AFTER many years riding two wheels in various disciplines of cycle and motorcycle trials, Northallerton’s Jamie Bew made an instant impression when he switched to four wheels last weekend.

Bew was taking part in the fourth round of the SG Petch Sprint Kart Championship at Teesside Park and, after a race-long battle with the more experienced drivers, came away with a fine second place. He plans to contest selected rounds of the series this year before a concerted effort in the sport in 2016.

TEESSIDE businessman Peter Stephenson and Northallerton co-driver Ian Windress proved best of the locals when they emerged in fourth place overall and second in class in the recent Jim Clark Reivers Rally in Kielder Forest.

The ABLE UK-backed Ford Focus WRC pairing finished one place ahead of Ripon’s Matthew Robinson and co-driver Kim Baker, who also finished second in class in their recently-acquired Ford Fiesta.

Scorton driver Steve Petch and his Exelby co-driver John Richardson were making their debut in the Ford Fiesta S2000 and took it steady to reach the finish 19th overall and fourth in class, while Lanchester driver Trevor Gamble and Newcastle co-driver Ronnie Roughead claimed 38th overall and fourth in class in their S1600 Ford Puma.

Thirlby’s Ben Cree and co-driver Richard Shores, from Boltby, claimed a class win en route to 41st overall in their Peugeot 205, despite a hub bearing failure, and the Bishop Auckland pairing of Mike Williams and Steve Perry took 46th overall and seventh in class in their SGP Motorsport-backed Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9.

Sadly for Thirsk's Mat Smith and his wife, Amanda Cornforth-Smith, their rallies ended within a stage of each other. Mat and Barnard Castle co-driver Giles Dykes slid off the road on SS3 in their Proton Satria, having seen Amanda, co-driven by her father Derek Cornforth, from Hambleton, suffer transmission problems in her Ford Ka on SS2.

As a result, Stephenson has climbed to second place in the SG Petch ANECCC championship behind Yorkshire rallying legend Steve Bannister, with Mat Smith dropping to fifth. Cree added more points to his tally as the series passed the halfway mark going into this weekend’s DMACK Carlisle Stages Rally.

THE ThundersportGB series headed to Cadwell Park, in Lincolnshire, where Darlington racer Richie Harrison was competing in the Golden Era Superbike series on the Meltedsliders Motorcycles Suzuki GSXR 750 SRAD machines.

After qualifying in a top five position on the grid, Harrison made a bad start to race one and was tenth at the end of the first lap. He clawed his way back to fifth by the chequered flag, but was again held up on lap one in race two and could only manage seventh at the finish.

On Sunday, Harrison got away from the line well in race one and settled into seventh place. But as the race wore on and the tyres heated up, he slipped back to finish ninth as the riders with intermediate tyres were getting much better grip.

Harrison worked hard to get a much better start in the final race and he held fourth for most of the race before being pipped on the line to end up fifth.

The next outing for the team will be the Oulton Park round on June 27.

REDCAR Bears came very close to winning their third home meeting of the season in a tight fixture against Ipswich Witches, whose line-up included Danny King, who has recently been chosen for the GB team in the Speedway World Cup.

The points were split in heat one, but heat two saw the Witches record a 5-1. The Bears responded with 4-2 scores in heats three and four, with wins for Bears riders Adam Roynon and Ben Morley, which made it 12 points each.

The points were split in the next four heats before the Bears scored a convincing 5-1 in heat nine to open up a narrow lead of four points. This was followed by a win for Bears’ Lasse Bjerre in heat 10, with Jan Graversen in third and Witches' Argentinian rider Nico Covatti in second. The 4-2 for the Bears stretched their lead to six points.

Heat 11 saw the points again split, with another win for King. Bears’ Matej Kus, back from his recent ride in the Czech GP, won the re-run of heat 12 after Witches rider Stefan Nielsen had a fall and was replaced by Richie Hawkins.

With the Bears leading by six points going into heat 13, the atmosphere in the Media Prima Arena was electric. But King won from Bjerre, with Witches' Rohan Tungate third, giving the Witches a 4-2 and reducing the deficit to four points.

A win was possible for the Bears with two heats to go, but luck was not with the home side in heat 14 and a 5-1 to the Witches made the score 42-42 going into the last heat.

The final heat was won by King, with Bjerre second and Covatti just holding off the challenge from Kus for third. The 4-2 score gave the Witches a close overall win of 46-44.

Overall, the Bears had nine wins to the Witches' six in probably the best meeting of the season. Top scorers for the Witches were King (14) and Covatti (10). Bears' top scorers were Bjerre (12) and Kus (10).