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.

 

  1. Neville Bradshaw, 21 laps
  2. Ady Smith, 19 laps
  3. Scott Bates, 19 laps
  4. Ryan Griffiths, 19 laps
  5. Jack Lee, 18 laps
  6. Matt Smith, 18 laps
  7. Michael McClurg, 18 laps
  8. James Plant, 18 laps
  9. Ashley Rilings, 17 laps
  10. James Barnwell, 17 laps
  11. Richard Main, 17 laps
  12. Matt Willis, 16 laps
  13. Charley Lee, 16 laps
  14. Joe Tobutt, 15 laps
  15. Dan Loveday, 14 laps
  16. Garry West, 13 laps
  17. Ryan Bradford, 13 laps
  18. Rob Hollis, 13 laps
  19. Giles Hamilton, 13 laps
  20. James Chambers, 12 laps
  21. George Moore, 12 laps
  22. Glenn Warren, 12 laps
  23. James Higgins, 12 laps
  24. Christian Livesey, 12 laps
  25. Ehren Wood, 12 laps
  26. Andrew Morris, 11 laps
  27. Hayley Rilings, 11 laps
  28. Adam Limbert, 11 laps
  29. Mark Bradford, 10 laps
  30. Jordan Ryan, 10 laps
  31. Roger Titman, 10 laps
  32. Edward Kelly, 10 laps
  33. Mark Page, 10 laps
  34. James Evans, 10 laps
  35. Edward Lloyd, 10 laps
  36. Peter Chinn, 9 laps
  37. Ash Batten, 9 laps
  38. Bradley Plant, 9 laps
  39. Ryan Blackwell, 8 laps
  40. Tony Homer, 7 laps
  41. Graham Howe, 7 laps
  42. Richard Ford, 5 laps

 

MYLAPS here

Trophy winners-

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- Ryan Bradford- Ashley Rogers Cup

Youngest Finisher- Joe Tobutt- Doug Griffin Tankard

 

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