Friday May 3, 2019 at 10:56am
The third round of the British Motorcycle Racing Club’s 2019 season took place at Cadwell Park and marked the first of two visits to the glorious Lincolnshire circuit for the club this year. But while Friday’s practice sessions were enjoyed in dry conditions, gusty winds and cold rain made for two difficult days of racing. ACU Team Green Junior Cup and Senior Ninja Series Lewis Jones arrived at Cadwell Park 48 points to the good in the overall championship standings, but three wins for Tony Davies saw him assume the lead at the top of the table. Senior championship leader Davies qualified on pole, and romped to victory in a soggy race one. Davies pulled out a mammoth six and a half second advantage at the front of the field on the opening lap, as championship adversary Jones crashed out early. The gap kept growing, and come the chequered flag he was nearly 22 seconds to the good. It was a similarly lonely race for Kelvin Hoare in second place. The battle for third was fought between Ash Barnes, Samuel Smyth, and Elliot Dufton. Barnes held it on lap one before being demoted to fourth Dufton on lap two. He crashed out on lap three. Dufton kept hold of the position until the penultimate lap, when Smyth found a way past and pulled ahead to maintain the position to the chequered flag to make it an all Senior class podium. Dufton picked up the Junior win. There were more twists and turns in race two, this time as Davies failed to complete the opening lap, as Smyth and Hoare diced at the front. Smyth led lap one, initially with Dufton in tow and second and Hoare third. It quickly became a two-horse race at the pointy end, as Dufton dropped off the back of Smyth and Hoare out in front. On lap four, however, two would become one as Hoare crashed out, leaving Smyth to ride unchallenged to the overall and Senior win. Dufton inherited second and took the Junior win, with Christopher Johnson third overall and second Junior. Lewis Jones was seventh overall. Despite not scoring any points in Saturday’s second race, Davies’ fortunes improved on Sunday, taking the win in race one as Jones again crashed out, this time on the penultimate lap. Davies slotted into second place after the opening laps, and from there stalked leader Smyth as the laps ticked by. Two and a bit to go, and he made his move and assumed the lead, eventually breaking the tow to Smyth to take the win. Smyth held onto second as Hoare crossed the line in third place. Johnson in fifth took the Junior win. With dry asphalt for the final race of the weekend Davies was still the man to beat, and he led from flag to flag to take his third victory from four attempts. Jones recovered to fourth, but was bettered by Barnes and Johnson - first and second in the Junior class - to the podium. ProperlyProtected.co.uk MRO Minitwins A trio of wins for Glynn Davies in the ProperlyProtected.co.uk MRO Minitwins meant he extended his championship lead over Keith Povah, while there was also a first win of the season for Mark Taylor. Davies was the pole-sitter ahead of Will Green and early title rival Povah, and the three were the class of the field in the wet opening race. Povah crossed the line at the head of the pack to complete lap one, but after that he could only watch as Davies took over at the front and pulled out a gap of a couple of seconds. It was enough for Davies to avoid any counterattack from Povah, who in turn was keeping Green behind him after Taylor crashed out, as the three took the chequered flag covered by six seconds. Matt Wetherell finished sixth and took the Rookie win. Despite crashing out of race one, Taylor was on the front row for race two, and rode superbly on a drying track to led from the off and take his first win of the season. Davies kept it smart to take a fine second place, as Povah again finished on the podium in third, narrowly beating Kevin Lilley to the final rostrum spot. Wetherell improved to fifth to take the Rookie honours. It was a return to winning ways for Davies in the first of Sunday’s two races, again on a drying track, but he was forced to fight tooth and nail for it with Povah, the pair swapping the lead between them for the duration. A move on the penultimate lap saw Povah grab the lead, but he was thwarted on the final circulation as Davies retaliated and held on to take another win and extend his series lead. Daniel Singleton was third. Tommy Downes took the Rookie Minitwin win in seventh. The final outing - this time on a dry circuit - yielded no change in result, as Davies, Povah, and Singleton again finished first, second, and third respectively. Wetherell collected a third Rookie win, crossing the line in 12th. Team Respro MRO 600 & MSS Performance Clubman 600 Jamie Kelman broke his winning duck in the Team Respro MRO 600 championship in the first race of the weekend, and then went on to win all four to extend his championship lead. He qualified on pole on his Phased Out