There was another huge Thundersport GB paddock for the Easter weekend at Cadwell Park, and a packed meeting produced great racing under a grey sky, with the sun only turning up to spectate on Monday afternoon.
.
It was a delight to meet Pete Fawcett, when he popped up to the commentary box on Sunday.
Pete’s a photographer, and a local, who’s been a regular at Cadders for 55 years…that’s a lorra, lorra snaps, at one of the finest bike racing circuits in the world. He’s seen so much, and has many a tale to tell…

Richie Gelder was the recipient of some typical paddock generosity on Easter Sunday.
The Ellesmere Port rider found his Thundersport 500 Honda was powerless, and that meant his chances of success would be non-existent on such a packed and competitive grid.
Step forward fellow 500 competitor, Jordan Watling, and his Dad, Andy.
They were on the spot to help, and soon had Richie’s machine fettled with their spare engine.
Ritchie promptly stuck it on the second row, had four excellent races, with a best result of fourth.
Jordan also enjoyed four finishes, with a best of thirteenth…wonder which engine he’ll be wanting for Pembrey?

The generosity wasn’t confined to the mechanicals, however.

A collecting bucket was on hand throughout the event, to help with the purchase of very special equipment to benefit the recovery of Gavin Sherwood.
Gavin is a loyal rider with the Bemsee MZs, who has been battling hard against cancer.  He has never raced with Thundersport GB, but the bucket was chinking away nicely, and was augmented with the entire proceeds from a parade of Harley-Davidson riders, who growled around the circuit happily during the Sunday lunch break.

Bernadette and Jan were also in bounteous mood – each rider that signed on was the recipient of an Easter egg, a simple, festive act of kindness that produced much competitive scoffing in the paddock, as well as typically teenage comparisons…step forward Aprilia Superteen brothers, Greg and Scott James!
Come on, guys – how can one crème egg be bigger than another?
Now, that takes me back…

Thundersport 500 Championship leader, John Butcher, has spent the last couple of decades enjoying Historic and Classic racing, having owned and campaigned a huge variety of kit, from a 1955 Triumph 650, to a 1972 BSA Triple.
When one of his sons binned his ride-to-work bike, the reconstruction of the wreckage became something of a family project.
Bent back into shape, it’s going like a train, and the racing Grandad rewarded the Butcher clan with all four wins at Cadwell.

It’s always great to be able to acknowledge sponsors – particularly those from industries outside the bike world.

Fireplace Warehouse, in its second year as a high-profile team, competing in the E2E Solutions Thundersport GP3 championship, is running two great young prospects, Joel Williams and Tom Carne.
Joel has picked up extra backing from Maxilead Metals, a major recycling company, based in Manchester, and Tom has support from creativeliving@petrahellas, of Bacup.

And Simon Low, another seriously quick rider racing in the GP3s, entertained new sponsors, ‘shop4bikers.co.uk’ at Cadwell.

Tom Gazzard raced a bog-standard Suzuki in the Superstock 600s, with support from Haymills building contractors and the RAF, and rewarded them with a fine win, in a great race on Monday afternoon.

Stuart ‘insert the name of any random northern town’ Bradford, produced outstanding form in the Supertwins. With support from Midas Technologies and suspension guru, Pete Clifford, he fetched up with three wins and a piece of glamorous acrobatics from his four races in a very competitive class, as well riding the fastest Supertwin lap of all.

It warms the heart to see so many young riders working so hard to get backing, at this early stage in their careers.

Any new sponsor is good news for the sport as a whole, so we welcome them, one and all.