Newsham wins and takes championship lead...

Dave Newsham took two wins and passed Chris Grieve at the head of the table in an action packed day's racing at Croft on Saturday 3rd June. In stark contrast to the conditions of the previous rounds drivers were greeted with blue skies and warm sunshine throughout the day.

Newsham won the first race from pole with Lawrence Davey heading the chasers having started back in ninth place. Steve Thompson was one of the early challengers as well but retired with a blown head gasket. Jamie Clarke came through for third with the ever improving Malcolm Clark in fourth.

Race two was red flagged after just three laps but with Grieve at the front of the field there were few who thought enyone else would have taken the chequer had the race run it's full course although the Hexham based youngster was to suffer problems in the next race. Peter Morton took second from Derek Pierce with Lee Fitzpatrick recording his season's best so far in fifth.

The third race went the distance and so did Grieve but the 73 car was suffering a mysterious misfire which left him right at the back of the pack although he showed great style by nursing the car through the opening laps before the moto came back on song. Up front Dave Moore led for the first tour but Jamie Clarke was pretty much set on his first win of the year despite being engaged in frantic battle with team mate Lawrence Davey. Clarke held on to win from Davey with Newsham in third.

The final saw Moore lead for two laps before Peter Morton came through into first. John Higgins was not too far away either and led for three laps before Newsham took over at the front on lap six and held on to take his second win of the day.

Overall meeting points: 1st Dave Newsham (570pts), 2nd Lawrence Davey (510), 3rd Derek Pierce (505), 4th Chris Grieve (415), 5th Simon Belcher (400), 6th Ian Sturt (390).

Driver of the day was Colin Chadwick who again impressed with two top ten finishes in the heats.

Race one: 1st 50 - Dave Newsham, 2nd 19 - Lawrence Davey, 3rd 79 - Jamie Clarke, 4th 17 - Malcolm Clark, 5th 2 - Lee Fitzpatrick, 6th 11 - Simon Belcher, 7th 8 - Colin Chadwick, 8th 72 - Glenn Burtenshaw, 9th 69 - Gerard McCosh, 10th 77 - Robin Webb, 11th 14 - Steve Mills, 12th 76 - Neil Tressler, 13th 4 - Matthew Pape, 14th 18 - Dave Moore, 15th 48 - Brian Webb.

Race two: 1st 73 - Chris Grieve, 2nd 81 - Derek Pierce, 3rd 32 - Peter Morton, 4th 3 - John 'Jon' Higgins, 5th 54 - Ian Sturt, 6th 65 - Nick Evans, 7th 40 - Paul Thompson, 8th 2 - Lee Fitzpatrick, 9th 17 - Malcolm Clark, 10th 8 - Colin Chadwick, 11th 43 - Kevin Clark, 12th 76 - Neil Tressler, 13th 4 - Matthew Pape, 14th 77 - Robin Webb, 15th 26 - Steve Reynolds, 16th 49 - Dave Ward.

Race three: 1st 79 - Jamie Clarke, 2nd 19 - Lawrence Davey, 3rd 50 - Dave Newsham, 4th 3 - John 'Jon' Higgins, 5th 81 - Derek Pierce, 6th 18 - Dave Moore, 7th 14 - Steve Mills, 8th 54 - Ian Sturt, 9th 40 - Paul Thompson, 10th 11 - Simon Belcher, 11th 65 - Nick Evans, 12th 69 - Gerard McCosh, 13th 72 - Glenn Burtenshaw, 14th 32 - Peter Morton, 15th 49 - Dave Ward, 16th 43 - Kevin Clark, 17th 73 - Chris Grieve, 18th 48 - Brian Webb.

Race four: 1st 50 - Dave Newsham, 2nd 73 - Chris Grieve, 3rd 81 - Derek Pierce, 4th 11 - Simon Belcher, 5th 18 - Dave Moore, 6th 19 - Lawrence Davey, 7th 69 - Gerard McCosh, 8th 54 - Ian Sturt, 9th 2 - Lee Fitzpatrick, 10th 40 - Paul Thompson, 11th 43 - Kevin Clark, 12th 8 - Colin Chadwick, 13th 26 - Steve Reynolds, 14th 76 - Neil Tressler, 15th 77 - Robin Webb, 16th 85 - Iain Holden, 17th 49 - Dave Ward, 18th 48 - Brian Webb.