and Darren Redman, who came from a long way down the pack in the sloppy conditions, whilst Christian Taylor fired the first shot in the 125 Junior championship, taking an emphatic win in front of Bradley Howlett and Craig French. The Open class saw Mark Eastwood and 2-class Dave Willett battle – Ironman Willett had the early running, but the wily Eastwood played it cool, waiting until late on to catch Willet in traffic and make the winning move. Dutchman Mike Kock took third ahead of Scott Eastwood, with Open Junior honours going to Ashley Pennycook, Karl Johnson and Paul Anderson.

In perfect contrast, the sun came out for round 2 at Landrake. Pettitt was picture-perfect again, sweeping to a trio of moto wins – Willett was second-best in terms of pace, but just didn’t have enough to be able to run the fast-starting Pettitt down, and a race three mechanical DNF put a serious dent in his title defence. Young Jack Brunnel led large sections of moto two, but a mistake as Pettitt was closing in allowed the TM-mounted veteran though – Brunnell would remount for second, however, plenty good enough with a brace of thirds for second overall in front of Jim Davies, Lewis Tombs and Ricky Lethaby, while the Junior battle would see Taylor, on great form battling in the top five at times, tie for the overall after a trouble-hit race two with Lloyd Morgan. Young Welshman Morgan had had a quiet time at Canada Heights, but a win in the mud at the Torrington MXY2 mudfest a fortnight before would prove to be a springboard for a strong title challenge. Willett’s woes in the Open class came earlier in the day with a DNF in race one – frantic to make amends, he had to settle for second behind Easto in moto two but would not be denied in the third, edging away for the win. In line to benefit from Willett’s misfortune, Andre David and Mike Kock took second and third, with David Dibble taking a clean sweep of the Open Junior class in front of Jamie Smith and Darren Marklove.

The next pre-mix outing took place at Leisure Lakes, a new venue for the series – a nasty incident at the start of the first 125 moto left Ryan Hamblin stuck in the back wheel of Lewis Tombs’s U Tag YZ125, leaving the unfortunate Hamblin with a badly broken ankle and ending his season on the spot. Pettitt swept imperiously to the win in the first two motos, but it only served to fire Willett up, as he came out smoking for moto three and simply ran Pettitt down for the win. Brunnel logged a second and two thirds for third overall ahead of a tight battle between former British 125 champion Hanson and Jim Davies as Junior honours went to Morgan – both he and Taylor suffered horrendous first motos, with Oliver Rusby taking the win on his way to fifth overall, but Morgan came back with a brace of wins in the sand, edging Ryan Mclean for the overall by a solitary point, ahead of Warwick French. In the Open class, Willet continued his run of good form with first moto victory, but Mathew Moffatt spoiled all that with a win in the second race. Eastwood, not overly keen on ending the day without a race win, crossed the line first in moto three, but it was Willett who took the overall ahead of Eastwood, Moffatt, Kock and David. Nathan Rooks took the honours with a trio of wins in the Juniors, in front of Dibble and Pennycook.

Round four took us to Pontrilas – Pettitt came out and shot down everything that was thrown at him, running down Brunnel in race one and just running off with races two and three. Brunnel would take a trio of second places generally some way in front of a mass brawl for third that largely involved Willett, Hanson, Davies, and a wide-open Lloyd Morgan – the Junior championship contender suffered a blow, DNFing race one after a mid air collision with Craig English, but Morgan was otherwise well on the pace of the Experts, taking a brace of Junior wins in races two and three. But with Taylor scoring very strongly in all three motos, the emphasis for Morgan was on damage recovery…. For the Open class, a curtailed 2 race programme saw Eastwood and Willett swap wins and seconds ahead of  Andre David, whilst Brooks, Dibble and Justin Senter took Junior honours – Alfie Smith had a quiet moto one on a wildcard entry, but scorched to a race two Junior win.

The series headed north for round five – a free weekend at Whitby for the GP teams saw the startline bolstered by the likes of Carl Nunn, Jason Dougan and local hero James Noble. Willett came out on top of a knock-down battle with Brunnel in the first 125 moto as Pettitt recovered from a poor start to catch the two leaders before an uncharacteristic fall saw him have to settle for third ahead of a Dougan who came from even further back to pass Morgan at the death – man of the match for race one was Jim Davies who took an astonishing eighth after breaking a footpeg early in the moto, damaging himself in the process. Pettitt struggled with the concrete start all day but had enough in the tank to scorch though for a couple of wins to snatch the overall ahead of Willett and Brunnel – Taylor and Morgan went into the final moto with a win and a second apiece but when it came to the crunch, it was Turbo Taylor who managed to edge a nail biting win after an awesome battle, the two locked together for the second half of the race. It was becoming clear that the Junior crown would go to one of these two, barring accidents… Easto went home with a decent haul of points in the Open battle, but that belies the fact that, for the only time all year, the MXdN team manager didn’t look up to the ultimate pace in the group – no insult, that, as the group included Carl Nunn and James Noble but where Willett was able to up his game and beat a GP star in two of his three rides, Eastwood didn’t seem able to make that leap.

