Just a week before the British Superbike Championship heads to its spiritual home of Brands Hatch and the fabled GP circuit, Britain’s oldest motorcycle racing club Bemsee was in town for its annual event on the famous circuit in beautiful sunshine and scorching temperatures.
ACU Team Green Junior Cup and Senior 300
After taking two wins and a third at the opening round of the season Mikey Hardie was absent from the following two rounds, but he made a return to action at Brands Hatch and took all four victories. However, they were anything but assured - despite qualifying on pole - as his winning margins were consistently less than half a second.
In fact Hardie took the win in race one by just five hundredths of a second, with the top three split by just a tenth of a second.
Hardie led the bulk of the laps despite constant pressure from behind, but as they started the final lap it was Lennon Docherty that held the advantage. Sadly for him, however, he would be unable to hold onto that advantage, and he slipped to third, as Hardie took victory. Fred McMullan finished second, the trio making it an all-Junior class podium.
Seven riders crossed the line within a second in the fight over eighth place, and it was ninth placed Danny Huskinson that took the Senior class win.
In race two McMullan led the opening laps but crashed out of the lead on lap three, handing the reins over to Hardie who was never passed but kept honest by Docherty, Jack Kirsch, and Finn Smart-Weeden, as he raced to win number two.
Sadly for Smart-Weeden, despite crossing the line less than a tenth of a second behind Hardie, he was slapped with a 10-second penalty for jumping the start and classified seventh.
Instead second went to Docherty with Kirsch third. Conor Murray, classified fifth overall, took the Senior win.
Hardie and Docherty provided more nail-biting stuff at the front of race three, along with Dylan Mellor. This time Docherty led the opening stages on his Doc Fit Training Kawasaki, before the trio battled hard for the lead and swapped positions lap after lap.
Sadly for Mellor his race would end early with a crash on the final lap, as Hardie took his third win of the weekend, and Docherty racked up another second place. Smart-Weeden was third.
Konrad Breese’s ninth gave him the Senior 300 win, as he, Huskinson, and Kathryn Walker battled for the honours, just over a tenth of a second covering all three riders at the flag.
Hardie made it four from four in the final race, with Owen Mellor taking his first podium of the weekend in second. Kirsch, Docherty, and Smart-Weeden battled over the final spot on the podium, with Kirsch grabbing it.
Huskinson added another Senior win to his tally in 10th.
ProperlyProtected.co.uk MRO Minitwins
Glynn Davies was the first to see the chequered flag in all four MRO Minitwin races at Brands Hatch, but a 10-second jump start penalty in race one denied the pole-sitter the clean sweep.
Instead he was demoted to sixth, which saw Keith Povah inherit the win by a slender margin from John Reynolds. Dan Harris, who arrived joint championship leader with Reynolds, was promoted onto the podium in third.
Davies made amends in race two, leading from the off to take the win. Povah hung onto the back Davies as best he could, but was eventually dropped and took second place, ahead of series leader Reynolds.
Davies was dominant in race three, pulling out an eight second lead, but the battle behind saw five riders going after the runner-up spot.
Despite the riders vying for the spot, Povah did a good job of holding the position until there were three laps to go, which is when Reynolds made a move. In doing so Reynolds set his fastest lap of the race and held onto second place at the chequered flag.
Povah was third, with Cameron Harris, Matt Wetherell, and Dan Harris all in the mix.
10 seconds to the good in race four, Davies completed his hat-trick of wins, again leaving the others to fight for second.
A last lap pace from Povah snatched it away from championship leader Reynolds, the pair completing the podium.
Stephen Perfitt and Nicholas Baker took two Rookie Minitwin wins apiece.
Reactive Parts MRO Powerbikes and MSS Performance Clubman 1000
Early championship leader Aiden Patmore has only finished a race off the top step of the podium once this season, and that was the opening race of the year at Oulton Park. The only other time he didn’t win a race was a non-score in the final race at Cadwell.
Two victories at Brands Hatch put him back amongst the wins, but he was forced to open his weekend’s account with a second place, after Anthony Johnson won race one on his Wallace and Barr Classic Motorcycles-sponsored BMW S1000RR.
AJ, starting from pole, set the pace from the off, though Patmore shadowed him until the pole-man set his fastest lap of the race on the final lap, breaking the tow. He took the win by three seconds from Patmore. Tom Norton finished third.
Luke Dixon, finishing ninth though in the group battling for seventh, took the top Clubman 1000 spot.
It was a role reversal in race two, this time TBR Performance BMW’s Patmore leading the charge from lap one, closely followed by Johnson.
