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Alex Gault 2004 - He's Back...........................................................................................................................Back To Index
 After breaking his wrist a few months ago, Alex returned to the track, for the 5th and 6th rounds of the Junior Racing Associations 125GP championship.
In two days of racing that could very easily be called Mid-Summer Madness (due to the amount of crashes in almost every class of racing).
It is a great compliment to the Preston & District Club, the Medical staff and the circuit itself, injuries were kept to a minimum and that the meetings ran smoothly and without disruption.
The weather was tropical and being held on consecutive days, gave the chance for every one to get together in the Club Bar on the Saturday Evening, Drinking, Quiz, Drinking, Karaoke & Drinking being the order of the day.
I could go on and on, suffice to say this was one of the best meeting ever, great atmosphere, racing that encapsulated almost every form of road-racing class, including
side-cars and Super-moto, and above all as far as I am concerned, people who have a
genuine interest in promoting the junior racers.
Alex runs in 3 classes in this championship, The Junior Racing Association's 125 GP, & The Preston and Districts Open Up to 500cc and the Open Singles. His Score card included a 4th, a 3rd, 2 x 2nd and nine wins.
Round Five
The JRA this year is sub divided into 3 classes, 125Gp, Formula 125 and the original class formula 80.
The latter has been dominated by Matt Hoyle who has recently been plagued by a spate of bad luck, Round 5 was to be no different a fall in the trophy race at the Joey Dunlop corner seen him start from the back of the grid for the points race. This was too much of a handicap and he could not catch his nearest rival in the championship James Folkard who led the F80's home in 7th place overall.
Hard luck story of the day must go to Anthony Kelly his ex Alex Heaton F80 Cagiva seized in race one, then seized again in almost exactly the same place on track in the points race, however this time Anthony was not as lucky and the accident resulted in a broken wrist.
In the F125 class it was a new rider to this championship Jay "The Vet" Dunn, who dominated the proceedings bringing his Aprilia home in Second place overall in a fantastic display of riding, from Alex Heaton, Stuart Reece and Anthony Rodgers.
It was Alex Gault who dominated the Gp junior races, winning both Trophy and points races by a comfortable margin, from an on form Louise Dadge and championship leader Joel Williams.
The Open Up To 500cc class is where I have to thank Sean Seddon. Sean runs his lad Joel Morris in the MRO and British Championships, he was the obvious choice to turn too, for help when we hit problems with the handling of Alex's open bike. It felt like I was going round in circles chasing the problem, Sean gave us the benefit of his experience and his help was invaluable.
Resulting in Alex coming home in fourth place from 18th on the grid, in very strong opposition. From fourth on the grid in the points race he ran home a clear winner.
The Open Singles and a big crash on the first lap in involving three riders Jay Fletcher suspected "broken wrist", Joel Williams "broken chassis" and Neil Watson who landed on his head (So no chance of any damage there!)). In the restart Alex made his way up to 3rd. in the points race a fantastic battle with Simon Griffith resulted in Alex managing to hold onto the win by the narrowest of margins.
Sundays Round six was just as exciting, again blessed with fantastic weather and surprisingly no hangover!
Thanks to James McCarthy we had enlisted the help of Suspension technician Dave Ramshead, Due to events Dave could not spend as much time on Alex's open bike as I would have liked but with his help we made some changes to the bike and got a few pointers for later.
Race 1 of the day seen the JRA riders take to the grid with one exception Joel Williams could not get the chassis of his bike repaired and therefore had to miss out this round.
On the first lap an incident involving Alex and Chris Lee another Gp rider seen Chris in the tyre wall at the Joey Dunlop Corner and the race stopped, the accident was thought to be very serious as the medical staff were in attendance for almost half an hour.
Thankfully after a trip to the hospital, Chris was able to return to the circuit with just a broken finger and bruising (Big Girl). In the restart all went to plan for Alex again winning by a comfortable margin, in the F125 again Jay Dunn took the win from a hard charging Stuart Reece but again Alex Heaton lucked out, as his Aprilia stopped on the last lap after a fantastic challenge from 14th on the grid.
In F 80 class Matt Hoyle regained his top slot from James Faulkard just 2.5 seconds behind. In the Gp points race Alex won from second place Louis Dadge, in F125 Jay Dun took the win with a reported lap time just outside the F125 record from Stuart Reece and Alex Heaton. The F80 class and a repeat with Matt taking the win from James with Richard Wardle in third.
In the Open 500cc class, a better grid slot of P8, was all Alex needed to take the win from Alistair Howarth, Simon Griffiths and Andy Burgin. In the trophy race with another comfortable win in the Points race from the same lads in the same positions.
Single Cylinder and starting from P13 in the trophy race a win was too much to ask however he did manage second place, 7.5 seconds behind Simon, in the points race Alex reversed the position winning from Simon by 9.5 seconds and setting a new class lap record of 57.000 sec in the process.
Paddy Clarke Memorial race.
Alex took part in one other race on the Sunday; the Paddy Clarke memorial race is an annual event which is open to any solo rider, here again an accident caused a red flag. In the restart Alex got a good start and finished second to Duncan Burns on a CBR 600.
At the end of a brilliant weekend, we have to thank all Alex's supporters and sponsors, every one who helped over the weekend and indeed all those who popped into the camp and remarked on Alex's riding, the compliments are most appreciated, Adrian Pallet, all the members of the P&D Club and helpers and marshals who do a great job for very little reward, the medical staff, Lee Cutts-Bland for the smart trophies and not least commentator Garry Gardiner for the kind words.
Now I know this sounds like brown nosing but it is not, I believe in giving praise (and criticism) where it is due, and without every one of the people mentioned above, it wouldn't have been the undoubted success it was.
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