Report: 2016 Monster Energy Arenacross – Belfast Round Four

Belfast. The city that gave birth to the behemoth that is the Monster Energy Arenacross championship. And the city that is to host both rounds 4 and 5 of the 2016 tour in yet another 1-2 AX punch….and if we are continuing the boxing metaphors, night one in Belfast (and round 4 of the tour) started the weekend off with one hell of an uppercut!

Yet again the French asserted their prowess over the field dominating the Pro class podium. But it was Thomas Ramette on his SR75 Molson Racing Suzuki who earned the top honours after bouncing back from a lacklustre weekend in Glasgow the previous week.

Youth and Pro Lites

In a tense Supermini race we saw the Suzuki of Ben Burridge take his first win of the 2016 season.

Throughout the race we had five different riders that looked like they could make an attempt for the race win. Series leader Harry Kimber found himself mid pack on lap one. The Husqvarna rider desperately tried to weave his way through the field, making some daring leaps over the finish line double (and over his competitors) in the process.

Despite his best efforts Kimber could only climb to sixth after a mid-race crash set him back once again. Lewis Hall also looked threatening, the Team Green rider eventually came home in fourth behind his team-mate Kacey Hird who was third.

But filling out the top two spots we had some new faces. In second we had Preston Williams who put in a very smooth and consistent ride. However, it was Ben Burridge who put in the performance of the night in the Supermini class as he made a daring move for the lead midway through the race.

He then held his own out front, keeping his cool while the raging pack behind him piled on the pressure. Burridge will be looking to repeat that performance again here in Belfast for round 5 on Saturday night.

Burridge was most definitely pumped to take the win: “I’m pretty pumped to be honest. I started off the day pretty bad. I got a puncture right before the race and it was a bit of a rush to sort that out.

“This is my first Arenacross win on a big wheel and I’m so happy with it. Hopefully I can do the same again for round five and close down the gap in the championship.”

The 65 class saw drama early as former race winner Ollie Colmer stalled it off the line. We also saw a mini pile up as two riders went down on the start straight.

This allowed Kiean Boughen to run away with the race. The young KTM rider gapped the field considerably and was able to take an easy race win.

In one of the most impressive rides of the night Ollie Colmer was able to fight his way through the entire field from dead last to second. Jake Cappa ‘capped’ off the podium in third place.

The Pro Lites points leader Joe Clayton had a return to form on Friday night after his first misstep of the season in Glasgow last week.

Out front Clayton was able to avoid the heated battle that raged behind him. George Clark started out the race in fourth place behind Clayton, Edward Briscoe and Jordan Moxey.

Clark looked incredibly driven and incredibly aggressive – he made passes around both Moxey and Briscoe (with Briscoe actually going down in the process) to move into second place.

But Clayton’s lead was just too great for Clark to try and mount a challenge for the lead. The race finished with Clayton out front, Clark second and Moxey third.

Pro Class

The first heat of the night saw the two SR75 riders take to the gates. Unlike his team-mate Cyrille Coulon had a great week in Glasgow for rounds 2 and 3 so he was looking to continue that good form.

Similarly the victor of round 3, Josh Hansen was aiming to keep his momentum rolling heading into heat 1 and the first gate drop in Belfast.

Ramette was to start the night the way he meant to finish it, by taking the heat 1 holeshot, running away with the lead and taking the first chequered flag of the evening.

In a reversal of fortunes Cyrille Coulon couldn’t have started his night much worse. An early crash put him out of contention but Josh Hansen on the other hand look impressive as he made moves after an average start, eventually coming home in second.

Adam Chatfield started what would become an eventful night with a third place finish.

Pro heat two would see Cedric Soubeyras show both speed and style. The Geartec Yamaha rider started the race in second position but he quickly made a move around his countryman Fabien Izoird to take the lead.

Izoird had no answer for Soubeyras. The Yamaha rider went on to take the win followed by Izoird in second and Florent Richier in third, the first French 1-2-3 of night. A very familiar sight for the series.

Ramette was able to continue his stellar night in pro heat three. After taking the holeshot and early race lead Harri Kullas was unable to complete the finish line double of the opening lap allowing Ramette and the rest of the field to leap over the top of him. Kullas later found himself taking a dirt sample.

