PROMOTED BY MIDWEST MCC REPORT AND PICS BY MIKE WOOD.

Following a heavy overnight frost which had seen temperatures drop to minus 6 centigrade,conditions were decidedly slippery for the opening round of the 2008 Hewitt National Cross-Country series at Chavenage on Sunday.Whilst the wooded sections remained frozen,the open fields slowly started to thaw and it was not until well past the halfway mark of the three hour blast that the going started to improve.Right from the off,the cambered downhill corners saw numerous riders parting company with their machines.Giving a clear indication of just how tricky the early stages were,eventual Experts class winner Darren Wheeler aboard his Midwest Racing supported Husaberg posted an opening lap time of 28 minutes,25 seconds.

Eventually,Darren was to complete a total of 9 laps of the seven mile circuit,a total matched by all of the leading to six riders in the Experts class.At the finish,Darren the 2007 Hewitt championship runner-up had reduced his lap times by over ten minutes.When the chequered flag fell,Wheeler was seven minutes ahead of Chris Dustow with Rich Warner 3^rd,Dave Nuttall 4^th,Gary Baker 5^th and Neil Thomas 6^th.

Dave Nuttall.

In the Clubman 2T class,the top four of Matthew Woodham,Martin Hillman,Ben Roberts and Peter Kyte all completed a total of eight laps.Woodham’s eventual winning margin was just over three minutes.Over in the Clubman 4T action,the top three of Tyson Mayton-Jones,Mark Saunders and Wayne Partington also recorded a total of eight laps during their three hours of competition.At the finish Mayton-Jones was a clear eleven minutes ahead with Saunders a further one minute plus in front of Partington.

Aboard his GasGas machine,Paul Jones was a convincing winner of the Sportsman 2T class at Chavenage.Jones finished a full lap ahead of runner-up Daniel Hosznyak who in turn just edged out 3^rd placed Shaun Street by a very narrow ten seconds.Whilst Stephen Walker topped the Sportsman 4T class,the battle for 2^nd place was very tight with just one minute forty seconds separating John Bradley,Lee Burgess and Nathan Kennedy.

The new class in the 2008 Hewitt championship is for Experts Veteran riders.Taking victory at Chavenage was the 2007 Hewitt Veteran champion Gerald Poole,completing 8 laps,his winning margin being just over one minute ahead of Jerry Adams.With Poole now in the group for Experts,it was Guy Mansfield-Smith who took the win in the other Veterans class.Mansfield-Smith managed 7 laps,a total also matched by James Browning,Paul Hoskins,Andrew Taylor and David Jarman.

Tyson Mayton-Jones

EXPERTS 1 Darren Wheeler 2 Chris Dustow 3 Rich Warner 4 Dave Nuttall 5 Gary Baker 6 Neil Thomas.

VETERAN EXPERTS 1 Gerald Poole 2 Jerry Adams 3 Terry Beecham 4 Marcus Barnes 5 Alastair Bramwell 6 Martin Coleman.

CLUBMAN 2T 1 Matthew Woodham 2 Martin Hillman 3 Ben Roberts 4 Peter Kyte 5 Anthony Rymer 6 Seb Dexter.

CLUBMAN 4T 1 Tyson Mayton-Jones 2 Mark Saunders 3 Wayne Partington 4 Rydian Evans 5 Mark Taylor 6 Kye Banks.

VETERAN 1 Guy Mansfield-Smith 2 James Browning 3 Paul Hoskins 4 Andrew Taylor 5 David Jarman 6 Robert Shore.

SPORTSMAN 2T 1 Paul Jones 2 Daniel Hosznyak 3 Shaun Street 4 Benjamin Wyles 5 Robert Macfarlane 6 Graham Jones.

SPORTSMAN 4T 1 Stephen Walker 2 John Bradley 3 Lee Burgess 4 Nathan Kennedy 5 Colin Smith 6 Sean Smith.