While others gathered around television sets and threw street parties, Bemsee racers got down to business at Snetterton for the third round of the 2023 championship.
ProperlyProtected.co.uk MRO Minitwins
After a cleansweep of wins at Pembrey last time out, MRO Minitwin championship leader David Twyford added two more victories to his season’s tally at Snetterton, with Darren Dowds clinching the other two.
Dowds set pole on his Sublime Designs Suzuki SV650, with Twyford only completing one lap in qualifying and starting race one from 21st as a result.
Undeterred, Twyford, with the number one plate aboard his MHP/IMP Racing Suzuki ended the opening lap in fourth, lap two in third, and lap three in second. On lap four he hit the front and started lap five with a one second advantage.
A lap later, as the chequered flag fell, he’d extended it to just over two seconds, and took the win.
Two seconds then covered the three riders fighting for the remaining two podium spots on the final lap, with Dowds the runner-up, Kevin Lilley third, and Stacey Killworth fourth. The rookie class win went to James Svenson in 10th.
For race two the clouds opened and the rain fell. Clearly confident in the wet conditions, Dowds hit the front from the off and pulled a lead of over two seconds on lap one. Twyford held second, but Dowds had doubled his lead by the end of lap two.
However, growing in confidence, Darren Conneely was making progress, and after moving up to second he began to reel in the race leader, cutting the lead just half a second in the space of a lap.
The race was on, but Dowds held on to take his first win of the weekend with Conneely second and Killworth third. Twyford was fourth. Simon Harvey was the rookie winner in 13th.
On a drying track Dowds took win number two in race three, taking the chequered flag two seconds up on a thrilling battle for second that saw Lilley and Barry Mantell cross the line four hundredths of a second apart.
With another top-10 finish, Svenson took another rookie win in 9th.
In the final race Twyford returned to winning ways. clearing off out front to take victory by over five seconds. Dowds capped a strong weekend with another runner-up finish, with Mantell back on the podium in third. Svenson also took another rookie win in 10th.
DFDS Yamaha Past Masters
Doug Edmondson threw caution to the wind and conquered a damp qualifying session, topping the times by over two seconds. He backed it up with two wins on Saturday, with Kevin Wholey collecting two on Sunday.
Proving he could win in both the wet and the dry, Edmondson won a dry race one by half a second, chased all the way by Wholey in second with less than a tenth of a second the difference.
Paul Whitby took an excellent third place finish after a race-long battle with Stuart Hall.
It was another Edmondson-Wholey one-two in a wet race two, this time with Edmondson showing his wet weather prowess to win by over three and a half seconds. The closest battle this time was for second place, with less than a tenth of a second covering Wholey and Hall.
After a brace of runner-up finishes on Saturday, Wholey managed to go better on Sunday to claim two race wins.
His first came ahead of Edmondson, before he was classified the victor in a red-flagged race four.
He bested Edmondson by just a tenth of a second, while a similarly close fight for third ended with Rik Ballerini coming out on top against Whitby.
In the final race Wholey was chalked up as the winner, with Whitby second and Ballerini third.
DART Motorsport MRO 600 and Clubman 600
Harrison Crosby secured a hat trick of wins in the DART Motorsport MRO 600 series, with Adam Hartgrove picking up a solitary win.
And it was Hartgrove - on his Yamaha R6 - that drew first blood, winning race one from Crosby on his Caddy Group Kawasaki. Hartgrove led every lap, with Crosby doing all he could to remain in pursuit.
Third went to pole-sitter Kam Dixon on the Delicious Race Wear Kawasaki, as he kept Clubman winner Henry Ross off the podium by less than a tenth of a second.
After that, however, it was the Crosby show, and he dominated a wet race two to take a stunning victory, winning by over 13 seconds while a high attrition rate saw six riders DNF, including race one winner Hartgrove.
Ross Clarke ended the race second, with Dylan Mellor third. Ross’ fifth gave him another Clubman win.
Crosby bagged two more victories on Sunday, and in similarly dominant form.
For his day’s opening win he took the chequered flag 10 seconds in front of the chasing pack. However, he left a tense podium battle in his wake, with one and a half seconds covering the three riders fighting over the remaining two rostrum spots.
Harry Fowle was second, from Clubman winner Ross, while Dixon narrowly missed out on a podium, crossing the line in fourth.
The hat trick was complete by the end of race four, as Crosby again crossed the line way ahead of the rest of the field. And again, despite Crosby taking off at the front, close racing followed behind.
Second went the way of Dixon, and behind him four riders battled it out for the last podium position.
As the chequered flag fell, it was Lewis Jones that took the spot, holding off Luke Wallington on the Evo class Triumph, Fowle, and again Clubman winner Ross.
Reactive Parts MRO Powerbikes and Clubman 1000
He missed the second round of the championship at Pembrey on BSB duty, but Josh Wainwright returned to take two wins from three races at Snetterton. A winner in his absence at Pembrey, Nicky Wilson took the other victory.
