By Roddy Brooks
April 4 2005

Brad Anderson opened his Pro 125cc title defence with the overall victory in the opening round of the British Masters Motocross series at Culham. But the O’Neal Yamaha rider did not have it all his own way, as he had to share race wins with Molson Kawasaki’s Tommy Searle. Wayne Smith took third and second places to finish third overall on the Innovate Honda, as Searle was runner-up overall thanks to his second race win after finishing fourth the first time out. Anderson won a thrilling first race after the lead changed hands several times. Anderson won a battle with both Shaun Simpson and Smith, as Searle came in fourth and Danny Smyth fifth. Anderson led early on but, when he and Simpson got caught up in a battle, that allowed Smith to surge into the lead.

Smith had looked set for the race win after passing Anderson and Simpson, but was undone when he tried to cut inside a back-marker. Smith slid off his bike after losing the front wheel with just two laps to go. Anderson, who had been the leader for most of the early part of the race, regained the lead and held off both Simpson and Smith to take the win. Smith was right on the leading duo on the last lap, but hit trouble on the last downhill section and crossed the line a distant third.

Searle came in fourth after making the most of an early mechanical problem which took pole position man Graeme Gowland out of the race. Danny Smyth came in fifth and John May executed a block pass on Ben Saunders in the final corner to snatch sixth.

Searle took the race two win after both Anderson and Smith had looked set to put in a bid for the honours. Searle got off the gate well and built up an early lead, before he fought off the challenge from Anderson. With Searle clear in front, that left Anderson to battle with Smith for second spot, and Smith passed Anderson with seven minutes of the race left to go. Searle took the chequered flag by six seconds over Smith, with Anderson a distant third ahead of Ben Saunders, Smyth and Simpson.

Glen Phillips won the Pro Open class overall, after matching Mark Eastwood with a win and a second place. Phillips won the second race to take the overall tie-break, after the O’Neal Yamaha rider had matched the Eastwood Honda rider’s race results. Third overall went to Jordan Rose on the Meredith TM, who took third place in race one and fourth second time out

Eastwood rode a perfect race to take the Pro Open leg one victory by 14 seconds from Phillips, with Rose in third. Eastwood dealt with the challenge of both Stuart Flockhart and Rose after Mark Jones went out of the race early on after being in contention. Phillips rose from outside the top ten on the opening lap to take a comfortable second ahead of Rose and Flockhart. Ben Taylor hung onto fifth, as six seconds covered the next four riders. Jody Smyth was sixth, ahead of David Campbell and Bryan Mackenzie. Alex Rach recovered from a first lap crash and battled through the filed to claim eleventh on the final lap.

The race two winner was Phillips, after four different riders led the race. Jones (KYM) and Rose both had spells at the front, before Eastwood and then Phillips both took over. But Phillips was able to make his move in the closing stages, and won by 0.7 seconds from Eastwood, with Jones third and Rose fourth after a last lap pass. Rach took fifth place in the race from Taylor and Smyth.

Simon Lane (Honda) won the Amateur Open class with a perfect score of 90 points from three race wins. Second overall went to the Motobrox Kawasaki of Rayn Syson, who had two second places and a third, and David Thomson (Honda) was third overall.

Maximum man Darren Dobson took three race wins to land top honours in the Amateur 125cc class on a Honda. Second overall went to James Lane (Honda), with two seconds and a third. David Harrison was third overall on the CGH Kawasaki, after finishing third twice and second.

Joe Dark was the overall winner in the Youth 125cc class, with two wins and a third place on the Moto Extreme Honda. Elliot Banks-Brown was second overall, with a first and two seconds on the RWJ/John Banks Honda. Third overall went to Shane Carless on the Hockey Racing Kawasaki.

Steve Clarke took the overall honours in the Big Wheel 85cc class, with three race wins on the Maximum Solutions Suzuki. Alen Keete took two second places and was in line for the runner-up position in the final leg, but dropped from second to fifth on the final lap. Luke Burton took third overall with some consistent riding.

Mel Pocock took the Small Wheel 85cc overall win by three points, from the O’Neal Yamaha of David Arnold and Sam Davis on the Motovision Kawasaki. Pocock had two race wins and a third; Arnold had a second, third and first; and Davis put in some consistent races to take third overall, his best result being second in the last race.

Two race wins by Jamie McCanney on the A&J Groundworks KTM saw him take the overall honours in the 65cc class. Rob Muscat, on the Road Wheels KTM, had won the first race, but two seconds then saw him finish second overall ahead of Paul Coates on the Auckland Race Trucks Suzuki.