Words : Russ Gardner
Images : EDP Photo News
Keenan keeps his head in all conditions.
With still a month to go before he turns 17, Doncaster teenager Keenan Armstrong was the rider who mastered the wild conditions at Cadwell Park. The former schoolboy Moto-cross champ used all of his experience to control the sliding Moto Ltd ZX6R Kawasaki, in the wet….the wind…the dry…. and then the very wet !!. He set pole on both days for the Simon Consulting 600 open, and headed home fellow BSB Superstock runner Max Symonds by 1.5secs at the flag on Saturday. Symonds was struggling with an ill handling bike after a big tumble at Coppice in testing so was very pleased with the runner up spot ahead of James Harrison and Jack Bleakley. When Sundays final came to the grid the heavens opened and many decided that this was one storm too many and stayed up in the paddock, Armstrong was among them, thinking about the upcoming BSB meeting. That left the way open for the brave wet weather specialists. Sean Montgomery set off at a storming (…sorry !!) pace and built up a 5 second lead with 3 laps to go on his Preston Power Steering ZX6R before Scot Adam had got to got to grips with the conditions on his Nemesis Transport MV Augusta. Adam had three laps to close the gap if he wanted to taste victory and he took 1.5 seconds out of Montgomery on each of the next three laps, to be right in his wheel tracks at the pair went into the bottom of the Mountain on the last lap. Montgomery just could not go in deep enough and the MV swept through to take a hard fought win, although Montgomery was equally pleased with second after a crash strewn couple of seasons. Mark Hughes and Alex Jones rode brilliantly to come in third and fourth.
Young Keenan was also out in the Phoenix Open where he pitted his ZX6R against the ZX10’s of Jonathan Railton and Phil Bevan, but he outscored everyone with two wins and a runner up spot over the three races. Railton it was that deprived him of the clean sweep by taking Saturday’s race.
Railton and Bevan shared a win apiece in the Switchgear Systems Powerbikes though, which saw two stunning podium rides for Roo Cotton on his R1 Yamaha.
“Pistol Pete” guns his way to Sound of Thunder glory
Peter Carr took his new 675 Triumph Daytona to wins in both Sound of Thunder finals to leave Cadwell as the series leader after the first four rounds. Pete is no stranger to the top of championship tables as he is a three time class winner…all on different machines. In 2010 he won the Streetstock series on and R1, he took a year out in 2011, but returned in 2012 to win the GP45 on a 450 Suzuki before moving into the 600 open in 2013 on a Kawasaki and winning that. Now on the 675 he tops the Sound of Thunder proving his versatility once more. Peter’s long trip to Cadwell Park from his home on the Isle of White was soon forgotten after he took a 22 second win on Saturday over local man David Irons on his 1198 Ducati. “Pistol Pete” had to work very hard on Sunday as he and Scot Adam with the MV F3 raced hard in some of the best conditions of the weekend. Despite all the pressure from the MV rider Pete hung on with some very late breaking exploits to take the race win by just over a bike length at the flag in the race that carried Edna Gardner Trophy race tag
Top two share honours in 250 GP ACU National.
Saturday’s 250 GP ACU National race was stopped due to an incident with George Hogton-Rusling, and the resulting rerun was cut to just a 6 lap dash. Former champion Ant Hodson and Phil Atkinson attacked the restart and drafted away from another ex champ Daniel Jackson. Hodson on the FCL Yamaha just had the edge over Atkinson on the Declans Racing TZ, as they crossed the line separated by less that a tenth. Sunday though had the full 14 lap run and Hodson was in no mood to wait for anyone as he stormed to an 18-second victory over Atkinson with again Jackson in third. Paul Metcalfe was top Cup class runner on both days on his 250 Aprilia. Darrell Higgins had another bout of bad luck as his 250 seized whilst in a podium challenging position.
The rest of the action on track.
The closest finish of the weekend was in the Mini Twins final on Sunday where 17 year old Aaron Silvester showed his hunger for his first win of the year on the Stralia Race Tech/PJR Shaw SV650. He drafted Saturday’s winner, Richard Goode on the WPS/Geoff Hand SV to the line. The gap was invisible to the eye…but the transponder timing gave the win to Aaron by 0.01 second….that’s close !!.
