This weekend, the NGRRC moves to sunny Snetterton in Norfolk. This high-speed track always provides high drama and great racing, so here are the ones to watch:
Chay Newton and father Colin are the CC Road Race team. Colin doing all the engine work and Chay doing all the riding…. That’s it, no big backers, no teams of mechanics and although they have picked up some very welcome help this year from Refined Recruitment its still very much a shoestring effort.
The TZ he rides is getting on a bit, being a 2000 model imported direct from Japan a few seasons back but as he proved at Brands Hatch recently it’s still up to the job.
The 23 year old Landscape Gardener from Wellington in Somerset started his racing career early, on an RS125 Honda back in 2000 and in ’01 took a higher championship position in the 125 class than Daniel Cooper (who went on to the British 125 title).
In ’03 we saw a move to the 250GP grids on a TZ and had the hard riding youngster gained championship runner-up spots in the NG Road Racing series in 2005 and 6. Missing out in ’05 by just 2 points…..and that after missing 4 rounds due to injury.
A serious arm injury saw him sidelined for most of last year, but is now back fitter and keener than ever to make a name for himself in the 250GP ranks. After acquitting himself well at Brands with a second place in round one things look set for a good year with his goal being “…lifting the 250GP ACU National Championship trophy at the end of the year”
A strong grid of 125GP machines this year sees Corey Lewis at the age of 13 taking to the Dave Bushby RS125 well, he will once more have Jack Drummond, Matt Hillier and defending ’07 champ Freddie Nickless for company. The Junior Formula 125’s sees Rowan Miller in command on his 80 Metrakit. Whilst the 400 open Freddie Nickless on a 125 heads things at present but expect the 250s of Tony Davies, Chay Newton and Paul Lumb , as well as the 400 4-stroke of Les Vallender to be in the fight.
When it come to the 600 class there are no easy races with a possible 6 or 8 winners each weekend. Joshua Day, Daniel Frear, Graham Frear, and Rich Bearcroft are the men-most-likely, with the Frear brothers looking good on R6 and CBRRR respectively.
The bigger Superbike Open and Powerbike classes too have a whole host of talent on the grid, Joe Symonds and James Cox on Yamahas R1, and Michael Blank on a GSXR Suzuki are the pick of the grid. However Charlie Bishop, Paul Allen, Darren Neal and Shaun Hennessey are regular and proven winners. There is also a rumour that European Women's Championship front-runner Susie Grayson may put in an appearance on the Feisty Racing R1.
Chris Beverley (CBR400), Les Vallender (RVF400), Jodie Duffill, Josh Leaning and Tony Meredith (ZXR400) show that no one bike is able to dominate the Formula 400 class as all could grab the big points this weekend.
Mark Compton returns to the fray on his Aprilia Mille to challenge Andy Peck, Greg Gibson and a whole host of new 675 Triumphs in the Sound of Thunder class. The 675 is proving to be the machine to have in ’08 and James Parry, Duncan Knox and Martin Sharpe in particular have got theirs sorted. Whilst in the Mini Twins it’s a battle of Nigel Wright, defending class champ on his lone 800SS Ducati up against the class bike choice of SV650 Suzuki with Steven Sweetman the main challenger.
Streetstocks racing for road legal machines is really strong at present with Dan Kift on his CBR 1000 Honda the top exponent, along with John Harwood and Jer Thomas on the big bikes. The 700’s see last years class runner up Andy Hayes wanting to go one better this year on his R6, although Nicholas Andrews is doing his very best to prevent that happening. In the 400 division though Richard Troth is having a relatively easy run of things with convincing victories at Pembrey and Brands under his belt to date.
Matt Dix and Rob Beere are definitely the pick on the sidecar crop so far in this ’08 season on their F2 600 Baker. They have dominated both the F2 and Open classes so far. The question this weekend is can their super quick 600 hold off the 1000cc+ open outfits down the Revett straight?.
With races also for newcomers on the programme Ben Marsden in the 400’s and Duncan Knox in the open are hoping this year could launch their racing careers.
ACU250 National Championship and NG Cup
After Brands Hatch, a few names are forcing themselves to the fore, most notably Ben Johnson and Jason Davies. Davies on his TW2 Motorsport TZ250 had the pace all weekend following on from his impressive pre season testing, but will not want to add another dnf to his tally following his Brands race one. It was Johnson though that went away with the series lead on the Double M RS250 Honda after turning in 1st and 2nd place finishes.
Snetterton will see Davies and Johnson again at the fore, but also expect Toby Markham, Lee Dickinson and Alex Kenchington to feature. This trio missed Brands due to European 250 competition with 20 year old Markham best with 6th at the Cartegena circuit in Spain. Dickinson was also in the top 10.
Darrell Higgins will be hoping to bounce back after his get-off at Brands on the DTR TZ 250 as will Chay Newton whose runner up spot in leg one at Brands had everyone taking notice of the 22 year old Refined Recruitment TZ250 rider.
The vastly experienced Bruce Dunn too will sure to forcing on the pace on his TZ250 Yamaha after a strong first outing.
With also Rich Grindling, Mark Linton, Ant Hodson and Derek Clark out there, winners are not easy to predict.
One rider wanting to up his game from the wet Brands meeting will be local rider Andrew Sawford. Andrew suffered in the wet at Brands and will be all out to make amends here at Snetterton in front of his sponsors St Neots Motorcycles and his home crowd.
Paul Lumb, on his Ken White Signs/AK 2-stroke TZ took both NG Cup wins in the Clubmans NG Cup at Brands and will want to continue his winning ways here at Snetterton.
As an added bonus for the series Neal Fraser of Fraser’s of Gloucester has stepped up to the mark with some very welcome round on round race day cash for the top three in both National and Cup series, to add to the substantial end of year fund
