The weekend of 22nd June 2024 saw the Teams return to Anglesey to continue the British Championship.
Saturday
Warm up
The conditions were good, the sun was out and the temperature was high - albeit a little windy on the pit wall! All outfits went out putting in 8 laps to get some decent track time, setting them up for the day ahead.
Qualifying
With all sidecar outfits on grid they battled it out up and down for positions changing multiple times. The session came to a close with only 7 seconds between the front of the field and the rear. The top 3 outfits starting in pole position were Founds/Walmsley with 1:12.894, second place were Ramsden/Ramsden with 1:13.608 and third place went to Dawson/Sims with 1:15.203.
Race 1
As the race gets underway 4 outfits make great headway through the pack. All making up 3 positions each - Crawford/Hardie up to 2
nd, Clarke/Johnson up to 4
th, Moore/Gash up to 8
th and Schofield/Smith up to 9
th whilst Ilaria/Lace lost out massively dropping 6 places after an unfortunate spin-out. Founds/Walmsley pulled a gap to 1.7 seconds over second place which they held onto for several laps. Sadly, Baker/Dawkins retired by lap 3 whilst Lockey/Binns managed to get past Schofield/Smith bringing them up to 9
th only to top it in lap 5 they were able to gain another grid place.
The top 3 saw them pull away from Clarke/Johnson at an average of 2 seconds a lap. Schofield/Smith passed Moore/Gash only for Ilaria/Lace to pass both outfits only to then have a moment and loose both places again.
Sunday
Free Practice
The weather was again kind to us, the wind was down from the day before and the track temperature was warm. This meant the outfits could get out and put some steady laps in ready for race 2.
Race 2
As the race gets underway there were many outfits jostling for positions up and down the grid, with Dawson/Sims making the biggest gain of 7 places. Founds/Walmsley got off to a flying start pulling a 3 second gap on the pack and setting a new lap record at 1:12.165. The pair went even faster the following lap pulling the gap to nearly 5 seconds and again beating the lap record to which they had just set the previous lap 1:12.033.
The grid settled down and everyone just kept putting the laps in. An unfortunate issue saw Dawson/Sims loose 6 places promoting everyone else around them. Schofield/Smith alongside Moore/Gash continuously battled it out lap after lap with no more than 0.5 seconds between them for 4 laps. On lap 10 Dawson/Sims got black flagged which put them out of the day’s racing. Saunders/Stokoe kept up the good work in 2
nd place for the Cup as they pursued Clarke/Johnson. As the laps past by, the teams held their positions and tried to chase each other down. Having not made it out for Race 1 the day before, Morphet/Ryder resolved their mechanical issues and ran a great race coming in 3
rd place. At the end of the 16 lap race Founds/Walmsley finished 16 seconds ahead of Crawford/Hardie and 23 seconds ahead of the Ramsden duo.
Current (and New) Lap Records for Anglesey are as follows:
Supers: Founds/Walmsley 23.06.2024 00:01:12:033
Cup: Atkinson/Knapton 08.05.11 00:01:14:091
On behalf of the F.S.R.A., I would like to express thanks to our loyal series sponsors, who have continued to pledge their support, Hegarty Plant Ltd; Pagid Racing (Breitenbach Rennsport); Whitby cottages; Freight Hub and Tingles of Warmfield they continue their long partnerships with the F.S.R.A on board for the coming season, and thank them for investing in the championship.
Finally, the F.S.R.A. would like to thank Wirral 100 for hosting, and to all their dedicated officials, marshals, medics and all the other volunteers involved in running the event.
Words – Brian Ross (F.S.R.A. Press Officer) Photographs – Simon Heath