Wayne Axon took two wins and a new Super Twins class and the lap record on his ER650. Also taking double wins were 12 year old former MiniGP front runner Caleb Smith in the F125, and 13 year old Cameron Horsman in the 125 GP. Ryan Varley was another double winner as he headed home Tim Bradley and Ben Harrison in both F400 finals on his Abbey Motors of Castleford ZXR400. Completing the double club was Phil Webber who won both 700cc Pre injection finals after having his steel framed Honda CBR fully refreshed after Brands Hatch, proving it was money well spent. Honours were shared evenly in the GP45 class with Kai Masters and Cameron Fraser taking a win apiece.
Liam Delves now heads the 500 open class on his 125 GP Honda with Moto Engineering backing. The two-time F125 champ headed home former 500 champ Paul Metcalfe in one final with Metcalfe getting revenge in the second taking a convincing win on his 250 Aprilia, making the long journey home to Colby on the Isle of Man so much less painful.
Martin Lowe took over the top of the table position in the 1300 Metzeler DTR Streetstocks after a fine win in the very wet conditions on Sunday afternoon that caught out the then series leader Paul “Potchy” Williams. Paul had no one else to blame but himself for not having his wet wheels and tyres ready, but by his own admission did a bit of teddy throwing !!!. Lowe mastered the wet winning by over a full minute on his Highway Services ZX10 Kawasaki. It could…or should have been much closer but Ciaran Bligh who had been right with him all race decided that he did not want another runner up spot, so it was win or bust……. Unfortunately it was bust as he parted company with his ZX10 in a lunge for the lead at the Gooseneck. He may end up regretting throwing away those safe 20 points in this very tight class. The 700 Streetstock saw a win each for Thomas Williams with his Andy Powell Commercials R6 and Jeff White on another R6. Jeff had taken a tumble whilst in the leading group on Saturday at Hall bends but the rider who is returning to the class after 10 years off a bike was confident on Sunday morning that he could get back to winning ways. He backed up his words with actions and headed home Saturday’s winner Williams and Chris Whitehouse.
Having a rare outing on his big FJ1100 Phil Hacker proved he is still as fast as ever on the 1980’s tourer-turned-racer as he took the race win over reigning champ Mike Hobbs. Then in the very wet race on Sunday afternoon Hobbs proved his mettle by lapping all but one of his rivals for the 1300 pre injection title.
Paul Williams, Keiran Royce and Alan Pearce were all race winners in the Cutronas Newcomers series.
Testing times for Champions Hegarty and Neave.
Sean Reeves and Mark Wilkes racked up two more CSC Sidecar wins on the Reeves Water Services LCR600 Suzuki, taking convincing wins over Tom and Thomas Quaye, and Peter Founds and Andy Taylor in the very strong F2 category, that saw over 20 F2’s on the grid. The Open field was a little thin but Saturdays race went to two-time NG Open sidecar champs Jim Hamilton and Mick Fairhurst on the Jebs Performance LCR Suzuki. Come Sunday though the distinctive purple and yellow number 33 outfit of four time British champion Sean Hegarty was on the grid…..on grid spot 27 !!!. Hegarty’s British Hyundai Heavy Industries Sidecar title defence has not started well after two no scores at the first meeting of the year, so this outing was a valuable test. Hegarty and Neave overtook everyone in less than a lap and then set about chasing lap times, circulating consistently at less than a second outside Tim Reeves NG Lap record to take the win by over a minute !!.
Performance and Preparation gets rewarded
Keenan Armstrong was awarded the Performance of the meeting award, for a stunning set of rides on hisZX6 R Kawasaki. His riding with a cool head in the very tricky condition was even more amazing when you hake into consideration that he is still yet to reach his 17the birthday. His rides in the Phoenix Open against Jonathan Railton and Phil Bevan with a bike 400cc smaller with possibly over 80 bhp less on tap were stunning to watch.
Local trophy sponsor Bill Borrowcliffe also singled out the TZ’s of Hodson and Atkinson for his best-prepared machine awards, so all credit to the FCL and Declans Racing teams for all the hard work.
Plus as already stated Peter car won the Edna Gardner Sound of Thunder Trophy race with replica awards going to runner up Scott Adam and third placed David Irons, who won it last year.