The race one-winner kept in touch, but was never able to mount a serious challenge, as Patmore won the 10-lapper by just over a second. Yamaha-mounted Michael O’Brien completed the podium.
An opening lap crash for Dixon cost him another Clubman win, with the spoils going to Kenny Fretwell in 14th.
In the third and final race of the weekend O’Brien took his turn at the front, and led until two laps to go. However, Patmore hit the front on the penultimate lap and pulled out a two second lead to make it two wins from three starts and extended his championship lead.
A tricky opening lap for Johnson saw him drop from pole to sixth on lap one. Unable to make the time back up on the leaders, he climbed to third to take the final spot on the podium.
Fretwell secured another Clubman win in 13th.
In the BMCRC Rookie 1000s three wins for Seamus McGlynn saw him assume the championship lead from Anthony Hunter, who was absent from proceedings with injury, after crashing at Cadwell Park.
McGlynn finished second to Michael Clarke in race one, before beating him in the three remaining races.
Team Respro MRO 600 and DART Clubman 600
Dawid Krawiecki continued his run of form that saw him arrive at Brands Hatch as the series leader, and took two wins and two second places to maintain his position at the top of the points standings. William White and Michael Mills took a win apiece.
Krawiecki won race one from fifth on the grid, and was part of a four-rider scrap for the win, which would see all four take the flag within three quarters of a second.
Despite the eight-wheeled train at the front, Mills held the advantage until the final lap, until he was passed by Krawiecki and Philip Baker. Those two crossed the line side by side, less than two hundredths of a second apart, with Mills forced to take third. Ed Pead was fourth, two tenths off the podium.
The close racing at the front resumed in race two, and this time Krawiecki missed out in the closing stages. The championship leader led until the penultimate lap when he was bumped back to third behind Baker and White.
More shuffling was still to take place, and at the flag it was White who was victorious, with Krawiecki getting back into second and Baker third.
Win number two for Krawiecki came on Sunday morning, as the cream of the field continued to battle at the top. White held the advantage for the bulk of the race, but he crashed out on the penultimate circulation.
White’s exit meant Mills assumed the lead, but he was pipped by Krawiecki on the final lap, and again had to settle for another rostrum place. He finished second ahead of Pead.
Mills finally tasted victory in the final race. He inherited the lead again after Baker crashed out, but this time was able to hold on to the flag, beating Krawiecki into second, as Tom Weeden took a podium in third.
Mitchell Gilbert took three Clubman 600 class wins, before Alex Barker took the 25 points in the final race as Gilbert failed to finish.
Rookie 600 championship leader Matt Pallett took a win at Brands Hatch, as did his closest rival Dan Burnham, the pair winning a race each on Saturday.
On Sunday Ashley Coid grabbed a brace of victories.
EDIasia Formula 400
After picking up his first wins of the season with a brace at the previous round at Cadwell Park, EDIasia Formula 400 series leader James Seath was in dominant form at Brands Hatch to secure all four victories.
He qualified on pole, then the Ovenden Earthmoving Kawasaki rider won by 12 seconds in race one. His victory came ahead of Sub-64bhp class winner, Sam Digby-Baker, with James Robinson third.
A repeat podium in race two meant he doubled up, as did Digby-Baker in the Sub64-bhp class.
In what was becoming a familiar story, Seath raced away to victory on Sunday morning, nearly 15 seconds up on second place. And even though the battle for second went to the wire, Digby-Baker bagged second and another subclass win, as Robinson finished third.
Seath wrapped up the perfect weekend with victory in race four, while behind, Robinson finally got the better of Digby-Baker to take second. Digby-Baker, however, still claimed his fourth Sub-64bhp win.
DFDS Yamaha Past Masters
Championship leader Scott Carson extended his points lead at Brands Hatch, with four wins around the GP circuit.
With five wins already to his name this season, the Brian Grays Powerbiking Yamaha TZR250-mounted rider qualified on pole, and was in impervious form.
His win in the weekend’s opening race came by over 12 seconds, as he left the rest to fight over second. That went the way of Pete Branton, with Billy Perkins third after a penultimate lap pass on reigning champion Doug Edmondson.
David Ball was the Clubman winner in 11th, the Rookie winner was David Mackenzie in 17th.
10 seconds was Carson’s winning margin in race two, but behind, the battle for second saw five riders take the flag within two seconds.
Branton was at the head of the train, with Edmondson making it onto the podium this time in third, as he attempted to limit the damage from Carson’s win. He was just ahead of Perkins and Paul Whitby.
Ninth for Richard Hayward and 16th for Philip Zanutto gave them the Clubman and Rookie wins respectively.
