DENBY DALE schoolboy Jack Price will be taking a step up in next year’s trials bike season.
The 13-year-old, who is the national Class B champion for 2011, has been given special permission to ride Class A Youth in the 2012 British Youth Championship series.
The Huddersfield Falcon Motorcycle Club staged their sixth and final club championship trial at Pashley Green, Cawthorne.
A field of 59 competitors faced a testing course with a steep wooded hillside and a rocky stream which crossed nine of the sections – courtesy of Matt Craddock and his course-setting team.
A trio of ‘immigrants’ headed the hard course results where Jordan Potter led the charge on his road and track backed Gas Gas machine.
Potter would have gained a faultless clean sheet in the Novices event, but Bill Swallow fine-tuned the first section of the course and that cost Potter a single mistake.
Swallow’s addition of a kink on the ascent also proved testing as Inters winner Craig Potter clocked up points on lap two.
The third ‘musketeer’ Shaun Hoyle got through with well-placed dabs after a first lap clean to finish second in the Novices event.
Local ace Ben Robinson did not make the best of it and was beaten on scores by top Falcon novice Simon Tyas – who overlooked the small matter that a Gas Gas requires petrol, or it stops!
Richard Beever was on form and took a green 50/50 course victory after Chris Tolson stopped in section five when the Beta lost grip on the climb.
Simon Slater acted as pathfinder in the Novice event and the 13 points reflected his effort because he got round the other laps on only five.
Former pro-BMX rider Ben Manuel rode with a sick sounding Beta but managed third Novice.
Jack Craddock was the best Class B runner on his new 125cc Gas Gas, but his clerk-of-the-course father Matt beat him by two marks.
It was a similar story in the easy course with Class C rider William Tolson taking out all the adults, and on a 125cc Beta which was struggling on the big climbs.
Veteran performers Martin Greenwood and Stephen Partlow salvaged the podium places after a battle with the muddy descents at section two.
Top Youth rider Ben Francis climbed to fifth on the easy route, but three maximums on lap four indicated either tired arms or a drop off in concentration, or both.
The efforts of British championship contender Megan Savage deserve merit as she got her Beta round for a Class C placing and cleaned the last section.
The Falcons will assemble on December 11 for the final round of the novice and beginners championship series – the venue is Nethermoor Farm, South Crosland (start time 11.00).
