For the first time since September dry weather greeted the riders to Tricky Warren on the Devon Somerset Border. No rain for over seven days meant that the course had good time to dry out although Trickey wouldn’t be unrideable in the wet any way.

Having experimented with the separation of the sportmans class at the previous event which proved popular to all, Ride-it decided to use the same format again.

First away in the morning were the Sportsman who had the job of clearing the course of debri and defining the race line for the first lap or so. Some parts of the track proved a bit stickey but 99 % of riders seemed to manage just fine.

Edward Eames managed to actually start his bike at the drop of the flag which is a first and that’s the result he came home with in the Sportsman two stroke class followed by Jason Odell and William Shere.

With a very large entry of Sportsman 4 stroke riders the class was split into two groups A & B. The top 3 of each class were A Chris Wills,Ben Dyer and Joe Chidley Group B Ross Parham ,Terry Shere and Andrew Davies.

The next race of the day was Expert and Clubman on a track that had already been ridden on for over 2hrs making some parts better and some worse. First away were the Experts and the man with the start on the new Beta was Stuart Mundell with a swarming mass of riders on his tale. The Bernie Ecclestone of the Hare Scramble world AKA Steve Ireland (Mr Wirral Off Road) had a midpack start but to see him wind open the mighty Husaberg 650 in the first few straights and gobble up riders was quite an impressive sight. During the first fews laps Ireland managed to grab the lead then bin the bike down one of the hills get back into second and then snap his chain. A long way to travel for 3 laps. At the race mid point Chris Brown was in front making the change from his usual Sunday flower arranging classes worth while but a fuel stop cost him the lead and a top three finish.

 As the last lap started Neil Kirby was in front again followed by a stealthy James Jackman and then Wayne Mundell the series leader. During that lap an ultra smooth Jackman managed to slip his A4 Husky past a tiring Kirby and go on for the win making a long drive from London worthwhile. Kirby getting second was some feat considering he hasn’t competed since June after suffering a bad knee injury. So the Experts finally finished in this order - Jackman, Kirby, Mundell then Brown.

The Clubman 2 was NOT won by Chris Blackmore this time he was in the expert race and hit a tree but his brother Ross stepped up and took the glory with Chris Green and Kevin Harris following home.

Clubman 4 stroke was once again won by Micheal Gegg who is now an expert and he was followed by Roger Baker and Paul Tossell.

All in all a good day was had by everyone the track was great the conditions perfect and the weather was dry

See 'Full Results' listing at the top of the page for more details.

Round 5 in March.

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