A weekend of wild weather faced the competitors and marshals at the NG Road Racing meeting at Cadwell Park. Not the easiest of places to master at the best of times but this weekend we were on the edge of a weather system that swept across the country.
Saturday didn’t see the expected rain and we had a dry track pretty much all day, however the wind was strong and gusting, causing problems especially for the smaller machines. Sunday though saw heavy rain, which halted racing on several occasions…..eventually resulting in the cancellation of the ACU R&G Racing GSXR Trophy race and the Progressive Solutions Powerbike final.
Scunthorpe’s Daniel Frear mastered the conditions better than most and was given the performance of the weekend award for his exploits. The 24 year-old plant fitter had two bikes at his disposal and was using this weekend to get both his France and Li Asia backed R6 and his RMKD Roger Middleton ZXR 400 Kawasaki ready for the upcoming Scarborough meetings and Cadwells BSB in August.
Frear took both A and R Racing F400 finals despite stating the qualifiers from the back of the grid. Saturdays race in the dry but windy conditions saw him take the win by an impressive 16 second margin over France and Li Asia team mate Chris Beverley. Frear also set a new lap record lopping a massive 1.8 seconds of the existing record on his way to the win. But Beverley, defending F400 class champion was happy with good points for second to keep his defence well on track, as he held off a charge from Alan Armour on his super-quick RGV 250, Tim Bradley and Michael Rose.
Sunday’s race was in truly awful conditions with Frear hitting the front early on, avoiding the huge plumes of spray. Beverley along with 16 year-old William Leaning and Tim Bradley followed in his wake (literally at some parts of the circuit !) but Beverley succumbed to the conditions as he hit the deck at Mansfield while attacking for 2nd place. The incident caused a red flagged race, and on the restart it was Frear who once more set the pace taking the foreshortened race from Leaning, Bradley and Novice rider Marcus Haynes on his GF Racing CBR, who was awarded the Newcomer performance of the day award. Luckily for Beverley none of his championship rivals managed to make much of a dent in his handsome series lead so although (yet another !!) new fairing is needed for his CBR 400RR he is still sitting at the top of the points table.
As I said though Daniel had two bikes in the paddock this weekend, the other being his R6 that he uses in the Metzeler National Superstock Cup. Dan took two hard fought runner up spots in the George White 600 class, with Saturdays race being won by his older brother and former MRO Champion Grahame on a CBR 600RR although there was less than half a bike between them at the like.
Series leader Josh Day had lead early on but the Frears reeled him in, as 19 year old Josh settled for third and more championship points. Grahame Frear set a new lap record on his way to the win although Dan was only 0.01 second slower. It was one of those races that you don’t want to end as the brothers fough it out for top honours. Sundays race was being lead by Josh Day this time ahead of Dean Hipwell, BSB Supersport rider, and Cup leader with Dan Frear third. With just 2 laps to go Josh pushed a little too hard at Hall bends and lost his R6, and a almost certain race win. Leaving it Hipwell, Frear and Joshua Leaning at the flag. Saturdays winner Grahame Frear was ruled out after his Honda broke a gearbox drive shaft. Thomas Fisher stayed on in awful conditions to grab his first win in the Co-Ordit 600 performance relay and close the gap to leader Josh Day.
Co-Ordit team mates Richard Cooper and Phil Bevan shared top honours in the Phoenix Open series with Cooper taking the win in Saturdays good conditions to head home fellow National Superstock 1000 competitor Billy Mellor and Phil Bevan. Bevan had to settle for third place after he lost third gear on his R1 just after half race distance. Sundays final was in very wet conditions and a very depleted grid turned out and saw the 2007 open champion Bevan take his first open victory of the year as many riders were beaten by the weather, this included ’09 series leader Cooper. Josh Day had a great ride to take his R6 to second place…. what better way to thank new sponsor Andy Rothery of Air Environmental Services. Mark Compton, Lee Keeble and Chris Pope mastered the track to come across the line behind the top two. Ride of the race though was Grahame Frear who should have started on pole on his CBR 600RR, but due to that gearbox problem he was unable to use the bike. Will Leaning lent Frear his ZXR 400 and starting from the back row he forced his way though to a staggering 6th place at the line.
Series leader in the Steve Lynham F125 class Bradley Hughes dominated in the dry on Saturday on his Hallmark RS125 Aprilia, but hated the wet on Sunday, and hung on to third, although a lap down for some points as Jed Bird took the win.
Dan Moreton has two very impressive races in the Refined Recruitment 125 GP finals to firstly grab the series lead and then open up a points gap on his rivals. Alistair Ray and Anthony Mulrine both had a great weekend fighting for the lead on each day, although Mulrine fell on Sunday after leading in the early stages.
Martin Parkhouse made it a double win in the 400 Streetstock class on his ZXR 400 while series leader James Francis took two third places behind Robert Rout on Saturday and Shannon Hale on Sunday.