Racing Triumph, and was in dominant form to win by over 16 seconds to take his first victory of the season. In the MSS Performance Clubman 600 Michael White reduced Jack Younge’s championship lead to two points, capitalising on the series leader’s DNF to finished second overall and take 25 Clubman points. Andrew Gill was third. With the monkey off his back, Kelman was again victorious in the second race, dominating a shortened race after a red flag brought about an early end to take win number two. Michael Mills was awarded second, as White bagged another Clubman win in third overall, heading a train of four riders all separated by a second. A wet surface greeted the grid for the opening of Sunday’s races, and it was a race that won’t live long in the memory; 18 seconds covering the podium and well over a minute the top-10. Not that that mattered to Kelman, who took another win to make it three from three, leading every lap in the process. Second was Mills, as Charlie Morris completed the top-three. Clubman spoils went to White in fifth. The final race allowed Kelman to complete his cleansweep, albeit with a closer winning margin than the day’s opening race. After pulling out a lead of over two seconds, a series of quick laps from the chasing Morris saw that drop to under a second on the final lap, but he couldn’t prevent Kelman from extending his championship lead. Ben Wotton took third, while another fifth placed finish for White gave him the Clubman win. Reactive Parts MRO Powerbikes and Racebuykz.com Clubman 1000 With two wins over the weekend Michael O’Brien extended his Reactive Parts MRO Powerbikes series lead, while Aiden Patmore also tasted victory and moved into second in the championship standings. Patmore qualified quickest, and went on to win Saturday’s feature race. The pole-sitter was demoted to second place on lap one, as Peter Baker assumed the lead. Patmore followed the former champion, before passing his fellow ZX-10R-mounted rival to take the lead at the halfway stage and going on to take the win. The pair were the class of the field in the rain-soaked affair, evidenced by the 40-second gap to third placed Mark Bridger, the Moremoto Yamaha man also collecting the Clubman win. On Sunday O’Brien took his first wins since the opening round at Brands Hatch. In race one he held third place behind Baker and Patmore in the opening stages, before being promoted to second as Baker crashed out on lap four. He made a pass for the lead a lap later. O’Brien took the chequered flag ahead of Patmore, with Daniel Johnson third and Clubman winner on his BMW S1000RR. It was a repeat podium in the final race, as O’Brien again bested Patmore and Johnson. L&W Contractors BMCRC Rookie 600 and 1000 Cedric Bloch’s dominance of the L&W Contractors Rookie 600s finally came to an end as the British Motorcycle Racing Club visited Cadwell Park, as Luke Burnett took all four wins. Quickest from the off - including posting a faster time in qualifying than all bar the fastest Rookie 1000 in the treacherous conditions - Burnett took the win in the first of the four races from Tom Vaughn and Bloch. Bloch and Vaughn reversed positions in race two. Bloch and Vaughn grabbed a second placed finished apiece on Sunday, behind the dominant Burnett. Vaughn was also third in the first of the day’s races.Thomas Morris added some variety to the roster of podium finishers, taking third in the final race of the weekend. In the Rookie 1000s Matthew Lane set pole, and backed it up with the win in the first encounter of the weekend, ahead of Luke Dixon and Seb Jenkins. It would be Lane’s only victory of the weekend, however. Michael Cherrett was the victor in race two, with Lane second and James Fearn third, before Dixon tasted victory in the third race. He was joined on the podium by Cherrett and Lane. Dixon doubled up in the last race, as Jenkins and Fearn took second and third. EDIasia Formula 400 Based on the fact he out-qualified the rest of the EDIasia Formula 400 field by over three and a half seconds, Glynn Davies’ weekend dominance shouldn’t have come as a surprise, the series leader in imperious form in the tricky conditions. Onboard his Kawasaki ZX-R400 Davies romped to victory in race one, after pulling out four seconds on lap one. Matthew Scott - the current series second placed man - was runner-up, ahead of Honda-mounted Pete Gibson. In sixth Doug Edmondson was the highest placed Sub-64bhp class runner. Edmondson led every lap of race two, bar the one that matters most, as Davies suffered a nightmare opening lap to cross the line at the first time of asking in eighth. The championship leader kept working his way forward, and passed Edmondson on the last lap to take another win. However, Edmondson’s second did give him another Sub-64 win. Ben Miles was third and second in the Sub-64 class. Nicholas Taig and David Bowler took a Rookie win apiece from Saturday’s races. Davies and Edmondson were again first and