Thirty races over two days provided plenty of excitement at Mallory Park last weekend, and included, if not a dead heat, then the closest thing possible as Michael Horberry beat Rob Mawbey by one thousandth of a second in the pre-injection class. Horberry took the early lead with Mawby right on his tail until Mawby took the lead on lap four, but unable to break away, and on lap seven it was Mike ahead once more and he held on to win by the smallest measurable margin possible outside of a nuclear physics laboratory. Reigning champion Steve Brittain had a grandstand view from one second behind. It was not a surprise to see the closeness of the result after Saturday’s racing closed with a win for Rob by 0.07 seconds.
The weekend began with a CB500 race, which must be the best introduction to a weekend of racing, in which Terry Allsopp came from seventh place on lap one to snatch the lead from Liam Sylvain on the penultimate lap to win by a quarter of a second, with Paul Sawyer third ahead of championship leader Owen Monaghan. The second race in the class saw the same four riders in completely different order, Monaghan winning from Sylvain with Sawyer third and Allsopp fourth. Sunday’s races were enlivened by the addition of Leon Jeacock, having a rest from BSB duties, showing how fast a superbike rider can ride a CB500. Leon won both events, as might be expected, but behind him Sylvain and Allsopp scrapped for second, Liam taking the place by 0.6 seconds in race three, while race four saw Sylvain second with Sawyer and Allsopp scrapping throughout for third.
Saturday’s Mallory Trophy race saw Christian Iddon holding off Charlie Nesbitt until both pulled in just before the end of the race to allow Mikey Leeson to take the victory ahead of Ashley King. Sunday’s race was the usual two contestants fighting for the win – King getting ahead on lap two but never shaking off Leeson who was never more than half a second down until the very last lap. The final race was a repeat with Leeson less than a second behind King at the end.
Christian Iddon ran away with the first Allcomers race with Charlie Nesbitt second while King and Leeson fought for championship points in third and fourth until Leeson crashed on the eleventh lap bringing out the red flag. Fortunately, both bike and rider were ready to resume battle on Sunday but having to start from the back of the grid was not a big help to Mikey’s chances in the race and while King took off at the front Leeson spent the opening laps catching up and he was only able to get as high as fifth by the end. The final race of the day saw Ashley King lead throughout with Leeson second, which leaves Ashley in the lead of both Mallory Trophy and Allcomers championships with two rounds remaining.
Kyle Abell had an unbeaten record in the Rookies championship coming into this meeting, but a crash in the first race put an end to that run. Andrew Bird and Abell had been swapping places at the front with Chris Taylor closing in on the seventh when Abell crashed bringing out the red flag giving the victory to Bird from Taylor. David Kortegas led the second race in the early stages, but Chris Taylor took the lead halfway through but never managed to put any distance between himself and Kortegas, winning by 0.7 seconds. Kylre Abell was back on track on Sunday, but not quite on top form and it was Steve Watson who took the early lead, pursued by Chris Taylor, who took over at the front on lap three. Meanwhile David Kortegas was closing in, hitting the front on lap 7 with Liam Price taking second on the last lap with Abell finishing third. The final race went to Price while Kortegas came out best in a three-way scrap for second ahead of Abell and Taylor.
George Davies won the first Twins race from James Ingham, who took the second with Thomas Goldthorpe second ahead of Davies. Sunday saw Davies and Ingham sharing the first and second places. Mike Horberry won all four 450 races from John Lea who took the 125 class wins. George Bedford won all four of the Open 500 events.