The Progressive Solutions Powerbike final on Saturday had Richard Cooper in dominant form as he set a series of laps in the 1:32 bracket. His consistency was amazing with 6 laps between 32.3 and 32.5 before popping in a best lap of 1:31.93, which is the fastest two-wheel lap around Cadwell this year. Billy Mellor recovered after a trip onto the grass to take second whist Bevan, Compton and Keeble charged across the line in 3rd to 5th. As I said earlier Sundays race was cancelled due to the wet conditions causing near impossible visibility problems for the riders
Nick Andrews and Shaun Wynne shared a win each in the 700cc Metzeler/DTR Streetstocks with Wynne overjoyed with his first win on his 675 A&T Tarmac/AGB Painting Triumph after taking a string of runner up spots. Series leader Andrews loves Cadwell, and was able to relax a little this weekend after his nearest championship challenger Roo Cotton suffered a broken gear selector fork on his R6. Cotton had taken the last three rounds to close to within 6 points but feels that with 2 no scores this weekend his challenge is over for ’09. The 1300 Metzeler /DTR Streetstocks was a frantic affair all weekend, Adrian Shaw won on Saturday after currnt top man Hilary Philips crashed out at Hall bends whilst challenging Shaw with 3 laps to go. Shaw took an easy win and set a new lap record after the pressure was off. Impressive novice James Kiff took second ahead of a very pleased Adam Jeffery. Sunday qualifier saw Philips and Shaw go in the bottom of the Mountain together, but the two rivals made contact and both Suzuki’s went down. That left the way open for Peter Carr to take the final. Carr had taken a win at Pembrey first time out this year but his R1 is a bit under powered compared to the GSXR’s around him and the wet track meant that he could uitilise his R1 much better. Again Kiff and Jeffery took the other podium placings. Shaw did manage to start the final and came home in 6th, but Philips suffered a leg injury and was a non starter.
Tony Davies, the defending champion in the Dara Brady 400 2-stroke class continued his dominance of this years series taking another double win on his Cliff Robins TZ250, making it 5 wins from the 8 races so far this year. he is now 68 points clear of nearest rival Dave Hampton. Davies really was at home in the wet conditions and backed up this performance with a storming 6 place in the 250 GP ACU National championship final.
Darryl Alexander on his Monk Racing Aprilia Mille was another who clicked with the treacherous conditions as he took wins in both finals of the Team Spidey Sound of Thunder. Lee Watts grabbed a fine second place on Saturday, whist Jonathon Power used his Seastar 1098 to good effect on Sunday to take the runner up spot. Greg Gibson had as eventful weekend, after crashing out on his JHP 1098 Ducati on Saturday he was all set to make ammends on Sunday…..but stalled the big Duke on the line…..and there was no way that was going to bumps start, so he watched the race from pit lane witnessing his older brother Duncan take third place and move into second place in the title chase behind Alexander. Star of Snetterton Freddie Nickless came back down to earth with a bump here after crashing his Chippenham Motorcycles 675 at Mansfield on Saturday and never getting to grips with the very wet track on Sunday, lapping some 11 secs a lap slower than Alexander. He was just happy to get to the end of the race and start thinking about the next round at Thruxton.
Cameron Wilson took his SV to victory in the dry in Saturday’s Big C Mini Twin event, but a runner up spot followed by a win on Sunday has put Isleworth’s Stephen Sweetman in control in the season long series.
Tim Lobley and Darren Tritton dominated sidecar proceedings on the TLR 1000 Lawson Surfacing outfit winning Saturday’s race from Ian Drowne and Jamie Wynn. It looked like a repeat performance on Sunday, but a mistake at the top of the mountain heading into Hall bends saw a win turn into a dnf. That left the way open for Rod Robinson and Shelley Smithies to take their first CSC Racing Sidecar win which was great consolation for not scoring on Saturday after suffering a holed radiator. Ian Drowne lost a lot of momentum on Sunday after doing a bit of grass tracking at Charlies. He recovered but could only get up to 4th place behind the top two Century 2000 F2 outfits of David Lillie/Lee Watson and Miles Bennett and Kevin Perry. The top four closed rapidly in the latter stages. With 3 laps to go they were separated by some 17 seconds, but with Drowne/Wynn lapping 3 secs a lap quicker than his rivals…. At the line it was just 3.5 seconds covering Robinson back to Drowne….one more lap could have seen the former 6 time NG champ steal the win.
Tom Llewellyn took a fine maiden victory in the Louigi Moto Newcomers ahead of 16 year old William Leaning whist James Kiff grabbed his third win in as many meetings in the Gary Vardy Open Newcomers.
The ACU R&G Racing Suzuki GSXR Trophy race went to form book with 2009 top man Ross Connolly setting the pace from the start to make it four wins from four starts. Mark Cheetham and Chris Hawkes battled it out for second and third all race long with Cheetham just having enough at the line to hold back GSXR series stalwart Hawkes. Novice rider Duncan Bedwell had a great race to head home Ross Richards for his best finish of the year. Sundays race was cancelled due to the terrible weather conditions.
