Joe Symonds lifted the NG Road Racing Overall Phoenix Yamaha backed Open title despite only picking up just four points from the last two rounds.

His main championship challenger Michael Blank had ruled himself out after an Oulton Park crash two weeks ago that left him with wrist and rib injuries, plus a bout of concussion. Joe qualified well for this final round and was due to start from pole for the final.

However the Greendays R1 was reportedly not topped up with fuel, so Joe had to start from the pit lane after missing the start proper. He manfully fought through the 40 strong grid up to 11th when the flag came out, but was safe in the knowledge that the championship was his.

Leon Morris ex NG 600cc champ and now BSB rider for Brookspeed on a 1098 Ducati took the race win at an average of over 104mph with fellow BSB circuit riders Phil Bevan and Nick Pusey in pursuit. Mark Compton was the top series regular in 4th less than a second adrift of Pusey. Symonds though was aware that the title was his, but got a lot of ribbing from his fellow competitors….. a bit of jealousy I think !.

Championships are never easy to win with 13 rounds at 7 different circuits, but some riders seem to do there very best to make life difficult. Such was the case in the Race Trader UK 400 Streetstocks class.

At mid season Rich Troth on the Bunnie Layla CBR 400 had a very healthy 41 point lead with 8 wins on the trot to his credit….all was looking good. However at round 10 at Pembrey he had a huge crash, so no points from Pembrey. He came back at Oulton and again fell, so no points from the Cheshire circuit. So going into this final round that lead was down to just 7 points. Qualifying didn’t go well as his brake lever snapped off.

For the final the track was wet and the wheels were changed, but with unbalanced wheels he thought the bike was going to shake itself to bits. Rich held on though to take 5th spot after Josh Leaning and Ben Millard crossed the line in the top two positions. It was a title he thought he was destined not to win... but he got there in the end.

The other Streetstock classes were equally close with Andy Hayes on his MLF R6 and Nicholas Andrews fighting out the 700 Metzeler / DTR Racing Streetstock.

The pair were barely separated by a couple of bike lengths all race and as Andrews took the win with Hayes right in his wheeltracks the calculators were employed to work out the final reckoning….. they both had 170 points… but with Hayes’ 6 wins to Andrews’ 5 the nod went the way of Hayes, who went one better than his runner-up spot in ’07.

The action was no less frantic in the 1300 Metzeler / DTR Racing Streetstock with Dan Kift and Hillary Philips in a similar winner takes all situation. Both showed signs of nerves in the wet conditions, neither wanting to make a mistake, and watching where each other was on track. That allowed Cliff Tabiner on his Geoff Kingston R1 and Gary Downs on his (up for sale) GSXR 1000 to take the top two spots.

Phillips came through in third, but even though Kift on his Protint CBR lost two places on the last lap to Mark Skinner and Gary Johnson his 6th place, and worst points scoring ride of the year was enough to take the class by just one point from Phillips. Again the ’07 runner up went one better in ’08.

Thruxton normally attracts a few top sidecar crews, and this year was no different. Former European champ Roger Lovelock and Rick Lawrence, along with Mark Edwards and Jamie Winn, came along to challenge the NG regulars.

Lovelock had qualified on pole on his BB Bikeshop LCR Suzuki, but come the final he made a bad start that saw him mired down in 5th place at the end of lap one. Edwards and Winn needed no excuse and built up a 4 second lead by the end on lap 3 of the 6 lap final, by which time Lovelock had go through to second place, and proceeded to chase down the race leader.

The local Marlborough based pair swept through into the lead on the final drag up Woodam Hill. However Edwards tried a high wide line and the Club chicane…. The pair were on a collision course which the massed crowd on the banks braced themselves for. Contact happened, which pitched Lawrence out of the chair and was dumped unceremoniously on the Thruxton tarmac.

He got back on board but Edwards/Winn had already crossed the line for the race win. Matt Dix and Shaun Parker finished in a fighting 5th place to lift both CSC and Century 2000 Sidecar titles, beating Ian Drowne and Gary Andrews by just one point in the open class.

Darryl Alexanders 10 race winning streak ended at Thruxton as Stephen Sweetman headed him home on his SV650. But with Alexander on the Monk Racing/CJS SV having notched up an unassailable 31-point lead he was happy to come in in second place (his worst finish of the year !), for the first time this year in the Big C Mini Twins.

2005 Team Spidey Sound of Thunder champ Andy Peck did all he could to repeat that win by keeping the pressure on series leader James Parry. Peck took the win by 5 seconds and set the fastest lap circulating consistently over half a second a lap quicker that his top opposition. Parry has been known on occasion to push hard, sometimes when not necessary, he is the sort of rider that relishes wins and always rides on the limit.

Peck hoped he could force Parry on his Loki Racing 675 Triumph into an error. Parry was not having it though and a safe but hard working second place saw the title go his way by just 5 points. Peck was the first to congratulate is rival in this very sportsman like class. Andy Peck was presented the NG Rider of the meeting award for his efforts.

Leon Morris had his second win of the day in the L and J Mechanical Powerbike class on the Brookspeed 1098 with Joe Symonds having a fine ride to second and the class title on his Greendays R1.

Mark Compton stormed through to take third off Peter Golden at the line, while Lee Keeble took Darren Neal on the last lap to grab third place in the series just behind the aforementioned Symonds and Neal.

Despite Grahame Frear having his worst race of the year, finishing 9th in the treacherous wet conditions that affected the second half of the days racing he knew it was enough to take the George White 600 class.

Joshua Day won the race by some 10 seconds from Aaron Ridewood, who has finally regained some of his ’07 pace with a fine second place ahead of Jamie Adam who was revelling in the wet on his LM and Royal Navy GSXR. Dave Thomson had third place in the championship stolen from under his nose by Josh Day after unfortunately falling foul to a yellow flag infringement penalty.

Promising newcomer Sam Coventry racked up his 5th win of the year in the Steve Lynham Formula 125 class to grab second place in the championship just behind his younger cousin and Red Bull Rookie finalist, Rowan Miller who came in a safe third on his 80GP Metrakit. Millers Metrakit was giving away too much power around the high speed Thruxton circuit this weekend, but the mature thinking 13 year old knew third place would be more than enough for the class crown. He now looks forward to the Red Bull selection at Valencia. Coventry was awarded the Newcomer of the meeting silverware.

Last years F125 champ Corey Lewis celebrated his 14th birthday by making it two championships in two years after securing the Refined Recruitment 125GP title this weekend after coming in second behind his older Jay in this final round. He and is now set for a full year at BSB level in 2009 on board the RR/SL Heating/Bushby RS 125.

Regular George White 600 rider Daniel Frear not only had second place in the 600’s tied up this weekend, he also had a one off ride on the Shiney Race Paints ZXR 400 in the A and R Formula 400. With no pressure he set pole position…fastest lap and took the race wins ahead of Chris Beverley, who had already bagged the title on his France and Li Asia CBR. Impressive newcomer 17 year-old Joshua Leaning took third in the series on his Connole/Crowcroft ZXR after taking fourth place after a race long battle with Steve Palmer.

Tony Davies’ consistent run of top three finishes continued with another third spot on his Cliff Robins Autobody TZ250 to take the Dara Brady 400 open coming in just three seconds adrift of race winner Ollie Linsdell on the Peter Berwick RS250 and the returning to action Chay Newton.

So with 2008 done and dusted the now traditional end-of-year bash took place in the Goodwood Clubhouse. Where champions celebrated….near misses were commiserated….but everyone to a man and woman said that this had been a vintage season. …….Roll on ‘09