Thursday May 14, 2015 at 4:19pm
EDIasia Formula 400s
Andy Saunders took a double race win in the third round of the EDIasia Formula 400 championship at Silverstone, while reigning champion Richie Welsh returned for his first round of the 2015 season.
Saunders, who arrived at the Northamptonshire circuit second in the championship and trailing series leader Dan Ruth by a whopping 83 points, set the bar high early on, dominating qualifying and setting a pole position time over two seconds quicker than anyone else.
Second on the grid was the returning Richie Welsh, who won the championship in 2014 on his Yamaha FZR400, alongside Matthew Scott who qualified third fastest. Dan Ruth started from fourth and row two on the grid with Darren Corkett the fastest Sub-64bhp competitor in 12th.
After elevating himself as the class of the field in qualifying, it was Saunders who stormed to victory in race one. The former BMZRC 250 champion took the lead and was never headed throughout the duration of the race, crossing the line nearly eight seconds ahead of Welsh, who fended off the attentions of Ruth in the fight for second place, just three tenths of a second splitting the pair at the chequered flag.
Carl Johnstone came through from his 23rd place grid spot to take an excellent seventh place finish, beating a number of Open class machines in the process, taking the class win in the Sub-64 category. In the Rookie class Matty Whelan turned finished 15th and took the win.
The second race saw the podium repeat itself, with Saunders again clearing off into the distance, taking a dominant victory by nearly 12 seconds.
Welsh and Ruth were again second and third. Ruth held the advantage until the mid-point in the race before Welsh found a way past, making it stick to the line and taking second by less than half a second.
Whelan was again lead Rookie on his Blueline Taxis sponsored Yamaha, finishing in a highly respectable eighth place, while Johnstone crossed the line in 10th and at the head of a four rider scrap for the Sub-64 win.
On Sunday however, Saunders saw his hard work undone and threw away the 18 points he'd clawed back on Ruth's championship lead, retiring from contention on the opening lap of the first race after blowing his engine.
That saw Ruth take the race lead with Welsh hot on his heels, the pair fighting tooth and nail for the race win. As they streaked onto the fifth lap Ruth held the advantage, but a mistake saw him lose three seconds. Welsh needed no invitation and snatched the lead and rode to victory with Ruth second.
Andrew Gill put in an excellent ride after a mistake saw him drop from third to 10th on the first lap. He came back through the pack to take the final podium spot by three tenths of a second.
Whelan took his third Rookie victory in ninth while Keith Povah took the Sub-64 class win in 11th, as another four riders battled it our for class honours, less than two seconds between them after nine laps.
Sadly the fourth race of the weekend was abandoned after an oil spill in another class rendered the surface unsafe, after a committee of experienced racers conducted a detailed inspection. It will be rescheduled and ran at a future round.
DFDS Seaways Yamaha Past Masters
Matt Barber was in dominant form in the DFDS Seaways Yamaha Past Masters, taking all three wins in stunning fashion.
Barber was fastest in qualifying, one and a half seconds quicker than reigning champion Graham Higlett. Doug Edmondson made up the front row but suffered a high speed crash at turn one before the end of the session.
Barber then rode flawlessly to victory in all three of the weekend’s races (with the abandoned fourth race being rescheduled at a later round). He crossed the line nearly four seconds ahead of Pete Moore in race one, with Higlett on the podium in third.
Barber then repeated that feat in race two, this time amassing an eight and a half second lead ahead of the chasing pack. Higlett and Moore reversed their positions on the podium.
In the third and final race of the weekend Barber was again holding the lead when the race was red-flagged. Undeterred, he hit the front again as the race restarted in built up a seven and a half second lead over the five lap sprint. Higlett was on the podium again in second while Andy Davies took third.
Kawasaki National Junior Cup / Senior 300s
Both Alex Murley and Carl Mitchell were untouchable in both the Kawasaki Junior Cup and 300 series, taking all available wins in their respective classes.
Mitchell took the overall win with Murley second overall in both of Saturday’s races. James Alderson was third in race one and second in the KJC class before Harry Rowlings mounted the bottom step of the podium in race two and was second Junior rider.
Murely took the outright win in Sunday’s race, crossing the line just half a second ahead of Alderson and Rowlings, the trio completing the overall and Junior podium. Mitchell was fourth and leading Senior rider.
BMCRC Thunderbike Extreme & Thunderbike Sport
There was more dominance on display at Silverstone in the BMCRC, Steve Jordan and ELP Racing sponsored Thunderbike Extreme series, where Seb Kelly took a hat-trick of wins on his Go Racing Developments-backed Suzuki.
Kelly took the his first win by just over three seconds from Andy Saunders and Matt Hinnells, before stretching out a near-eight second advantage in race two. He was joined on the podium by Hinnells and Denzil Davies.