second in Sunday’s opening race, this time with Andrew Davies third, before Davies wrapped up his fourth victory in the final race. Former class champion Richie Welsh made it onto the podium in second place, ahead of Dynotech Performance Kawasaki’s Scott. Taig and Bowler both bagged another Rookie win each. DFDS Yamaha Past Masters It was the second round of the DFDS Yamaha Past Masters Championship at Cadwell Park, after the class missed the opening round of the British Motorcycle Racing Club’s season at Brands Hatch, and things tightened up at the top of the points standings with three winners from the four races. Scott Carson was the rider who launched himself into early title contention, and after a fourth and a fifth at Oulton Park set pole and took the win in race one. Clearing off at the front of a wet outing he took victory by six seconds, ahead of Ben Miles. The battle for third was fought tooth and nail between Doug Edmondson and Andy Bown, with Edmondson coming out on top. Top Clubman honours went to Simon Clark in eighth, with Richard Hayward the final points-scorer in 15th and top Rookie. Edmondson and Bown resumed their tussle from race one in the second outing, only this time their battle was for the lead. Unfortunately for Bown, Edmondson again came out ahead of his rival, winning by three tenths of a second. Carson finished third, with Geoff Mook this time the Clubman winner in sixth. Hayward added another Rookie win to his tally in 12th. It was back-to-back race wins for Edmondson, who added another 25 points to his championship tally in race three, leaving Miles and Bown to enjoy the closest battle on track. The duo finished second and third, split by less than half a second. Douglas Beacock made it three Clubman winners from the three races, but it was another Rookie win for Hayward, as they finished sixth and 17th respectively. The closest action was reserved for the final race of the weekend, as merely two tenths of a second covered the entire podium. A last lap pass from Miles saw him steal victory away from Pete Branton, with Edmondson less than a tenth further back in third, as the three riders raced across the line. Carson was only two seconds adrift in fourth. There was a second Clubman win for Beacock in sixth, as Hayward made it four Rookie wins in 18th. BMZRC Chilton Motors MZ 250 Championship Four wins for Chris Rogers at Cadwell did his championship challenge a world of good, while, by contrast, Robert Dessoy endured a nightmare. Dessoy narrowly set pole ahead of Rogers, setting it up for a weekend on cracking racing. And it delivered initially, before Dessoy crashed out of the final lap of race one, handing the win to Rogers. Andrew Wales inherited second, with Liam Newman third. Back on the grid for race two, Dessoy didn’t complete a lap before retiring, allowing Rogers to take the win by a couple of seconds, again ahead of Wales with Gary Howlett third. In race three he managed some racing action, but retired on the penultimate lap. Rogers made it three from three, but crossed the line just half a second ahead of Wales. Newman picked up another third place. Dessoy was finally rewarded for his tenacity in the fourth and final race, finishing third, however, he was nearly 13 seconds adrift of race winner Rogers. Chris Kent was third. BMCRC Blue Haze 2-Stroke GP Mark Ess will feel like he should have left Cadwell Park with all four race wins in the Blue Haze 2-Stroke GP class, but a 10-second jump start penalty in race two denied him the cleansweep, handing victory to Chris Dowling. Ess won race one with Andrew Tempest and Paul Welch on the podium and top two GPF class finishers. The penalty in race two gave Dowling the win, but Ess was still awarded second, with Welch third. Ess was back to winning ways on Sunday and did the double, his first win coming ahead of Dowling and Tom Barrett. Paul Toland was second in the final race, with Dowling third. Steve Jordan Motorcycles BMCRC Thunderbike Sport The ever-popular and oversubscribed Steve Jordan Motorcycles Thunderbike Sport again saw packed grids and three groups of riders, split by qualifying into groups A, B, and C. The opening salvo, combining groups A and B, saw Aaron Staniforth emerge victorious, ahead of Jack Wallis and Adam Jamison. Staniforth was then able to notch another win in race two, with Jamison again on the podium in second place. Wil Green finished third. Saturday’s third race - which combined groups A and C, gave Wallis the chance to taste victory, as he bettered Dan Ingham and Jack Sim. Sunday saw Staniford secure another win, as he took the chequered flag first in the day’s opener, the Paxford Garage Honda rider crossing the line ahead of Jamison and Green. He was then the victor in race two, this time ahead of Shane Beasley and Richie Welsh. The final race eventually saw Daniel Singleton take a win - after he arrived at Cadwell Park with the series lead - with Ingham second and Sim third.