Chatfield sat in second position for the majority of the race. However, as the end drew near Izoird was able to make the pass for second. Rammete took the win, Izoird second and Chatfield third.

Heat 4 saw Cedric Soubeyras take the top spot from Josh Hansen in second. Florent Richier came home in third.

The most interesting battle in heat 4 was the fight for fourth position between Angelo Pellegrini, Jordan Booker and Matt Bayliss.

A few cat and mouse passes exchanged between the trio before a mechanical issue forced Booker out of the race and allowed Pellegrini to take a solid command of fourth position.

The usually explosively exciting Matt Bayliss found himself in fifth place and heading to the LCQ.

LCQ

A dramatic LCQ saw Matt Bayliss and Cyrille Coulon take first and second positions and places in the main event.

The drama however was found a little further down the field. An exchange between Jordan Booker and Jack Brunell saw both riders hit the deck followed by an ‘animated’ on track ‘discussion’.

Pro Head-to-Head

More drama of this type followed soon after as the Head-to-Head battles commenced.

A semi-final match-up between Cedric Soubeyras and Adam Chatfield would end dramatically as the Frenchman went to make a super aggressive block pass on the Brit, absolutely wiping out the Buildbase Honda rider in the process.

Chatfield certainly wasn’t happy with Soubeyras after this T-Bone and apparently neither were the race officials as Soubeyras was disqualified meaning that Chatfield would move onto the H2H final where he would take on SJR Kawasaki’s Josh Hansen.

Despite putting up a decent fight Chatfield just didn’t have the outright speed to take on the American ace. Hansen took the win and the extra championship points.

Pro Main Event

Could Hansen make it two in row or was Ramette out to prove a point? And was there bad blood between Soubeyras and Chatfield?

As the pack made their first lap Hansen took control of the lead and control of the race. Unsurprisingly Hanny was followed by two fast Frenchmen in Ramette and Izoird.

Coulon could repeat his great results from Glasgow as his night of troubles continued, crashing once again.

Soubeyras found himself midpack early on, but he continued his aggressive form making quick passes to find himself in fourth place.

Hansen looked formidable out front, but a stray tuff block took the American down and out of the lead (can this guy buy any luck?).

As Hansen hemeridged places Ramette found himself out front followed by two of his countrymen in second and third.

The top three closed up and Izoird, sitting in in second, could smell a race win. The LPE rider went for the kill but Ramette was able to repel his attacks.

With this Soubeyras leaped at the opportunity and was able to make a pass around Izoird and take second position away from the Kawasaki rider.

As the chequered flag waved it was SR75 Molson’s Ramette who took the win from Soubeyras in second and Izoird in third.

After an off weekend the previous week, Ramette was pleased to take the round 4 victory in Belfast as he explained to Dirt Bike Rider: “It was important to come back strong this week after a not so great weekend in Glasgow. I made too many mistakes last weekend but it’s really nice to win here in Belfast as it’s the home town race for my team.

“I would just like to say thanks to my team as they work so hard during the week to make the bikes perfect. I’m really happy to give those guys a win tonight.

“It was just an awesome day for me today, I got pole position, won both of my heat races and only just missed out on the head-to-head final. But I got third. That’s not bad for the championship as I got some extra points but it was the main event that was the most important anyway.

“The track here in Belfast is a little drier than last year but as you can see it is still really rutted. So it was easy to make mistakes, Josh [Hansen] made one in the middle of the race. You really had to stay focused on the race to avoid mistakes.”

The French conquer once more – Ramette proved that you shouldn’t count him out of the championship race just yet after only one off weekend.

As for Soubeyras – he showed that he has some serious speed and aggression, but the point’s leader is yet to take a main event win in 2016.

Hanny showed speed in Belfast and had the fastest lap in the main, but a bit of bad luck tripped him up.

He’ll be looking to come back strong for round five tonight so night two in Belfast – round five of the championship – is going to be a good one.

There’s still a few seats left and you can buy them on the gate. The racing will be sick once again, the crowd will be loud and the atmosphere will be intense.

Racing starts at 7pm and if you can’t be there follow @dbrmagazine on Twitter – we’ll be partnering up with Team TMX again and we’ll be running an exclusive Arenacross live race feed.

2016 Monster Energy Arenacross Belfast Round Four Results

Monster Energy Arenacross Pro Main Event