The NG Racing / Completely Motorbikes championship next stop on the 7 venue championship was the regular stop of Pembrey for the mid-point of the championship
Day 1 was greeted by some early morning rain leaving the track damp but drying for the qualifying sessions with riders having to tread carefully in the conditions.
Phoenix Open saw local rider Lewis Jones set the pace on his Kawasaki ZX6-R at 1.02.282, Shane Faber with the Faber Roofing Suzuki 1000 was next up at 1.02.941 and Ricky Elder, REPerformance R6 Yamaha 1.03.429.
Race 1, and 4th place qualifier George Edwards, DCM R6 Yamaha, shot from the second row to head Elder and Jones, this high-speed trio of 600’s started to pull away from the field with less than a second between them until mid-race distance when a couple of laps breaking into the 59 second zone from Edwards just gave him enough of a gap to keep Elder at bay, into the 59’s too and drop off Jones at the finish, just 2.7 seconds covering the top three.
Race 2, Sunday with a completely dry and sunny day and Edwards on pole from race 1 where again he raced off into the lead , Elder not being so lucky taking a tumble on the first lap and Jones being overhauled by the larger machines of Nelmes R1 Yamaha , Faber and Dave Mackay, KTM RC8, Edwards quickly got up to speed and strung together a series of low 59 second laps to open up a 3 second gap over Faber who was having a solo race having dropped the battle from Jones fighting his way from Nelmes and MacKay. With a comfortable lead Ewards eased back on the pace but still had a 1.5 second lead at the flag over Faber and over 6 seconds from Jones.
Race3, Dale Thomas who had been recovering from race one problems had worked his way up to the sharp end of the grid on row 2 on his 1000 Suzuki followed Edwards from pole and put the pressure on for 6 laps before moving into the lead the pair then traded 59 second laps with less than a bikes length between them, Faber had moved up to 3rd disposing of the attention of Nelmes and Jones but unable to catch the leading pair, Thomas just taking the win by 0.294 of a second.
IMS OPEN 600 /HM Racing Clubman
Lewis Jones showed his local track knowledge putting the Kawasaki on pole at 1.02.605 from Edwards 1.04.217 and Chester Buckle, Buckel Group R6 AT 1.05.507,
RACE 1, Edwards perfected the start to blast into the lead with Jones second and strung together a series of fast laps to break the grid, all was going to plan when he dropped down the lap chart with an off Jones taking over at the front with Will Jones in second and by that time Ricky Elder after a torrid qualifying was tearing his way through the pack to third but Jones had the race under control by then and won by over 7 seconds with Elder in second
Race 2, With Edwards at the back of the grid we were set for another charge to the front, but Elder made the early running keep Jones at bay for 3 laps taking the lead on the 4th lap, Edwards was gaining fast and was 3rd by lap 6 but Jones was in control and Elder falling back to Edwards who stole 2nd on the final lap Jones untroubled winning by 4.6 seconds.
Race 3, The fast 3 lined up on the front row, Jones looking for a clean sweep of wins but Edwards and Elder had other ideas the pair running off for and early lead. The battle then shaped up around Edwards trying to build a lead and Elder and Jones fighting for second and trying to keep in touch. Such was the pace from the leader by lap 5 back markers were coming into play Edwards getting into them and spoiling his lap times allowing Jones to catch up dealing with the traffic quicker. This was going to be the undoing of Edwards as both riders came on a backmarker on lap 11, Jones making the better move on him and snatching the lead and just hanging on by 0.393 of a second at the flag.
The clubman's class was 3 wins for Will Jones but a trio of second places from Bevan Plumley saw him add to his overall lead in the Championship from Steve Parry to over 100 points.
BLUEBELL LAKES Powerbike, down on numbers from the last round Richard Dobson’s ZX10 Kawasaki topped qualifying at 1.03.121 from Shane Faber’s 1.03.323 and Will Burchell on home ground 1.04.174
Race 1, Dale Thomas from the second row led the grid away with Faber and Dan Nelmes from the 3rd row, Thomas was pushing with Faber starting to match him on lap times and as the race wore on started to close, this pressure paid off forcing Thomas into a mistake and exiting the track, back in second Dobson got round Nelmes but had no chance of getting the winner Faber over 6 seconds to the good for the win.
Race 2, Faber, Dobson and Nelmes were the front row with the unlucky Thomas at the rear of the grid , when the lights changed Faber took off from a fast-starting Tyson Lewis, Dobson and Nelmes and by now had his sights set on another win with a series of 59 second laps leaving the rest struggling to match the pace. Dobson fell out of the race on lap 6, leaving a battle for second with Nelmes, Burchell and Thomas from the back covered by about a second but no hope of catching the leader some 18seconds up the road Burchell eventually taking second from Thomas.
Race 3, Faber was another rider looking to wrap up his weekend with a trio of wins but Thomas had other ideas leading from the lights but with Faber sticking to him like glue, lap 4 and Faber hit the front with the fastest lap only rider in the 58’s to take command of the race and leave Nelmes, Thomas and Lewis to sort out the minor places winning by over 3.829 seconds.
In the TW TECH Suspension 1300 Streetstock Tyson Lewis took 3 wins and increased his lead over Damon Smith who had 3 seconds, Love life and Ride Pre Injection 1300’s Shaun Hennessy was another 3 time winner but Lewis Rees still leads the class.
Another dominant performance from Brody Crockford in the SMW Supertwins saw 3 wins on the Dearden Performance Aprillia 660 from the similar machine of Alex Sinclair, Elijha Everton and Chase Collymore shared honours in DCM Supersport , RE Performance, Sound of Thunder Aaron Matthews had 2 wins and a second for his weekends work but although absent Darren Rumley still leads that championship.
Words: Martin Bennett, Race Commentator mb07818@gmail.com
Pictures: Colin Hill: hairybeastpix@hotmail.com