Bike champion Daniel Winterton from Stoke. (Picture by Andrew Le Poidevin, 0493609)

THE final meeting of the year may have been held on a dry but very blustery day with the beach in fairly good condition, but it was no disappointment as the racing was fast and furious.

As with the current Grand Prix standings, three riders were in with a chance of clinching the sliders championship with Dave Cleal leading the way before racing began.

Unfortunately, on the first corner of the very first race with all eight riders tightly bunched together the inevitable happened with an accident between Cleal and Darren Clarke and with both riders on the ground the red flag was shown to immediately stop the race.

Fortunately, both got to their feet, but as Clarke was in pain the ambulance was required to take him to hospital with a suspected broken collarbone again.

There was almost an hour’s delay until the ambulance returned, but with very slick pit work only five of the programmed races were lost.

This delay allowed Cleal to check his bike over before racing again whereas Clarke’s bike will be in need of repair to the front forks and a replacement wheel.

For the first of the three championship races it was Dan Winterton out in the lead from the third rider looking for the championship, Anthony Queripel, while Mike Clarke and Anthony Bougourd picked up the third places thus leaving Cleal in the fourth or fifth slots, meaning the championship now only had one point between Cleal and Winterton.

In the remaining two championship races Cleal was given some welcome help in that both Mike Clarke and Bougourd slowed on the final lap of each race to allow Cleal to take second spot but this wasn’t quite enough for the 62-year-old local who failed by three points to better the much younger Stoke rider Winterton for this year’s championship.