Wainwright set pole, but a chaotic race on Saturday saw Wilson win - despite a 10-second jump start penalty - as 12 riders failed to finish.
Showing on the time sheet as taking the win by three seconds, Wilson - on the Demon GP and Haslemere Motorcycles Suzuki - Wilson took victory from Peter Baker on the Kawasaki ZX-10R and Dawid Krawiecki on the Code Blue Limited Yamaha R1.
In fifth Clayton Grover took the Clubman win, while Wainwright got to half race distance before crashing out.
Courtesy of his fastest lap, Wainwright started race two from pole and led from start to finish to take the first of two wins. It was a lonely ride for the race winner and the other two podium finishers, with Wilson second, 13 seconds down on the victor and 13 seconds up on Jack Croucher in third.
However, three tenths of a second was all that separated Croucher and Krawiecki, the latter less than a tenth up on Baker, with Seamus McGlynn sixth, himself less than a second back of Baker.
It was a repeat podium in race three, and while Wainwright and Wilson were comfortable in first and second, Croucher again had his work cut out to finish on the rostrum in third. This time two tenths of a second split him from McGlynn in fourth.
In both of Sunday’s races Grover was the Clubman winner, with two seventh place finishes.
L&W Contractors Rookie 600 and Rookie 1000
Duncan Bedwell and Karl Thompson shared the Rookie 1000 wins by a ratio of 3:1, while in the Rookie 600s Callumn Manley and Kallum Bedwell shared the spoils the same way.
Duncan Bedwell was quickest in qualifying aboard the Connected To Homes Limited Kawasaki, but the opening win of the weekend went to Thompson, after the pair battled for the win, along with Sam Cranstone.
In the 600s, Manley took the win ahead of Jason Gamble, with Tom Walker third in class.
In the remaining three races Duncan Bedwell was never bettered in the Rookie 1000s, and won from Luke Blackford and Cranstone, Thompson and Cranstone, and Cranstone and Thompson.
Manley lasted only two laps of race two, handing victory to Kallum Bedwell, who won from Gamble and Brian Maher.
On Sunday Manley returned to winning ways and tasted victory twice, with Gamble and Maher completing the podium in race three, before Gamble and Kallum Bedwell rounded out the top-three in the final race.
ACU Team Green Junior Cup and Senior Ninja
There were three overall winners from the four ACU Team Green Junior Cup and Senior Ninja series. Senior Ninja series leader Phil Atkinson won two, with fellow senior runner Oliver Arbon taking one and Junior Cup contender Craig Dance the other.
Atkinson qualified on pole in a dry qualifying session, but finished 10th in a rainy race one, the win going the way of Dance. Some 18 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack, the Junior rider won from Senior winner Phil Ellis. Third went to another Senior competitor in Mike Brunson.
With the track dry for race two, Atkinson took the first of two wins. Dance took the fight to Atkinson early in the race, but would eventually drop back to third - though he still took the Junior win - as Arbon came through to take second.
There was a second win for Atkinson in race three on Sunday morning, again from Arbon in second. The final podium spot went to the Junior Cup winner, though this time that honour went to Zack Weston.
Weston was again third in the final race of the weekend, and with it he took another Junior win, as Arbon this time bettered Atkinson for the win, with less than a second the gap at the flag.
Illuminate Design 250MZ
Andrew Wales, Chris Kent, and Alexander Mann split four race wins between them in the Illuminate Design 250MZ championship, with Mann doing the double on Sunday after Wales and Kent took a win apiece on Saturday, with the one of the closest finishes ever witnessed in race one.
Wales was quickest in qualifying, with Kent going from third on the grid. But it quickly became a race between the two of them for the win, and just three thousandths of a second was all that split them come the chequered flag, as they streaked across the line side by side in a photo finish.
Kent took the win, with Wales second and Peter Woodall in a lonely third.
In the wet race two it Wales capitalised to take the win, as Kent failed to complete the opening lap. Woodall was second, and Mann third.
Two dry races on Sunday both ended with Mann gracing the top step of the podium, but he was pushed all the way by Wales on both occasions.
In the first of the day’s races the pair both set their fastest laps of the race on the final circulation, but it was Mann that took victory by two tenths of a second.
It was the same story in the final race, as they again went quickest on the final go around the Snetterton 300 circuit, with Mann winning from Wales by just under two tenths of a second, this time.
Kent was twice third.
Steve Jordan Motorcycles and TBR Performance Thunderbike Extreme and Ultra
An exciting weekend of action threw up four winners from four races in the Thunderbike Extreme and Thunderbike Ultra championships, with both of Sunday’s races, in particular, showcasing the closeness of the grid with less than a second covering the podium.
