The final round of the IMBA European Championship proved a great success for the small Upton Motorsports club at its sandy Bromsberrow circuit near Ledbury.

Despite torrential rain on the Friday evening the course dried out for the supporting classes on the Saturday afternoon.

Both Robin Burford and Nathan Windley of the home club finished well in the Junior races.

All attention was on the Veteran class catering for over-40s where Geoff Davis of the home club gained overall victory.

The sight of over-40s competing on old machines caused great amusement among the visiting Dutch and Belgium teams.

Action on the Sunday got under way with the Wessex experts, where Danny Walker of Suckley led the field into the first bend.

However all eyes were on James Lane of the Upton club who has been competing across Europe during the summer months.

James did not disappoint with convincing wins in the first two races and a charge from last to first in the final race to gain the overall win.

The superclass group provided the closest racing of the day between Simon Lane of the Upton club and Jason Lewis of Ross. After two wins apiece it was decided over the last race with Simon beating Jason to the line.

Hopes of a British win in the main event were dashed on the first lap when James Cumber parted company with his machine on the first downhill sustaining a suspected broken collarbone.

The restart showed the superiority of the Belgian riders with Bengt Laeremanns gaining a convincing win over his fellow countryman Danny Wauters to clinch the IMBA title for 2001.

Richard Du'Feu from Lancashire gave the crowd reason to cheer in the second race by leading the pack but Laeremanns again came through to win.

Laeremanns and fellow Belgian Noel de Busser ran away with the final race .

Upton Motorsports next meeting at Bromsberrow on November 4.