That all changed at Wakes Colne, however… Eastwood came out ready to kill for round six, and almost pulled off the clean sweep – “almost” because a red-flag incident in race one saw the results go back a lap, to when he was just stalking Willett, rather than just after the pass for the lead. It was plain luck, but that sort of thing happens from time to time – all it did was provoke the reigning champion into two rides that saw him better a Willett on great form on the 250. Third place in the Open Expert championship, Andre David suffered a crash in practice that left him with a dislocated elbow – incredibly, the plucky South African would be back for the next round, but the injury and no-score at Wakes would damage his challenge for the number 3 plate dearly. Nathan Rooks was in imperious form in the Open Juniors, only Alfie Smith stopping him from taking three class wins, but Dibble was close enough to keep his points lead very comfortable as the series eyed the home stretch. In the 125s, Pettitt was back on the gas, running down Brunnel in the first two races and a fast-moving Christian Taylor in the third to score a perfect 135 points – Brunnel would take a trio of seconds ahead of Willett to give his assault on second place some serious momentum as the top five – Pettitt, Brunnel, Willett, Davies and Sean Stevens – were repeated in all three races. As for Taylor, that final moto charge was a great response to Morgan’s Junior wins in the first two races – the two were neck-and-neck on the track, but Morgan still came away 49 points in arrears, surely rueing that moto one DNF from Pontrilas.

Round seven brought the series to the sand of Blaxall – Pettitt won moto one going away from Brunnel and Willett, but moto two did its best to put the championship cat amongst the pigeons. Morgan and Stevens got away at the front but Pettitt, for the first time all year, got a poor start and struggled to get a rhythm – as Willett charged through and closed in for the win, Pettitt had to ride on the edge and consequently made mistakes as he recovered through the pack, looking like his chase of Morgan for second would be in vain with just a handful of laps left. But Morgan made a rare mistake, toppling over to allow Pettitt to draw alongside just as he got going again -  and there was only going to be one winner of that contest… Crucially, a battle-scarred Brunnel would suffer a DNF to hand Willett a big advantage in their battle over second place – Willett’s P2 in the final race behind Pettitt was just the icing on the cake for Brunnel. Both Taylor and Morgan were less than perfect as Jack Plowman took a comfortable Junior overall, but Morgan was the more perfect of the two, making up 23 points to give the championship an interestingly close look with just three rounds left. Easto and Willett tied for the overall in the Open Experts – Eastwood took wins in the first and third motos, but an intense battle in moto two with the Ironman saw Willett finish the final lap on his own ahead of excellent rides by Lewis Tombs and Jordan Booker, followed some time later by a pedestrian Eastwood, pushing the CR250 over the line after a last lap crash left him in some discomfort.

The first 125 A moto at  Mildenhall saw Pettitt sprawled in the dirt on lap one – he was up again in a flash, but his chance of a quick recovery was gone. Brunnel was away fighting to build a gap as Willet tussled with Taylor for second. Pettitt worked his way back through to third, but a late fall by Brunnel handed Willet and Taylor first and second on a plate. Taylor was on top of his game in race two, leading Pettitt, Brunell as Willet made it into fourth  and joined the freight train – for fifteen minutes there was the most glorious Mexican stand off as the four circulated nose to tail before Pettitt finally got close enough to make a move as they hit traffic. Willet immediately charged after Pettitt as Brunell hopped past Taylor into third, with Willet bringing his Yamaha right up to the back of the series leader – it looked like Pettitt was in danger of being beaten straight up for the first time this year, but he pushed just over the edge, dropping his bike and handing Pettitt the win and second place to Brunell – this time the distress was all Willet’s. Pettitt nailed another decent start in race three, ahead of Craig English, Sean Stevens and Taylor as Willet gave himself a bit of work to do – by the time he’d made his way into second, Pettitt was down the road and gone. English pulled out early on as Stevens and Taylor battled over third, but it was Taylor who dropped the ball, falling way down the field to end the day on an unfortunate damp note after two superb rides. Brunell was way down the field from the outset but spent the 20 minutes charging hard, coming back to take an excellent third from Stevens after the later spent large parts of the race in the top three – up front Pettitt had a comfy lead but a spill passing a lapper late in the race allowed Willet to close up, but the issue was never really in doubt and the TM veteran took yet another win with four seconds in hand. In the 250 class, Eastwood was almost untouchable, although Matthew Moffat gave Willett some support in challenging the reigning champion – for Willett, though, despite a desperate doomed second moto charge for victory, the worst part of the day was a mechanical DNF due to a rear suspension failure in moto three.

The final two rounds saw the series at Marshfield for a double header. Saturday’s round nine saw Christian Taylor in complete charge of the 125 Juniors, galloping away to a trio of wins – Morgan took second every time out, but Taylor now had a commanding lead in the series with Jack Plowman back in third. Likewise, Rooks swept to victory in the Open Juniors and series leader Dibble could only tail him home, but Dibble still had a comfortable lead heading into the finale, and could afford to let Rooks win. Tom Church and John May came out to play in the 125 Experts – May lead race one briefly before Pettitt jumped into the lead, Willett and Brunnel passing the British Championship star and following Pettitt over the line as TC struggled out of the gate, coming home a distant fifth, but the Molson Kawasaki team leader made no mistake in race two, pulling calmly away from Willett and Brunnel as Pettitt took his turn to gate poorly. Race three was a real dogfight between Pettitt and Church, the pair neck and neck all race long with TC making the winning pass with just a lap left – Willett for once looked out of gas in third as Davies hounded him home. Crucially, Brunnel DNFd with a banner firmly stuck in his back wheel, a major blow in his battle for second in the standings. Eastwood swept imperiously to victory in the Open Experts with three clear wins to more or less assure himself of the title – the gallant Willett would take a brace of seconds but a fall in moto two would see him finish third as Ridgeway, Kock, Palmer and wildcard entrants Josh Waterman, Dan Arnold and Luke Hill all showed serious pace.

The Red Bull party tent filled up that night but everyone was taking it fairly steady in preparation for Sunday’s season finale – however, when dawn broke it was to heavy wind and rain, and the already wet track was in no condition to host a day’s fierce racing. The MCF crew took the decision to cancel the event and sadly, prematurely, that was it for the 2008 DEP Pipes British 2 Stroke Championship.

Story and photos by Paul Harris.

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