Sunday’s only race was another Seb Kelly show, his win this time coming a huge 17 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
Saunders finished second, just over a second ahead of Matt Last, who headed a four-rider train in the hunt for third, less than a second covering all of them at the line.
All four races were ran in the Thunderbike Sport class, before an oil spillage caused the programme to be abandoned for other classes.
Andre Gill took victory in race one ahead of Emma Jarmand and Oliver Fooks, but it was fourth placed man Byron Kirk who enjoyed the rest of the weekend, taking all three remaining wins.
His first came 10 seconds ahead of Jarman, who enjoyed another second place, with Paul Johnston third, before race one winner Gill was back on the podium in race three, finishing second with Jarman third.
Kirk completed his hat-trick of wins in the final race, with Gill again second but some 10 seconds down the road, half a second ahead of Johnston in third, while Jarman missed the podium for the first time over the weekend, finishing fourth.
Team Respro MRO 600s
Three different winners stood on the podium in the Team Respro MRO 600 series over the Silverstone weekend, highlighting the competitiveness of the 30-rider strong series.
A wet race one saw Grant Newstead take the win on his Tinklers Motorcycles Yamaha R6, with Stephen Draper and Joe Goggins setting their fastest laps of the race on the final circulation in the fight for second place. Newstead was also the leading Clubman rider.
Dry conditions in race two saw Goggins take the win, with Draper again crossing the line in second place and the leading Clubman rider and Newstead third.
Matt and Harry Truelove took their first podium finishes of the weekend in the final race. Matt Truelove took the win by four seconds, with Harry Truelove second and the leading Clubman rider, with Goggins third.
In the Rookie class, Dominic Pettit took two wins with Benjamin Cotgrove and Jamie Tibble – son of former British 125GP champion Kenny Tibble - taking the other.
ePayMe MRO 1000s
There were just two races for the ePayMe MRO 1000s at Silverstone, with the final race falling victim to the oil spillage.
After qualifying on pole, former champion Peter Baker took both wins.
It was an all Kawasaki podium in race one, with Baker taking the win by four and a half seconds from Colin Parker and John Butler. Mark Sykes was the leading Clubman rider in fourth, also ZX-10R mounted.
And it was the same order in race two, this time with four and a half seconds covering the whole podium, and Sykes the leading Clubman rider in fourth.
Tim Cornwall took both Rookie class wins.
BMZRC FreshDrop 250s
The closest racing of the BMCRC weekend at Silverstone could arguably be found in the 250 MZ class, where Chris Rogers and Mark Taylor took two wins apiece.
Just half a second split the pair in race one, with Taylor taking the win from Rogers and Andrew Wales in third.
Race two and the gap was down to just over a tenth of a second, this time with Rogers coming out on top, with Taylor second. Peter Woodall fended off Christopher Kent for third.
Technical issues prevented Rogers from lining up in the third race, which saw Taylor take his second win of the weekend. The close battle this time was for second place, with a tenth of a second splitting Woodall and Joe Baldry.
Rogers returned for the final race and sliced through the pack to take the win, again just over a tenth of a second ahead of Taylor, this time with Woodall only half a second back in third and the same gap back to Baldry in fourth.
HOYL Insurance MRO Minitwins
The MRO Minitwin series also fell victim to the stoppage caused by the oil spill, with just two races ran for one of the BMCRC’s most popular classes.
Richard Goode took the victory in the opening race by six seconds. Five seconds then covered the next seven riders and the battle for second. Kurtis Butler eventually came out on top ahead of Joe Buxton.
Goode also took the win in the second race, this time by a margin of 1.7 seconds, ahead of Mason Williams and Richard Hickling, who were split by four hundredths of a second at the chequered flag after nine laps.
In the Rookie Minitwin class Thomas Eustace took all four wins.
BMCRC RK-B F1 & F2 Sidecars
There was total domination in the RK-B F1 & F2 supported sidecar races, with Gary Smith and Shelley Smithies taking all four overall wins and all four F1 class wins.
Michael Grabmüller and Sophia Kirchhofer finished second in the opening race and took the F2 class win, with Simon Christie and Tom Christie third and second F2.
Smith and Smithies took their second win in race two, again with two F2 outfits on the podium behind them, with Tim Reeves and Patrick Farrance second and Christie and Christie third.
Sunday’s races saw Smith and Smithies complete their clean sweep. Sean Reeves and Mark Wilkes were second in race one and lead F2 with the F1 outfit of David Hirst and Karl Schofield third. Reeves and Farrance were back on the podium in second in the final race and lead F2, with Gordon Pottinger and David Dodd third and second F1.