Seth Stephens Memorial

The Mexe and Bovington military areas in Dorset was the setting for the Seth Stephens Memorial Race organised by RMPEC and administrated by SCEC.

After two weeks of preparation by the local hoods of Rob Sartin from Talon Engineering, Danny Hall from Rogershill Raceway, Stan Watt from Front Row GB and Dinger/Paul from RMPEC, the Seth Stephens Memorial Race was ready to get underway. Saturday saw a great turnout to carry out the final setup including Derrick Edmondson from Edmondson Racing.

The country is currently in the grip of a cold spell, but rather than being a hindrance, the cold weather massively improved the course to a point that the sand bowl changed from a potential of deep, wet cement to an area of superb grip with limited damage.

The temperatures sat at -2 degrees over the weekend and Sunday morning was similar. With a full entry of 150 riders; most starting to arrive around 7:30am, the food wagon was busy with breakfasts and primarily hot teas.

After a short brief, riders and spectators undertook a 1 minute silence in memory of Seth Stephens who passed away in July 2010. At 11:05am, the championship riders got underway after the flag was dropped by Seth's wife.

With the largest and most talented championship class for some time to be seen at a south coast hare and hounds event, the first 20 riders made the initial few corners with no incidents and Stan Watt from Front Row GB pushed into the front of the pack, moving into 4th by the 2nd corner.

Daryl Bolter and Nick Life hit the front and nothing would change this until Daryl was part of an incident 2 laps in, where he has sustained suspected damage to his tibia and ankle. Nick then pulled a good lead followed by Brad Smith on the GasGas and James Giddings on the KTM.

The next few riders were locked in a battle and after a slow start, Phil Studley started coming strong in the second half of the race, firstly getting past Stan after an altercation, which saw Stan lose his front wheel and go down, then moving into 4th ahead of Dan Beaven on the TM.

The course was the best this year in the south and held up fantastically well, with a mix of forestry, sand and technical sections. Nick Life, Brad Smith and James Giddings was the finishing line up with Stan from Front Row finishing 7th on the Edmondson Racing KTM300XC after closing in by 2minutes on the last lap to 6th place but just not enough to take the next slot.

The Seth Stephens Memorial Trophy was presented to Richard Lennard for the first Sportsman 40+.

A great event on a great location.

Thanks to everyone who cleared up after and spent the time helping.

Again thanks to;

-Edmondson Racing
-Talon Engineering
-Adventure Spec
-Arai
-Fox
-Voltcom Group
-Michelin