Alveley ace Harris Beech on track for top three

Round nine of the MiniGP140 and MiniGPUK championships took place at Rednal Industrial Estate, near Oswestry, writes James Driver-Fisher.

Harris Beech, a star of both classes, led the local challenge and ended the two-day event with two top three finishes in the UK version for his efforts.

The results left the 12-year-old from Alveley, near Bridgnorth, in a good position to claim top three spots in both series.

The main MiniGP140 series has 20 riders competing for the title while the smaller UK series, run by his Harris' father, Richard, includes nine out of the 20 competitors.

The UK version of the championships is only open to youngsters racing on IMR machinery and is designed to make competing more affordable.

Isle of Man TT legend, Manx native and two-time TT winner Richard 'Milky' Quayle, who now works as a TT rider's liaison officer after recovering from a horror crash while racing on the island, was also on hand to present trophies to the winners.

Richard said: "Harris started the opening race seventh on the grid after a very competitive qualifying left the top seven being covered by one second.

"A crash halted race one for 15 minutes but Harris was able to get of to reasonable start when the flag went down, battling with Kyal Tinker for eight laps. But without being able to find a way past he finished a bike's length behind, taking third MiniGPUK and fourth in MiniGP."

After a few bike alterations Harris had a better start to race two and was again battling for places with Tinker.

After three laps he found enough space to make his move, under-breaking into turn three, a sweeping right hand corner.

Harris made a break and finished five seconds in front of Tinker, finishing second in MiniGPUK and third in MiniGP.

Richard added: "We will be having our own separate grid of MiniGPUK bikes in the 2017 championship as we have interest from another five possible entrants. We will hopefully have our own MiniGPUK grid of 14-plus riders."