Cheers, tears, drama and great racing were on the menu for the final round of the AMCA British Motocross Championship last weekend at Warmingham Lane in Cheshire. Hosted by the Middlewich MXC, there was though to be an interesting extra ingredient thrown into the mix thus making those medal hunters work just a little harder to get it over the line for glory! After a dry day one, rain moved in on Sunday thus totally changing track conditions. Despite that late twist though the title leaders of the respective classes remained composed and controlled to still put the required points on the board.
In the combined Open/MX2 class it was to be a double celebration for the FUS Marsh Honda boy’s as James Dodd topped the Open and Henry Williams bagged the MX2 crown. Going into the event, Doddy had held a 36-point advantage in the Open class and although that advantage was then reduced down to a final 24, it was job done for JD. Taking the Open class overall win at round 6 with maximum points was eventual series runner-up Jayden Ashwell and what great recent form that lad has been displaying! The AJP pilot has now topped the last three rounds at Lower Drayton, Hawkstone Park and Warmingham and he’s certainly had to work hard for those wins. Throughout the Warmingham weekend Will Hughes was also very quick off the start and doing more than enough to comfortably confirm the Championship bronze medal position. At this final round Will though had to settle for a 6th overall behind Ashwell, Dodd, Adam Wells, Ben White and James Bates.
In MX2, Henry Williams travelled to Warmingham with a 16-point advantage at the top and with Josh Waterman and Luke Dean attempting to hunt him down. Henry is a cool dude though and day one he remained totally focussed to score 2/3 placings and thus increase his title chasing advantage by another 7 points. That meant he now required just another 3 points more than Waterman in Sunday’s opener to bag the crown. So, getting it done in style, Henry went 2/4 to actually finish the campaign 32 points clear at the top of the MX2 Championship table. In the Warmingham overall it was Williams, Waterman and McKenzie Marshall on the box. Although he did not score any Championship points on Sunday, Dean was still to be the eventual series bronze medal taker with Luke Meredith 4th, Yarin Evans 5th and Jordan Wright 6th.
Although Chris Brindley briefly led the opening 125cc Championship moto, series leader Jimmy Margetson was soon in control before racing onto the win. Getting yet another 25 points on the board meant that Jimmy had retained his title so for the remainder of the meeting he proudly competed with a gold front number plate in celebration. Whilst it was jubilation for Margetson in contract this final round was pure heartache for Luke Newman. Having been in the series top three right from the opening round, Luke crashed out on the opening lap of moto two suffering a broken wrist! So, with Luke dropping to 4th in the standings, that saw Aaron Colley on the Holab Concepts Fantic move up into 3rd. The 2025 125cc series was to certainly prove productive for the Midwest Husqvarna boy’s as Wyatt McGregor finished a super 2nd and teammate Will Turner got home in 5th.
Just like Luke Newman, over in the Youth 125cc class, Olllie Jewitt was also to suffer total last round heartache. Having been the series leader before dropping down to 2nd, Ollie was still right in contention for the title being just 11 points behind current table topper Woz Boyce at the start of the Warmingham event. The unfortunate Jewitt though then saw his title hopes all but disappear in the opening moto of day one when his Yamaha machine suffered a clutch malfunction. That meant no points scored and then rubbing salt into the wounds he was also to be overhauled for the silver medal in the Championship by Linc Hasted who has been in fantastic form and finished by also taking 3rd overall at round 6 behind Chris Brindley and Oliver Bebb. The eventual 125cc Youth Champion Woz Boyce calmly got the title wrapped up at Warmingham scoring a controlled 9/11/12 scorecard before sitting out the last moto of the season.
Whilst wildcard Arthur Moore raced off to a BW85cc maximum at Warmingham, Stanley Siebert calmly brought the title home. Having led the series right since round one, Stanley recorded 3/3/3/2 placings whilst regular contenders Sean Smout, Aston Whitehead and Finn Fitzgerald produced typically consistent showings. Smout the closest challenger to Siebert throughout 2025 deservedly claimed the Championship runners-up spot with Fitzgerald 3rd and Whitehead 4th, just frustratingly 9 points short of a medal position. Next best in this class was Ryan Tilley, Archie Humphrey and Jimmy Whiston.
