Hat-trick Pete warms-up in style

Peter Baker who will be campaigning his Morello Services Kawasaki in the MCE British Superbike Championship used this meeting as an ideal test to see how his pace was ahead of the opening round at this circuit. He was up against fellow National runners Jonathan Howarth, Josh Wainwright and Sam Coventry along with the usual top NG runners headed by 13 time champ Phil Bevan on his new ZX10. Baker swept all challengers aside to win all three finals, and astonishingly it was Coventry that worried him the most in the third and final Phoenix open of the weekend. Bevan and Howarth tasted time at the front but once Baker got into his stride he set some astonishingly fast and consistent lap times. Howarth had come into the weekend as NG lap record holder and soon bettered his old figures in the superb warm and sunny conditions but no sooner had the record books been updated than Baker popped in three laps under Howarth’s new time to eventually set a best of 47.38 secs, 91.78mph. With some tweeks to his bike overnight Howarth was sure he could run with Baker but unfortunately the sunbathing crowd did not get to see the Barnsley Fireman out on track. He was not willing to risk pushing things after a big oil spillage from an earlier sidecar blow up left the track not at its best through Druids and Graham Hill.

Twice second Stamper goes top

Dave Hampton and Darrell Higgins shared the victories in the opening round of the ACU 250 Championship but it was Jonathan Stamper, with two solid second places, who topped the points table. Higgins qualified on pole, with less than a second covered the top five, and led Saturday’s race, but on the third of 15 laps, he crashed out, uninjured, at Druids. Stamper hit the front on lap four and stayed there for six more laps, before Hampton took the lead, pulling away to win by 1.6 seconds. Ant Hodson was third, just under nine seconds further back. Rich Grinling was fifth, first in the new Pre-92 class, just half a second in front of Andrew Sawford, another man with eyes of the new category. Conditions were tricky for everyone in Sunday’s race, but nobody crashed. Stamper was second home again. He made a sluggish start, lying fifth on the opening lap, but grabbed the lead on lap four. Higgins and Hodson were right with him, though and the trio battled it out for the rest of the 18 laps,Higgins won followed closely by Stamper and Hodson. Three quarters of a second covered them all, with Hampton a good fourth. Sawford was seventh, first in the Pre-92 class and with Grinling going out, now leads the new championship. Simon Hunt, with a tenth and an eighth, tops the NG Cup.

Rumley’s double top

Defending NG Sound of Thunder champ Darren Rumley considered a switch of bike to a ZX10 over winter, but decided in the end that he loves his KTM RC8 too much, and so returned to try and take the crown for a third year in a row. After setting pole in qualifying ahead of other KTM men Paul Willis and Dave Mackay he thought he was in for a fight, but one by one they had problems. On the way to the grid the clutch on Willis’ KTM gave out. Then as the warm up lap set off Mackay and Peter Carr collided taking them out of the action and when the race set off Sean Smith’s 675 stuck in second gear. Rumley duly romped home to a 17 second win over class new boy James Harrison.

Sunday saw Willis’ bike patched up with Scott Pitchers also joining the fun but Rumley was in command leading the race from lights to flag. Willis and Pitchers were on his tail for the whole race. Willis held second for most of the race with a frustrated Pitchers trying to find a way through. It was on lap nine that Pitchers got into second and immediately got right with Rumley, but as he mounted a challenge the red flags came out for an on track incident, and with just two laps to go the result was called by the Clerk of the course.

Four-some show by Hegarty

Former two time British sidecar champs Sean Hegarty and James Neave used the races to ensure a good set up for their Eastern Airways National campaign on the LCR Suzuki. Saturday had them about a second off lap record pace but tweaking and tinkering was done overnight and it paid dividends as they set a new lap record figures at 49.13 sec. Simon Gilbert and Ashley Moore the current NG champs followed Hegarty home in each of the four outings for the chairs. 2013 British series runner up Andy Peach/Charlie Richardson had a troubled weekend trying to track down gremlins in their new L&W LCR BMW. The gremlins won as Peach's new BMW blew up and caught fire on the exit of Druids in practice on the second day. Matt Dix and Shaun Parker were the top F2 outfit all weekend, with defending class champions, Tom and Thomas Quaye spending the weekend searching for race pace after tipping over in the gravel first thing on Saturday.

Sam’s the man

Sam Coventry loves the circuit and his new ZX6R. The switch from the one make 848 series to the Supersport 600 has been quick and easy. He controlled all four races from the front getting quicker as the races went on to stretch out winning margins of 19 and 11 secs as the team tried out a host of new settings. The battle behind though saw Alistair Black, Dave Manley squabbling over which step of the podium they wanted with Black just getting the nod. Behind them all hell was breaking out as Scott Pitchers, Corey Lewis, Paul Jeffery, Max Symonds and Sean Montgomery along with Tom Weeden revelled in the sunny and warm conditions but were just off the pace of the top three, although no one had an answer for Coventry.

Wilford is just gr-eight!

Sam Wilford has recently relocated to the UK after living in Germany, and the 16 year old from nearby Meopham took his RRV450 Aprilia to eight wins from eight starts in the 500 open and GP45 races in just his second meeting on the bike. But he did not have things all his own way as he had to withstand pressure from two more very quick teenagers in the shape of South African Jordan Weaving on his moto3 KTM and Carmarthan's Mark Clayton with the RS125 Honda. A resurgent Phil Guillou on his TZ, gave the kids a good run on Saturday, but sat out Sunday’s race.

The best of the rest

David Ince and Shane Faber shared the honours in the Formula 125 class whilst James Hobson and Jordan Weaving, both on Moto 3 KTM’s tasted victory in the small GP class with Mark Clayton easily the best 125 GP rider. Daniel Tilley and Ben Harrison each scooped a win in the Formula 400 with Harrison also winning his first ever race in the 500 newcomers. That earned him the Bardahl newcomer of the day award. Forrest Dunn dominated the big newcomer class, and Paul Williams headed up the Mini Twins for the newbies. In the three streetstock classes Daniel Tilley took maximum points from the 400cc on his NC30 whilst Adam Grosch took the pair in the 700cc class a feat that saw him win the Metzeler tyre award. The 1300cc class had Simon O’Donnell and Richard Hughes end the meeting honours even. Rob Garland took Saturday’s 700 pre injection final on his street-fighter Yamaha but struggled to match Clayton Grovers’ pace on Sunday as Grover set a new class lap record. There was another new lap record in the 1300 pre-injection for Mike Hobbs as he narrowly headed home former champion Adam Jeffery in both finals.

Dan Couzens was unbeatable on his Team V Speed SV in the Mini Twins although Grant Robertson, Paul Holden and Richard Goode kept him honest. Couzens lowered the old class best lap times three times over the weekend. Wayne Axon took both Super Twins wins in the new to NG class. In the Powerbikes BSB Superstock runners Josh Wainwright and Jonathan Howarth shared honours at the flag as they used the meeting as preparation for the upcoming Pirelli backed National series. Howarth set a new lap record on his way to victory in the ideal conditions.