National and Junior Endurance Race – Three Hours

Three riders had dipped below the 60s mark - Mick Godfrey (Sweatshop), Craig Fitzpatrick (BLDS Couriers) & James McBride (TANC) - for the opening twenty of so laps it was short circuit stuff.  Normal pit stops occurred after 30 minutes and the running order was then established as; Sweatshop, BLDS, TANC, first 600 DucksX (Grant Wagstaff/Mike Eglington), DR4 (Neil Garnham/Tony Rogers), 1491 (Ian Cooper/Andy Pulling), Pit Stop (Marc + Peter Dilks) and Insignia (Rob + Jamie Loveday). After 45 minutes Adam Woby binned at Honda causing a pace car appearance, once cleared, BSB refugee Craig Fitzpatrick fell off at the same place and it was pace car déjà vu.

Mark Roxbrough was next to hit the deck and at half way point Sweatshop led from TANC Racing by a single lap, DucksX were a strong third ahead of DR4, Pit Stop, 1491, Blujets (Carl Hodgkins/Ash Rothwell), Banzai (Ben Jenkins/Thompson) and Visorvision (Paul Berryman/Keith Flint), uncharacteristically outside the top ten were Brand Bros and multi race winners M & M. All change.

Pit stops were taken with 60 minutes to go confirming Sweatshop leading the race and National 1000 class by 2 laps from Class rivals TANC racing. Pit Stop were third on the road and top National 600 over Junior 1000 crew DR4 with four machines sharing the same lap and separated by seconds; Pit Stop’s class rivals M & M had rocketed up to 5th on the road, confirming 'never say never' whilst J1000 Blujets were second in class

The final round of pit stops in heavy rain saw Sweatshop were sorted with a lap cushion over fellow National 1000 crew TANC racing, Pit Stop was delighted to be third finishes overall and top National 600 team from class leaders M & M with 1491 in a handy third spot.

Things are getting really tight in the Junior 1000 division; Redmond Racing 4 were top of the podium by a lap from the Eric Chitty run Blujets Racing who finished only a handful of seconds ahead of Visorvision Team Traction Control. Eventually Brand Brothers showed their class with a Junior 600 win from TDM Racing (Michael and Terry Merritt) by a lap from J & B, Sorrymate and RAF Wittering.

MotoGrande 1000 Race 1??

Julian Hughes translated pole into a fantastic win with a margin of twenty seconds plus from similarly Suzuki mounted Stephen Bridle. Brazilian Rhalf Lo Turco who is also using MG to sharpen his MPC performance took a worthy third spot a fag paper ahead of Ash Daughtrey who was in close company with Reeve, Andrew Fenton Copeland, Allsop, Rouse, Ross Bates and Nathan Starnes.??

Race 2??

Steamroller Julian Hughes made a blinding start from the flag getting away from Lo Turco, Daughtrey, Reeve and Rouse. The Brazilian started going backwards as he struggled with set up. At half distance the SBKCity BMW rider dropped four places in one lap as Hughes continued to trounce the opposition building up a gap of 30 seconds by the end. This left Reeve, Daughtrey and Bates to dispute runner up spot, Reeve stealing runner up spot on the final lap. Fenton-Copeland was a solid fourth from Bridle and Rouse with Lo Turco just outside the top six but ahead of Danny Williams and Paul Burbage.??

Race 3??

The black Suzuki of Hughes was first on the road shadowing Reeve, Fenton-Copeland, Draughtrey, Bridle and Lo Turco. Rhalf was on the move to the front and was into fifth by lap 3 just as Reeve fell bringing a yellow to the corner for the remainder of the race. Rhalf was up to second by half way point in front of a real ding dong for the final podium place with four places covered by a humble four seconds. Our leader enjoyed a safety margin of the start/finish straight until the chequer came out after 10 laps; Hughes, Lo Turco, Daughtrey, Bridle, Fenton-Copeland, Bates, Rouse, Williams, Starnes and Burbage completed the top ten.??

MotoGrande 600 Race 1??

Darryl Jones stole pole from fellow newcomer Gary Lucitt with Andrew Nicholson third fastest, the top two places were reversed later in the day after some unseasonal rainfall. Colin Norris was half a minute down on the fast flowing front trio less than a second from Roger Slater with top ranking Rookie Murray McConnachie, Andrew Lund and Apex man Nick Matthews swelling the top 8 places with Richard White and Ray Bowden making the top ten cut.??

Race 2??

Jones shot off from to slip behind McConnachie and Nicholson on the opening lap. These three quickly opened up a gap of the rest of the pack, in an early eighth was Nicholson got the better of McConnachie as did Jones by around half distance and the leading two fought to the flag finishing in that order and separated by just 0.188s. Fourth was the preserve of Warren Verwey from vet Colin Norris, Lund and Adrian Peters, Richard White Matthews was in a healthy eighth getting the better of and Ray Bowden.??

Race 3??

Jones looked good again leading the 600s from the lights and he was flying on the rapidly drying track, leading from Nicholson and Murray McC. A couple of laps to sort things out and it was still Jones at the sharp end from Slater, Nicholson and Lund. At the drop of the chequered flag Jones was still at the helm from Nicholson, the hard charging Norris in a fantastic third, Lund, McConnachie, Verwey and the pack of White, Slater, Peters and Matthews. ??

Desmo Ducatis??

Neil Appleby and Andy Challis looked a cut above over the weekend in Wales but it was Challis who took the win by less than a second on the road just a few bike lengths up the road from Matthew Lawson. Half a minute adrift were Hugh Simpson with Neal Catling almost on the pillion seat, Paul Payne made up the top half dozen and the next four finishers were all covered by 1.5 seconds: Ron Jolley, Alan Parkes, Kevin Palmer and Phil Wilcock. Appleby made no mistake on the Sunday to nail the win by a barely distinguishable less than four hundredths of a second from Saturday man Challis. Lawson took another third from Catling, Dallas Hornblower, Palmer, Simpson and Wilcock – these three covered by a single sheet as they crossed the line.