Jodie Fieldhouse became the first female rider to score an outright race win at an East Midland Racing Association meeting since the days when Cat Green and Sam Burman were club champions, and she did it not once but twice at Mallory Park on Sunday. Riding a 450 Aprilia in the EMRA 500 events she beat all the CB500s in both races in addition to taking second and fourth places in the 125 races against a field of GP125 Hondas (both of those races going the way of Graham Wilson)
The first 500 race was a real cut and thrust battle with Matthew Shaw, Jodie leading almost all the way with the gap never getting over half a second until the final lap when Shaw used a bit too much of the track at the Esses, hit the rumble strip and came off (not much ground clearance on a CB500), leaving Jodie to take the win by almost ten seconds from Tom Pickford who had been battling with Paul Sawyer, Shay Commins and George Davies. The second race was more clear-cut as Jodie left Sawyer, Davies and Shaw to scrap over second place extending her lead to eight seconds at the end while Shaw and Davies started lap ten but didn’t finish it and Sawyer collected another second place to extend his championship lead.
Will and Matthew Shaw indulged in a curious game of bookends, with Will casting his Kawasaki away on the first lap of the opening race of the day while Matthew binned the Honda on the last racing lap before dinner. Things got better for the Telford twins after lunch as Will took maximum points in the Supersport class to take over the championship lead, while Matthew was first 500 home in the Lightweight events.
The major event of the day was the Richard Jones Trophy race, for Superstock machines, and it was a race deserving of its status. After winning the first Superstock race from Arnie Shelton, Rotherham’s Chris Hellewell went straight into the lead of the Richard Jones Trophy race, hotly pursued by Adam Clark with Shelton third almost two seconds behind while Will Shaw, who had started 22
nd on the grid had passed sixteen bikes on the first lap. By half distance Shelton was second ahead of Clark, a third of a second covering the first three, Shaw was fourth and closing in on the front three. On lap six Arnie Shelton took over at the front, and next time round Shaw was through to third place, reeling in Hellewell and finally taking him on the last lap to finish second just two seconds down on the winner. Arnie Shelton not only collected a winner’s garland and a very impressive cup, but enough points to lift him up to second place in the Tamworth Yamaha Superstock championship, behind Will Shaw.
Lee Wilson dominated the Allcomers races, winning the first one by half a lap from John McNally, following with a 14-second win over the same man in race two, beating Shaw and Shelton in the first Buildbase race. In the second Buildbase race he gave himself a self-imposed handicap when the front wheel of his BMW made more progress upwards than forwards at the start, and he had to fight his way through the field. Will Shaw took full advantage to lead from Shelton and James East with Wilson already up to fifth at the end of lap one. Next time round Wilson had passed Adam Clark for fourth, East took second on lap three, and next time round Wilson was up to third. Lap seven saw Wilson closing in on Will Shaw and next lap he was through, but found it hard to shake off the Kawasaki, finishing 1.1 seconds ahead with East third.
Nigel Palmer started last in the first lightweight/two-stroke race and was sixteenth at the end of the first lap and still only seventh at the half-way mark, but he just went quicker and quicker taking three more riders on lap six and finally taking the lead on the final lap to beat Daniel Walling by three seconds, while Chris Ashfield, who had led for most of the race finished third but took the Minitwins class victory. It was a remarkable ride by Palmer, the more so as he had crashed his 125 at the hairpin in the previous race. The second lightweight race was a race-long battle between Daniel Walling and Chris Ashfield, the TZ rider taking the win by .7 seconds from Ashfield who again took the Minitwin honours.
The Rookies races have all been won by Mark Daines so far this year, and there was no change as the Earl Shilton rider took his seventh and eighth wins of the season. Dan Williams moved up to second in the championship after beating Andrew Wilkinson and Rayner Clarke to second spot in the first race, and then finishing a tenth of a second in front of Ashley King in race two for a second second.