A misty and murky day greeted everybody at Mallory park for round 2 of the EMRA club championships. But it didn’t put a dampener on spirits, everyone looked happy and ready to get back on track.

Practice started promptly at 9:30, and so did the rain. The 125’s went out for their timed qualifying practice with a small light shower of rain. David Renz qualified 1st on his Honda RS125 with a time of 1.07.301 two seconds ahead of 2nd place qualifier Elliot Lodge who qualified with a time of 1.03.585.

The rain continued to slowly settle on Mallory and Drew from “Drew’s Race Tyres” was frantically changing slicks to wets! By the time the open class qualifying came around the track was still damp, and the rain didn’t show any signs of stopping. An upside down time sheet showed with Open Class and Buildbase Trophy Leader, Mark Littler, qualifying in 14th place.

First novice over the line was Martyn Lewins from Backmarker Racing UK, qualifying in a superb 5th position with a time of 1.00.203 on his proppa.com sponsored GSX-R1000. The 600 qualifying saw Dylan Roberts take first place on his Yamaha R6 with a time of 58.879 leaving series leader Leon Jeacock in 6th.

The racing got underway with the Bill Fry 70 - 125 race machines and a 10 lap race and series leader David Renz leading from lap 2 to finish in 1st place, 4 seconds ahead of 2nd in the series, David Lodge. The second of the 125 races saw David Renz lead from start to finish to extend his lead at the top of table by 19 points.

Richard Saunders took both wins in the F400 class to put a 22 point lead over 2nd in the championship Mike Doorey. Early stocks and LC’s were out for races 3 and 13 with Tom Benford taking the first Early Stocks victory over Steve Long, but swapping positions in race 13 with race victory going to Steve Long.

Both LC races saw Mark Emuss victorious bringing him up to 3rd in the championship 14 point behind series leader John Hunt who placed 4th and 6th in the LC races.

The first Co-Ordit sponsored road stock event of the day got underway with Arthur Oliver in first position, but saw Jim Hodgkinson move up into 1st place on lap 3 taking his Suzuki 1000 into 1st place. The 1st 600cc bike was the Yamaha R6 of Stephen Jory who finished 3rd place overall. Adam Hodgkinson was the 1st 400cc machine over the line in 16th place.

The second Road stock event saw Stuart Parsons take first place on his Yamaha R6 followed by the first 1000 over the line ridden by Darren Jones. Again Adam Hodgkinson was the first of the 400s over the line in 19th place. The Buildbase qualifying was Race 5 with Leon Jeacock taking victory on his BMC Yamaha R6, 0.6 seconds ahead of Mark Littler on his Lazer Kawasaki.

The Buildbase Race saw Jeacock take an early lead which was soon to be passed to Mark littler on lap 2. Littler managed to hold onto the lead until lap 9 where a pass by Jeacock took him back into the lead. The last lap saw the Lazer Kawasaki of Mark Littler take the lead and win by just over half a second to 2nd place Leon Jeacock. 3rd place was taken by Angelo Derosa on his Yamaha R1, 10 seconds ahead of 4th place Richard Green. The win by Littler saw his lead over Jeacock extend to 10 points going into the next round on May 17th.

The F1 sidecar victories were both taken by Bird and Roberts, and both F2 victories both taken by Demott/Jones. The LCR F1 outfit of Millington who is currently winning the championship was passengered by Deeley for this round, and placed 7th and 6th.

The first of the 3 open class races saw Phil Brooks take the lead on his Yamaha R1 whilst Richard Green and Mark Littler battled it out for 2nd and 3rd. Green held onto 2nd place from lap 2 to lap 8 and was passed by Littler on the final lap leaving him with 3rd. Brooks held the lead from start to finish 1.2 seconds ahead of Littler.

The 2nd of the JHP sponsored open class races saw Paul Townley take an early lead which only stretched until lap 3, when Rob Wilson came up to take the front position. Richard Green was slowly making his way through the leaders to find himself in 2nd by lap 6 and then taking the lead on lap 8, winning the race by 1.2 seconds ahead of Rob Wilson, Paul Townley and Mick Wheeler.

The final of the Open class started off with Littler and De-rosa take 1st and 2nd places by lap 4 and steam ahead of the rest of the pack leaving Phil Brooks and Paul Townley alone in 3rd and 4th places respectively. Littler’s victory takes him 8 points clear of Phil Brooks in 2nd, who is only 3 points ahead of 3rd place Paul Townley.

Yet again, the BMC Yamaha of Leon Jeacock made both the Reve Racing SS 600 races look easy. Finishing both races over 15 seconds. The first race saw Steve Gillings take second place, ahead of Rob Moon, with Richard Wardle finish 2nd in race 17 from Stuart Parsons.
The Co-Ordit Relay 600 didnt look to easy for Jeacock, as Midland WV Novice Jody Lees kept close to his heels throughout both races. Jody took his Midland VW Yamaha R6 to just 1.2 seconds behind Jeacock in the 2nd of the races. Could Jody be Leon’s closest rival on a 600?

Finishing off the day were the 2 novice classes, split into 2 races. The first of the two being the 1000, 400 and 250 classes. The front row of the grid was Darren Jones on his Aprilia followed by Martyn Lewins on his Proppa.com sponsored Suzuki. After Darren got a great start off the line, Lewins struggled to get away and went straight from 2nd to 4th by the first corner. By lap 4, Lewins had fought his way back to 2nd place but was being chased down by Carpenter, Scott and Leech. On lap 5 Lewins made a mistake at Edwina’s chicane which let Andy Carpenter through.

Carpenter chased down Jones to look at taking the win whilst an out-braking manoeuvre that didn’t work, went wrong for Lewins at Shaw's hairpin and saw him slip from 3rd to 5th in the last lap. Scott chased down Jones and took the victory by just 0.1 seconds, whilst Jon Leech finished 3rd in front of Gordon Scott and Martyn Lewins.

The final race of the day was the 600cc Novice race, which by earlier performances could only really have one winner. The Midland VW Yamaha of Jody Lees never looked threatened from start to finish and although Simon Bland rode well into 2nd place, it never looked like he was catching Lees. Daniel Lane rounded off the top 3 who were 11 seconds behind.

The novice championship is now looking good with the top 6 all riding well. Jody Lee’s in first on 30 points, with Gordon Scott 7 points behind in second. 6 points separate 3rd place Jon Leech from 6th place Martyn Lewins.