Sunday’s story was much the same at the front, as Carson bagged two more wins to make it a perfect weekend and extended his championship lead. Ball took two more Clubman wins, as Zanutto and Mackenzie took a Rookie win each.
Steve Jordan Motorcycles BMCRC Thunderbike Extreme and Ultra
Steve Palmer and Thunderbike Ultra championship leader Josh Harvey split the wins 50:50 at Brands Hatch, taking two apiece.
Palmer won both of Saturday’s affairs, and on each occasion was chased home by Harvey, as Mark Wilby and Cecil Dinsmore both ended the day with a third place trophy. The result also meant an all-Ultra class podium overall, with Jason Byard finishing sixth and fifth to collect two Extreme class wins.
After twice finishing second on Saturday, Harvey improved to take two wins on Sunday.
He won convincingly from Wilby, with Dinsmore half a second back in third, again making it another all Ultra class podium. The Extreme class winner, Andy Saunders, finished fourth.
Saunders made it onto the overall podium in the final race, finishing third to take the Extreme class win.
In front Harvey took win number two, ahead of Wilby in second.
Steve Jordan Motorcycles BMCRC Thunderbike Sport
Having won all bar two races so far this season, Jack Sim’s name is part way to being engraved on the trophy. After cleaning up at the previous round at Cadwell Park, he collected four more wins at Brands Hatch this time out.
He was denied pole by Matthew Fedrick, who finished on the podium three times at Cadwell but is so far without a win to his name. But Fricker was unable to convert it to victory, as Sim led race one from the off from second on the grid.
Sim steadily pulled away, with Fedrick giving chase as best he could. However, come the chequered flag, Sim had eked out a three second advantage to take the win. Fedrick’s second place was far from assured, however, as he was pressed all the way by Adam Jamison.
In race two it was a similar affair out front, as Sim steadily pulled away to take his second win, his sixth in succession, with Fedrick in second. For third, there was little between Jamison and Elliot Fricker.
Jamison held the position for much of the race, but Fricker, after dropping four seconds on the opening lap, slowly bridged the gap, and after passing Jamison on the final lap took third by less than a tenth of a second.
Sim won race three from Fricker and Jamison, while Fedrick was disqualified from the results for a technical infringement. Issue corrected, Fedrick was back in action in the final race, claiming third. He finished just three hundredths of a second behind Richard Branco, with Sim 24 seconds up the road, taking a comfortable win.
Chilton Motors BMZRC 250
Two points split Andy Wales and Chris Rogers at the top of the BMZRC standings on arrival at Brands Hatch, but it was fourth place man Peter Woodall that helped his title bid the most with four victories.
Rogers set pole from Scott Grant, a name more commonly associated with the Yamaha Past Masters, but the duo were beaten into second and third place respectively in race one by Woodall.
In fact, the race descended into two distinct podium battles, as Rogers took the fight to Woodall at the front, and Grant fended off the attention of Wales.
It finished in that order, and with that result Woodall pulled back 12 points on series leader Wales.
The same four riders were covered by only just over half a second in race two, albeit in a different order. Woodall was again the victor, pulling another four points back on Wales, who finished second. Grant was third and Rogers fourth.
Now just one race win off Wales’ series lead, Woodall took another chunk out of it in race three.
It was another typically close finish, but Woodall nicked the win by a tenth from Rogers, with Grant again third and Wales fourth.
Rogers now held the championship lead, and managed to retain it after the final race, despite another win for Woodall. Rogers’ second place limited the damage and means he holds a 13 point lead over Woodall, who sits just four points behind Wales in second, after he finished third. Grant was fourth.
Blue Haze GP and GPF
There were three winners from four races in the Blue Haze GP class races at Brands Hatch, including one for championship leader Kevin Wholey. Stuart Hall was also victorious, after taking two wins at Cadwell Park, while Rik Ballerini did the double on Sunday.
On the Twistgrip Motorcycles Yamaha Wholey won race one from Hall, before the pair reversed positions in race two. Third went to Jonathan Stamper in the race one, and Ballerini in race two.
Sunday’s two races saw a repeat podium on both occasions, with Ballerini twice on the top step.
Wholey was second, around a second off the winner, while Hall finished third, six and a bit seconds further down the road.
In the production-based, GPF class races Ballerini was back in action, swapping his Yamaha TZ for a Suzuki RG to take all four wins.
He won both of Saturday’s races from TZR250-mounted Michael Stanley, with Paul Welch and Ian Mackman sharing the thirds on offer.
Mackman was then twice second behind Ballerini on Sunday, as Stanley finished third in race three, before Welch collected another trophy for third in the final race.