National and Junior Endurance Race – Three Hours

Over forty machines left the traditional Le Mans start, just as the heavens well and truly opened. It was a tough call and with 99% of the field on dry tyres, some lost the bet and were back in pit lane soonish. A dry line appeared and M & M (Lewis Mason/Robbie Moore) were leading from Simply Black and White (David Brooking/James McBride), Pit Stop (Marc & Peter Dilks), Derek Redmond 4 (Neil Garnham/Tony Rogers), Visorvision (Paul Berryman/Keith Flint), Apex (Adam Woby/Nick Matthews), Brands Brothers (Mark & Peter), BLDS (Bill Lilly/Jon Otter) and Handbag and Shoes (Richie Cunningham/Tommy Dale) - National 1000 championship leaders Sweatshop (Hugh Brasher/Mick Godfrey) were 15th.

McBride snaffled the lead whilst Sweatshop fell at Oggies and took a while before the bike could return. Pit stops came and went before DR4 was leading on the road ahead of 600s M&M, Dales Racing (Richard Steadman/Freddy Pett), Pit Stop, Handbags, TANC (Chris Mason/Pete Baker), Brand Brothers, Banzai (Ben Jenkins/Mark Clark), Visorvision and Ridgeback Racing (Mark Clark/David Stolliday). After 60 minutes it was the Junior 1000 machine of DR4 sharing the lap with M & M, TANC, Pit Stop, Dales, Brand and Banzai; Black and White were down in 23rd and Sweatshop 9 laps down in 39th.

Half distance and the status quo was being maintained apart from Handbags dipping into the top six at the expense of the Brand Brothers and Dales were on a real push towards the sharp end. BLDS’s ‘supersub’ Otter reported in his pit stop that his clutch was disintegrating and slipping coming out of the slow corners, we had lost class leaders Apex with engine gremlins. With an hour left on the clock DR4, M & M, TANC, Dales, Pit Stop were within 72 seconds on each other, Blujets (Carl Hodgkins/Ash Rothwell) and Ridgeback were in the top ten, this period was nail biting as Dales put their foot down and started challenging classmates M & M for the class win and second spot on the podium.

At the two and a half hour mark this was achieved with the top six teams all on the same lap and M & M within touching distance of Dales as they disputed the National 600 win. The Garnham/Rogers Junior 1000 pairing at DR4 had the almost perfect race to take the flag by 34 seconds from Dales who could not relax with M & M less than two seconds adrift; fourth went to National 1000 winners TANC after a solid performance finishing ahead of Banzai and Pit Stop – all pegged at 83 laps. Finishing only a lap down on the leaders were Handbags, a recovering Black & White, Brand and Blujets. BLDS, Visorvision and Ridgeback failed to make it into the top ten and Sweatshop were magnificent in coming eighth in class

It was a massive result for father and son team of J& B Racing (Brad and Jason Bradlaw) who sewed up a podium place in the Junior 600 race, what more appropriate way of celebrating Father’s Day – giving them both a day to remember.

MotoGrande 1000

Race One

Triple Anglesey winner Julian Hughes made the best start on a wet track with dry line appearing, he was quicker off the mark from Ash Daughtrey and Andrew Fenton. Champ pretender Phil Brooks was back in pit lane after dramas and a lap later Kris Sanders, Daughtrey overhauled Hughsie - the top three maintained their stays quo ahead of Stephen Bridle, Jamie Loveday, Adam Reeve, Michael Elliott, Raymond Stagg, Les Linney on his smashing Ducati and Dave Williams.

Race Two

Hughes made no mistake to grab the lead from the green light, Sanders who was on pole, finishing in a useful 3rd sandwiching Brooks at the end. Rhalf Lo Turco was on a charge, seventh at the start gradually headed towards the sharp end to grab P4 in front of the four As - Reeve, Fenton, Beevor and Daughtrey. Bridle was ninth and Jamie Loveday.

Race Three

Brookes started best from Hughes, Reeve and Lo Turco – this trio of riders becoming a real six wheeler for the early part of the race, by lap four Brookes had given way to pressure from the Brazilian but managed to fend off the attentions of the pursuing pack for the remainder of the encounter. On the penultimate lap Fenton clashed with Beevor, before the rest came through; Kris Sanders and earlier winner Daughtrey. Good to see Kris Sanders winning the rookie class in two races as this will be his last race for a while – shortly Kris, Alison and little Ollie will be off to Brunei on a posting with the Royal Engineers – good luck!

MotoGrande 600

Race One

Super rookie Shaun Champion took the lead, building up an advantage of 5s on the opening lap from National runner Freddy Pett as Scot Adam. Lap 2 saw Champion off at Oggies as Pett took the lead from Adam, Andrew Nicholson and George Harvey. Pett was reported to be touring at Bombhole leaving Nicholson to take a win over Adam, Harvey, Warren Verwey, Jake Kay and Wayne Crossman in sixth.

Race Two

After running out of petrol in the opening race, Pett made no mistakes in dominating the race. It was left to Champion, Smith, Adam + previous winner Nicholson to slug it out and finish in that order, Adam only 0.2s down on the third man but unable to make up the difference. Colin Norris had an interesting race going off track no less than four times on four different parts of the track, he had been 8th but going off piste dumped him in tenth behind Verwey, Crossman, Kay and Lund.

Race Three

Pett left us in no doubt as to his talent as he made it another flag to flag victory on his Triumph 675. The best of the rest included Champion who had a solid second in front of Matt Smith + Kay who fought over the final podium position, Smith getting the better by 87 thousands of a second. A similar ding dong was going off further down the field for Slater and Norris as they battled away for eighth.

Ducati Desmos

Race 1

In a race that started in torrential rain, was red flagged following a 'bike in an Unsafe position' and a restarted five lap race it was Mr Consistent Neil Appleby a mere 2.8s from Matthew Lawson with Ron Jolley in third. Paul Baleta, Andy Challis and Neal Catling completed the top six. Race two mirrored the earlier battle and it was Challis who took the win from a hard charging Appleby by 11 seconds with Paul Payne in a handy third. The splendidly named Dallas Hornblower was only a couple of seconds down on 3rd, a similar time up on Paul Bradbury, Hugh Simpson topped up the first six home