However, after qualifying, Jamie Thomas was the odds-on favourite to bag the wins, after setting a lap time over two seconds faster than anyone else. The Ultra class pilot then went on to win the opening race by nearly five seconds on his Team Ruby Racing Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Despite Thomas taking off at the front, KnC Motorsport’s Cecil Dinsmore and Greenplant Suzuki’s Stacey Killworth duked it out for the best of the rest spot, half a second the difference at the flag, as they completed the Ultra and overall race podium.
In seventh overall, GSX-R750-mounted Raymond Stagg took the Extreme win, from David Abraham and Barry Mantell.
Highlighting the unpredictability of the class, it was an entirely different podium trio in a damp race two.
Tyler Donovan was the victor by a safe two seconds, however, behind him three riders squabbled over the two remaining podium positions. In the end, half a second covered Morgan Creasey, Corey Smith, and Dinsmore.
Just behind them, Mantell raced his Extreme-class Swedish Car Connection Honda to fifth and took the class win. Abraham and Stagg were second and third in class.
Two dry races on Sunday brought about some of the closest racing of the weekend, with just over half a second covering the top four in the first of the day’s races.
This time, Chad Hashmi was victorious, ahead of Killworth, James Fearn, and Creasey.
Mantell was again the Extreme winner, and was on the podium with Stagg and Andrew Firth, as Abraham was disqualified from the results after failing the post-race technical inspection.
Making it four winners from four races, Creasey took the final win of the weekend by a tenth of a second from Killworth and Hashmi, as Mantell chalked up another Extreme win. This time Derek Cripps and Abraham completed the podium.
Steve Jordan Motorcycles Thunderbike Sport
Jeremy Hill continued to show the early season form that had seen him take seven of the eight available wins so far this year, and he was only denied a cleansweep of victories at Snetterton after being handed a 10-second time penalty in race three for a jump start.
On the Silver Arrows Racing Yamaha he topped qualifying and won both of Saturday’s races, one in the dry, and one in the wet.
He won race one by 15 seconds, while, behind, four riders raced for two positions on the podium. In the end they were secured by Harrison Day and Colin Walkey, with David May and Andy Denyer missing out.
Nearly 18 seconds was then his margin of victory in race two, as Denyer and Tony Russo completed the podium following a crash out of second for May on the final lap.
It would have been win number three for Hill in the first of Sunday’s races, as he took the flag nearly five seconds up on Russo in second. Sadly for him, he was demoted to fifth in the final classification.
Russo inherited the win, as the battle between Denyer, Walkey, and Alex Mann became the fight for second instead of third.
Getting safely away in race four, Hill took his third win of the weekend and 10th of the season, ahead of Russo and Mann.
BMCRC F1 and F2 Sidecars
After Tim Reeves and Mark Wilkes qualified on pole by over a whopping four seconds, most were pencilling them in for all of the available wins.
Thankfully for the neutral, that wasn’t to be the case, and instead three outfits tasted victory over the course of the weekend.
Simon Gilbert and Anthony Hildige won the first race, and took the F1 win, with F2 winners Gary Gibson and Tom Christie second and the pairing of Ryan and Callum Crowe third.
Gibson and Christie then took the overall win in race two, and led an all-F2 podium, with Sean Hegarty and James Neave second and Dave Molyneux and Dan Sayle third.
In fourth were F1 winners Matt MacLaurin and Adrian Hope.
Gilbert and Hildige returned to the top step in race three, taking the F1 spoils in the process, as Gibson and Hildige added another F2 win to the tally in second overall, in front of Hegarty and Neave.
After three DNFs, Reeves and Wilkes finally delivered on their qualifying potential to win the final race of the weekend, 23 seconds up on Gilbert and Hildige in second. In third were F2 class winners Hegarty and Neave.
BMCRC Formula 400
Nick and Haydon Smith shared the spoils in the BMCRC Formula 400s, taking two wins apiece on their Kawasaki ZXR400s.
Nick Smith took a dominant win in a wet opener, taking the flag over 20 seconds up on Alan Major. Greg Marshall was third.
After failing to finish race one, it was Haydon Smith - Nick Smith’s son - that claimed victory in race two, albeit narrowly.
The duo were split by half a second in the end, with Major only half a second back again in third.
Going one-for-one, it was Nick Smith’s turn to climb the top step of the podium in race three. He took the win just over a second up on son Haydon Smith, who led a four rider group in the fight for the two remaining trophies on offer.
Joe Ellis followed him across the line in third, with Marshall and Maximus Hardy missing out.
Similarly close racing determined the finishing order in the final race, though this time Haydon Smith claimed victory from Nick Smith.
One and a half seconds covered the top four, but only three could take silverware home with them, as Hardy joined the Smith pairing on the rostrum, as Ellis missed out in fourth.
Blue Haze GP and GPF
In the Blue Haze races - the two-stroke class for race (GP) and road (GPF) machines - Doug Edmondson and Phil Atkinson took a GP win each, as John Lea bagged a brace of victories.
In the GPF class Rik Ballerini bagged a trio of wins, David Ball taking a solitary win in the wet.