What a glorious day it was as Ashton Vale held their first race meeting of the season, the club had made a few changes to the track from last season and had worked hard to ensure it was ready for the days racing. The club made sure the track was kept watered through out the day to reduce the dust, this certainly was a welcome change from the past two weeks.

The Rocket Centre had a full complement of riders competing at this meeting, Lee Buck nursing an injured foot which he picked up at a previous race meeting, decided to ride in just one of the expert classes, the mx2 experts. Lee had three good races despite his sore foot to finish fifth in race one and fourth place in race two. In the third race Lee had a brilliant start as he took the hole shot and led the race for a few laps before his injury took its toll on him and he finished in fourth place. Michael Reynolds took the overall win with Daniel Barber in second and Matthew Williamson in third.

The mx1 expert race once again proved to be a real crowd pleaser as Lee Payne and Robert Clitheroe sat side by side on the start gate. In race one Robert took the early lead but his team mate Lee had other ideas. Lee took the lead a few laps in and the two Rocket team mates raced ahead of the rest of the field. In race two the positions remained the same but race three was the one that had the paddock talking. Aaron Crowder took the early lead with Lee hot on his tail, they battled for a few laps before Lee made an unbelievable pass to take the lead from Aaron, Lee took the chequered flag with a good lead from second place man Aaron Crowder. Hot on his back tyre was Robert Clitheroe who after a bad start rode well to pick his way through the field to take third place. Rocket riders took the top two overall positions with Lee Payne in first position and Robert Clitheroe in second, Aaron Crowder took third place.

Dave "Flash" Parrington was the only rider in the mx2 seniors to represent the Rocket team as young Joe Entwistle choose not to ride at this meeting. Dave rode his team bike well with three excellent starts to finish just out side of the top ten in all three of his races.
The overall first place went to Dale Weir with Ross Harrison in second and Anthony Hartley taking home the third place trophy.

Next weeks race meeting will be held at Astley Raceway as Leigh hold their first race meeting of the season where camping is allowed. As usual the Rocket centre van will be on hand for you to purchase any parts or products you may require and if you would like us to bring anything to this meeting please contact the off road section before Saturday and we will do our best to bring it with us. We hope to have all our Rocket Centre team competing at this meeting so why not come and show your support for our lads. You won't be disappointed!!