Wednesday July 4, 2018 at 12:36pm
Chris Mort (Honda 600) moved a big step closer to regaining the Crewe and South Cheshire club’s 450-110cc Open championship, with another hat trick of wins in round two of the series at Tonfanau.
Mort, twice big bike champion at the Welsh circuit in 2015 and 16, extended his lead in this year’s championship from four points to 15 with his unbeaten run.
Life was a little easier for Mort with Grant Gaskell absent preparing for the Manx GP and Rob Barber injured after crashing at Pike’s Peak in America.
The opposition came from reigning 450-1100cc champion James Evans (Pro-Bike Racing Yamaha 600) and Josh Williams on his Honda 600.
Mort stamped his authority right from the start, beating Williams by over 10 seconds in the eight-lap first race, setting the fastest lap.
Evans was third. He had passed Williams at one stage, before misreading the last lap flag, letting his rival regain second spot.
Mort went quicker still in race two, taking nearly a fifth of a second off his best lap time.
Evans made no mistakes this time, beating Williams by two seconds.
Mort was over six seconds ahead of Williams in race three, with Evans third, disappointed to have missed out on a 96mph lap but just a fraction of a second.
Mort tops the points’ table on 60 and will need only 15 out of possible 30 points in the final round.
Chris Mort was not the only rider to come away from the Tonfanau meeting with a hat trick of wins.
Paul Tye raced his Yamaha 250 to three victories in the Forgotten Era 250 class, chased home in all three by Phil Leatherland (Suzuki 250) and Caron Roberts, with her Yamaha TZ.
Roberts left her braking a little too late at the top hairpin and the backend of her Bultaco stepped out.
She stayed on, but lost ground on Leatherland.
She fought back though to close to within two seconds of runner-up spot, but a back marker thwarted the chance of taking second place.
Leatherland, the reigning title holder, stays top of the points’ table, but he is now only four points ahead of Tye.
Mick Crompton (BSA 750) was unbeaten in his Classic over 501cc races taking his point’s tally for the year to 59, 31 ahead of his closest rival.
It was a good meeting for Caron Roberts. She was also out in the Classic 125 and 250 Single Cylinder races.
She grabbed victory in the first after Mark Purslow had fallen off his Honda 125 at the hairpin.
In race two she won her class from Purslow by just under a second, chasing the modern Aprillia 250 of Andy Mears over the line.
Mears headed the pack again in race three, with Purslow second over the line, three seconds in front of Roberts.
Roberts still leads the championship, on 54 points, seven ahead of Purslow.
While Roberts was going well another very fast lady, Sarah Meadows was out of luck in the same class.
Her Greeves 197 holed a piston on the last lap, when holding fourth place, putting her out of the rest of the meeting.
Sarah had better luck in the Classic 251-500 class.
It was three wins from three rides for Adrian Day (Honda 350) maintaining his unbeaten run in the season, but Measures notched up two thirds and a fourth to stay second in the points’ table, ten behind Day.
John Price, chasing the Supersport 400 title for the fourth season in a row and also out to regain the Forgotten Era 251-500 championship he lost last year to Phil Millard, is on target after winning all six of his day’s races.
Toughest race was the first Supersport event when he picked twelfth spot on the starting grid.
Price is now six points ahead of Millard in the FE class and a comfortable 23 clear of Ian Riley in the 400 series.
Reigning champion Steve Birtles (Yamaha 1000) tops the Forgotten Era over 501cc title-chase after notching up a win and two second places this meeting.
The only man Birtles could not beat was Ben Wylie (Bimota 750) who was making a return to Tonfanau after a seven-year absence.
This was only Wylie’s second race meeting of the season, but he showed no signs of being short of racing miles.
Wylie beat Birtles by just over a second in race one, but was forced out of the second outing when a fuse blew on the start.
Birtles went on to grab victory from Paul Stones (Yamaha 1000).
Wylie bounced back to take victory in the final race, crossing the line just over one and a half seconds in front of Birtles, once again setting fastest lap.
Tony Griffiths and big rival Dean Ephgrave crashed out of the first Steel Frame 600 race on the fifth of eight laps when running at the front with Martin Clare bringing out the red flags.
Neither Griffiths nor Ephgrave were injured, but both bikes were too badly damaged to race again.
The incident means that Griffiths cannot now win his third Steel Frame championship in succession. To add to his misery the bike Griffiths was using was a borrowed machine and was need a complete rebuild.
Clare went on to win all three Steel Frame races and now leads the championship with 53 points, 15 ahead of Karl Brandon, who notched up three thirds.
Scott Dootson was unbeatable in the 50cc class winning all three races.
Father and son, Roger and Bradley Stockton, won the first of the three sidecar races, but unable to race again, it was left to Gary Wilson and Mark Griffiths to win two races and move to the top of the points’ table on 56, 16 ahead of the Stocktons.