Harbour Masters Championship

With five wins from five rides late call up Paul Starke wins the inagural Harbour Masters Championship with a 15 point maximum

This inaugural Harbour Masters Championship was dominated by Poole connections, with current Poole reserves Paul Starke and Darryl Ritchings recording convincing wins in their opening rides, whilst sandwiched between was a tapes to flag win from Vinnie Foord, who arguably received the loudest reception during the introductions of riders. From the first batch of rides, one of the keenest battles came between the Bens in heat three. Trigger and Morley were shoulder to shoulder for half a lap before the more experienced of them, Morley, took command.

In his second ride Morley found himself held up in traffic around the first bend and then having positioned himself in third place set about the road-block provided by Max James, all the while Ritchings was extending his lead for a two-from-two start to the meeting.  Starke had ample ground between himself and the pacy Cooper Rushen in heat six, before Arran Butcher opened his account with a tapes to flag victory in heat seven. Concluding the second group of heats was a winning Vinnie Foord, who missed seeing the battle develop between Mickie Simpson and Sonny Springer for a couple of laps.

Rushen continued to show a liking for the Wimborne Road circuit, storming frrom the gate to win heat nine, then Starke delivered the goods from gate four in the tenth. Foord was untouchable in heat eleven, whilst Ritchings had to ride some extra time as Trigger went down at the first attempt of getting heat twelve underway. From both starts Ritchings looked dominant  and the field was beginning to sort itself out, with the interim standings being:

9:Paul Starke,Vinnie Foord,Darryl Ritchings
7:Cooper Rushen
6:Max James,Ben Morley
5:Mickie Simpson
4:Ashton Vale
3:Sonny Springer,Ben Trigger,Arran Butcher,Charlie Southwick
2:Eli Meadows
1:Jacob Clouting,Jamie Etherington,Nathan Hargrave

Most of the crowd were eager for heat fourteen, where the three nine pointers would meet, but before we got there an enjoyable contest developed between Mickie Simpson and long time race leader Max James. Going round the south turn for the final turn, Simpson executed his move by going inside James, who then fell. It was judged a clean pass and so James had nothing to show for his efforts. 

So to the big one and it was Starke cleanest away and he knew he had Foord in close attention, but a twist of the throttle earned him some ground and the gap widened sufficiently for the last minute additon to the field to claim his fourth unbeaten ride. Another late call-up, Nathan Hargrave looped badly leaving the tapes in heat fifeen and felt the solid track on his back as he went down. Trigger won the three man re-run with Jacob Clouting the only other finisher as Ashton Vale suffered a retirement.  Rushen was far from being stationary at the tapes and that may well have contributed to him missing the key moment when the tapes rose. But he knuckled down to the task of reeling the experienced Morley in and keeping the prospect of a rostrum finish alive.

Foord made about a bike length with his excellently timed start in heat seventeen but then he watched on in eighteen as Starke, missing the gate for his first time, quickly gained on Morley to become the guaranteed champion. Ritchings protected his rostrum position by doing well in holding out against increasing challlenges from Rushen in heat nineteen with the curtain falling with the race of the also-rans as all four contestants were on a tally of three points each as they came to tapes. It was Butcher who doubled his score, finishing overall in ninth place.

15:Paul Starke
14:Vinnie Foord
13:Darryl Ritchings
12:Cooper Rushen
10:Ben Morley
8:Ben Trigger,Mickie Simpson
7:Max James
6:Arran Butcher
5:Ashton Vale,Jacob Clouting
4:Jamie Etherington,Eli Meadows,Charlie Southwick
3:Sonny Springer
1:Nathan Hargrave

Ht 1 Paul Starke,Max James,Ashton Vale,Sonny Springer (62.56)
Ht 2 Vinnie Foord,Cooper Rushen,Jacob Clouting,Jamie Etherington (61.03)
Ht 3 Ben Morley,Ben Trigger,Mickie Simpson,Arran Butcher (62.5)
Ht 4 Darryl Ritchings,Eli Meadows,Charlie Southwick,Nathan Hargrave (62.09)
Ht 5 Darryl Ritchings,Max James,Ben Morley,Jacob Clouting (61.62)
Ht 6 Paul Starke,Cooper Rushen,Ben Trigger,Eli Meadows (60.72)
Ht 7 Arran Butcher,Ashton Vale,Charlie Southwick,Jamie Etherington (64.53)
Ht 8 Vinnie Foord,Mickie Simpson,Sonny Springer,Nathan Hargrave (62)
Ht 9 Cooper Rushen,Max James,Nathan Hargrave,Arran Butcher (fell) (61.16)

Ht 10 Paul Starke,Mickie Simpson,Charlie Southwick,Jacob Clouting (62)
Ht 11 Vinnie Foord,Ben Morley,Ashton Vale,Eli Meadows (61.69)
Ht 12 Darryl Ritchings,Sonny Springer,Jamie Etherington,Ben Trigger (fell dq) (62.28)
Ht 13 Mickie Simpson,Jamie Etherington,Eli Meadows,Max James (fell) (62.93)
Ht 14 Paul Starke,Vinnie Foord,Darryl Ritchings,Arran Butcher (61.12)
Ht 15 Ben Trigger,Jacob Clouting,Ashton Vale (rtd),Nathan Hargrave (fell dq) (61.94)
Ht 16 Cooper Rushen,Ben Morley,Charlie Southwick (awd)
Ht 17 Vinnie Foord,Ben Trigger,Max James,Charlie Southwick (fell dq) (awd)
Ht 18 Paul Starke,Ben Morley,Jamie Etherington,Nathan Hargrave (62.25)
Ht 19 Darryl Ritchings,Cooper Rushen,Ashton Vale,Mickie Simpson (62.31)
Ht 20 Arran Butcher,Jacob Clouting,Eli Meadows,Sonny Springer (rtd) (64.19)

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Photo credits: Liam Cockwell