Having already been confirmed as the SW85cc Champion, Freddie Smith finished the campaign in style with another perfect maximum points score. Freddie was an eventual massive 148 points ahead of series runner-up Connor Johnston, George Milnes, Harry Sayce and Sebastian Perrins-Talbot. Showing just how competitive those lads on the small wheels really are, Smith’s moto placings in this class combined with the big wheels were 8/7/10/10.
The AMCA Women racers at Warmingham were again included into the Vet’s class and the entry saw outgoing Champion Grace Richards make a welcome return to action. Having took a break from racing due to her university studies, Grace was right back on it and really mixing it! Going 6/8/4/7, Grace also took the Women’s overall from Holly Williams, Leah Rees-Evans returning having missed just about the entire season and new Champion Amber McGregor. Proving that consistency is the key to success and just as crucial as moto wins, Amber is definitely a very worthy title winner so many congratulations to her! Also hitting the headlines at Warmingham was Holly Williams, jumping up from 4th to bag the silver medal position, a great achievement considering she missed round two at Bromsberrow back in April! Whilst Holly celebrated it was pure heartache for Errin Howes who after being in the top three for a majority of the season had to final settle for 4th behind Hannah Jones. At this final round the girls certainly got stuck in to those old Vets and Lauren Collingwood even pulled off a moto two holeshot! Well done to you all.
In the Vets Over 40’s, James Lane retained his crown but season long rival Jamie Dobson certainly made the Gloucester based rider work hard for that honour. Indeed, Lane had to dig very deep in Saturday’s second moto, falling on lap one and being relegated to last. With a supreme ride he then charged all the way back to 2nd and was right on winner Jamie Dobson’s back wheel! In that same incident, Sam Callow had also fell before recovering back to a great 6th. That ride and points coupled with a super last moto win was to ensure that Sam just edged out season long rival Rich Meakin in the battle for the series bronze. With the injured Simon Lane having already confirmed the Vets 0ver 50’s title, Christopher Elcock took the overall win at Warmingham from Adrian Lewis, Ste Marlow and Matt Ryder. It was great to see Matt back in AMCA action and he topped both of Saturday’s Over 50’s battles. In the Vets Over 60’s, going into the final round Brian Staples held a 51-point lead at the top of the title chase. At Warmingham Brian elected to ride his 2T KTM and was 3rd overall behind Darran Williams and Andrew Prosser but that was still enough to safely earn him the crown.
Needing just another 16 points to confirm the Clubman Seniors title, series long leader Michael Harbage arrived at Warmingham with a Kawasaki machine after campaigning a Suzuki throughout the series. In moto one, Michael finished 7th which added 14 points to his total so that meant that there was still work to be done! 17 th place in moto two finally brought it home and so Harbage decided not to compete on the second day of action. With Harbage the Champion not present, there was though still plenty of business to be decided in the hot race for the remaining final medal positions. Producing one big final effort, Billy McGillivray hauled himself up into the silver medal position finishing just a single point ahead of Ricky Ryder. In this Seniors class, Oliver Parry was also very close to the final top three and after 23 hard fought moto’s was just a narrow 6 points behind Ryder! Taking the Seniors overall win at Warmingham was George Mitchell.
Although he had already wrapped up the Clubman Juniors title, Leighton Price finished the season in style with four great moto wins, and what a story this is with Leighton having only started racing in September 2024! At Warmingham and for the second consecutive round, Tyler Lane on his 125cc Yamaha really mixed it up with the larger capacity machines to thus earn a great 2nd overall with Bobby Turner in 3rd. In the battle for the series honours, Jack Breakwell and Matthew Limer claimed the respective silver and bronze positions.
Many congratulations to all of the 2025 AMCA British Motocross Champions.
Words and Images by Mike Wood
