The Historic backdrop of the Donington Park circuit again provided racing fit for a grand prix circuit but bang up to date with the machinery on track.
The main focus was again the Phoenix Open and Blubell Lakes Powerbikes with the ongoing rivalry of Bob Collins, Team FWR Honda and Max Symonds, J & C Symonds BMW again, it was looking like a repeat of Brands all over again!!
Collins came into this round with a win the previous weekend in a 5 hour endurance race but qualifying saw the lap times about 2 seconds off the pace for most people the warm conditions making the track a bit slick?
Come the first race Collins and Symonds took command of the race and slowly gapped Dan Boucher, returning to NG after a 2 year break with the Ducati Tri Options cup, but gaining pace as the weekend progressed. Symonds seemed to have the measure of Collins and the power of the Honda and with some great timing squeezed past Collins to a 0.071 win
Sunday was almost the same story but the Symonds BMW was not getting away from the start, making Max fight his way through the field on route to the sharp end of the pack this allowed Collins to make his escape with Boucher in tow Symonds closing fast! some close to the limit from both riders saw Collins run out the winner.
With the BMW really playing up, Max elected to start from the rear of the grid which Collins took full advantage again Boucher now up to speed matching him in the early laps but then having a battle with the flying Symonds which allowed Collins to hold on to the tune of 2,03 seconds for yet another win
Powerbikes was almost a repeat of the Phoniex but with another joker in the pack with Mattthew Bower, Suzuki 1000, mixing it up with Collins, Symonds and Boucher.
Symonds (per clutch gremlins) pushed Collins in race one just 0.3 behind at the line and the on Sunday Bower turned up the pace with Collins swapping the lead at will Symonds charging through from back row starts but just running out of laps but still in the points hunt but a clean sweep from Collins
Just as fraught or is that edge of the seat ? was the IMS 600’s , the continuing battle for points with George Edwards , DCM Yamaha and James Bull, Bull Racing Kawasaki ZX6R was set to run again but with Shane Faber, Richard Wardle and Alex Barker in the mix too the early laps saw a nose to tail train of 600’s all riders with similar lap times , Edwards got the better of Faber and Bull in race one , just, 0.880 and 0.884 , race 2 was a duel with Bull and Edwards setting the pace and some very hard racing that came down to Edwards defending his lead into Roberts chicane by 0.189 . race 3 had the hallmarks of the same but Bull made his move at 2 thirds race and held on by 0.807 from Edwards, Faber and Wardle the supporting castin 3rd and 4th
The FSRA F2 sidecar were out for their second championship round and the rivalry between Peter Founds/Jake Lowther and Lee Crawford/Scott Hardie continued on from Brands, Qualifing saw only 0.8 between the 2 with John Holden /Jason Pitt heading up the pack. from the start it was Founds in an early slim lead until a red flag brought the grid back and a restart of 7 laps saw Crawford move into the lead and never to be headed. Race 2 was the normal reverse 6 grid so the race winner was in grid 6, Founds in 5, both made short work of the traffic Crawford holding a1 plus second gap to the flag from Founds holding on to a slim 4 point championship lead
In the other packed programme Dominic Cann was a clean sweep in the Ducati Desmo Due, as was Daniel Moffa in the SMW Mini Twins, Tim Bradly retuned to the A&R 400’s to dominate on his first outing of the year, Dan Nelmes was a runaway winner in streetstock 1300 another 3 wins as was Bobby Varey in the National 250 Championship full words by Paul Korkus
Next round 11/ 12 June at Pembrey
Words : Martin Bennett – NG Racing commentator – mb07818@gmail.com
Pixs : Hairy Beast Pix – hairybeastpix@hotmail.com