Wild & Woolly 26/12/15
Northampton
Motorcyclists Club's 90th Annual
Wild & Woolly Scramble
Report:
Fraser Law
Pictures:
www.motoxphotos.co.uk
For the 90th running of the world famous
Wild & Woolly there were a few changes made to the course, the most obvious of
which was to run in the reverse direction. This along with some re-working of
the waterholes led to a much faster race with far less riders getting stuck.
Despite two weeks of near continuous rain prior to the event the track held up
well, though the going was fairly tough for some of the spectators. Undaunted by
this they turned up in record numbers to witness some fantastic racing.
Leading from the first lap, Northampton’s Neville Bradshaw put on a fantastic
display of mud riding. Losing his back brake disk and having the calliper cut
off on lap two did little to halt his charge as he soon distanced himself from
the opposition. Neville went on to lap the entire field twice before taking the
win at his first attempt.
Leading the opposition was Ady Smith who showed a lot of class and rode an
impeccable race but couldn’t quite find the speed to match the leader. Ady
maintained a safe second place for the entire race.
Scott Bates rode extremely well to finish just behind Ady Smith also on 19 laps,
coming up through the field from a low start.
Moving
up from 8th on the first lap, Scott was up to 3rd by lap
eight. He was briefly relegated to fourth on lap ten when Michael McClurg
charged through, but retook the place on lap fourteen after some close racing.
Second place could have been his at one point, were it not for a trip over the
bars whilst attempting to jump one of the water crossings. Current SMC Expert
Champion Michael then lost a few places in the final few laps to finish seventh.
Behind Scott the next two finishers have an amazing 14
wins between them. Ryan Griffiths recovered well from a slow start to reach
fourth place on 19 laps. Last year’s winner Jack Lee was next across the line in
fifth. Ryan came round in
a
lowly 16th on lap one but quickly made his way
up
to 10th by lap two. Jack started the race in 5th place,
before climbing to third on lap seven. On the next two laps both Ryan and Scott
Bates managed to find a way past Jack who then had to settle for fifth at the
finish.
Starting in 15th on lap one just in front
of Ryan was Matt Smith. Matt followed Ryan’s progress up the leaderboard pretty
closely but was unable to catch Jack and finished in 6th on 18 laps.
As for the other top-ten finishers:- James Plant started the race in 9th,
then maintained a consistent pace to finish in 8th. Ash Rilings also
lapped very consistently, gating 10th and finishing 9th.
James Barnwell started in 12th place and moved ahead of James and Ash
by lap seven but slipped back to 10th a few laps from home.
Some other notable rides worth a mention were Richard
Main and Robbie Hollis and Ste Marlow. Richard gated 4th and was
looking to secure a top seven position until his bike broke near the finish on
lap 16. Robbie Hollis put on the charge of the day, taking him from 32nd
on lap one, right up to 17th on lap three. Ste gated 3rd
and maintained that pace for a solid 5 laps, but was unable to keep it going as
he’d been ill all week.
The totals have not yet been added up, but we expect to raise a record amount
for Charity with our spectator collections. Once again the race was supporting
the Air Ambulance, Help for Heroes, Blisworth Scouts & Junior Football team and
Northamptonshire Emergency Ambulance Team
1st
- Neville Bradshaw- Ladies Cup
2nd
- Ady Smith- Griff Jenkins Bowl
3rd
- Scott Bates- Harrison Cup
Oldest Finisher- Richard Ford- Doug Desborough Cup
First Junior- Ashley Rilings- Margaret Anderson Cup
First Novice- Rya
Youngest Finisher- Joe Tobutt- Doug Griffin Tankard