Grand Prix 2010

 

As usual the last race of the season's Grand Prix was the Brampton to Carlisle Ten Mile road race and with the outcome of some divisions still to be decided this resulted in some competitive racing on the day.. In Division One, Robbie Barkley and Peter Brown were fighting it out for first and second but Peter's non-appearance at Brampton due to injury allowed Robbie a comfortable run to give him victory on the day and also in the division by one point from Peter, with Steve Walker finishing in third place.  Robbie won 5 of the races, while Peter was first in three of them.

Division Two was just as competitive and close fought, and although Graeme Stewart was the first runner back in his league in the final race, it was not enough to overtake Steve Gillespie who won the league by 4 points with Graeme in second place and Shaun Dodd taking third position, a further 4 points behind.  Steve and Graeme both won three races each, but Steve's consistency over the year gave him the slight advantage over Graeme.

Division Three was another close affair, although Dave Bradley was already guaranteed first place, Heather Christopher, Dave Cox and Ian Baxter were battling for the remaining two top three places available..Heather had a good run at Brampton to win on the day and give her second place in the division, just two points behind Dave.  Ian managed to beat Dave Cox by one place at Brampton, resulting in them being tied for third place in the division on 61 points, five behind Heather.  Both Dave and Heather won three races each, and like division two it was Dave’s consistency that gave him victory over Heather.

Although just as competitive, Division Four was easily won by Julie Lemin, who was first back in the six counting races, while second placed Ron Ingram had a two point advantage over Claire Riches who finished third.  Although Claire won the division at Brampton, this was not sufficient for her to overtake Ron.

In Division Five, Phillippa Baxter had a clean sweep in finishing first in her division in every race. This give Phillippa a healthy lead over second placed Heather Barrass, with Sharon Richardson in third position.

Finally, a few facts and figures for the anoraks amongst us:-

Ø    Five people competed in all nine races, Chris Stone, Heather Christopher, Aynsley Herron, Davina Lonsdale and Phillippa Baxter.

Ø    Most popular race - the Wallsend 5M

Ø    Least popular race - Morpeth 10k and Tynedale 10M

Ø    Division with best turnout to races - division 3 with 66.7%

Ø    Division with worst turnout - division 1 with 35.3%

Ø    Overall turnout to races - 52.1%

Ø    Robbie has now won division 1 five times, one behind Andy Brown

Ø    This was Steve Gillespie's fourth division 2 victory

 

For all the results from the 2010 Grand Prix click here and for the Final Grand Prix tables click here.