Thursday May 7, 2015 at 3:38pm
AC Racing (Greg Allsop/Richard Charlton) snatched a dramatic victory in the third round of the ACU/Towergate National 1000 Championship at Pembrey, but they were lucky, very lucky.
Go Racing Developments (Andy Carpenter/James McBride) held a five lap lead over them, with just nine minutes to go. Then McBride crashed. The transponder was retrieved from the damaged bike and Carpenter went out to finish the job. It looked an easy task, but he fell at the first corner and they were out of the race.
Team Edge RST 2 (Gary Johnson/Mick Brown) was second over the line, also having completed 162 laps. Remarkably Brown had had to pull out of the race with a broken collarbone. He had crashed in an earlier sprint race, hurting his shoulder. Then, while doing his second stint in the Endurance race, his collar bone broke under heavy braking. With thirty minutes of the three-hour race to go, the team was second, behind Go Racing Developments. At the chequered flag they were still second, just under two minutes behind the AC Racing.
Unfortunately Team Edge RST2 had their points revoked for a technical infringement.
Conditions were tricky over the two days. Rain made qualifying difficult and there were spits of rain throughout the race, with many crashes. It was cold, too, with the temperature never above 10 degrees c.
Team Army 1 (Peter Brown/Laurence Williams) were third home, first in the Clubman 1000 class.
Team Army 1 won the Clubman 1000 class, two laps ahead of their nearest rivals and only 2 laps down on the winners, in third place overall. Team Army 2 were third in their class, closing to within one point of the absent Fast Past Pits in the ACU/Towergate National Endurance 600 championship.
T3 was fifth in their class and only a few laps off that elusive third spot. T4 climbed away to 20th, finishing top Rookie 600s again and fourth in the Clubman 600s. They lead Grit Racing (Kate Mustill/Ian Jack) by 15 points in the Rookie series.
Team Edge RST 1 (Nick Edgeley/Jonny Towers) were back in action after missing the last round, taking victory in the National 600 series. They lead Tech 5 Racing by one point in the championship.
Fifth overall was More Moto (Byron Beckett/Chris Kent), the pole-setters in qualifying, third home in the National 1000 class, on 160 laps, the same as Team Army 1, two laps down on the top two.
Tech 5 Racing (Nick Ford/Matt Stevens) were sixth overall, runners up in the Clubman 1000 class, just six seconds in front of 2 Fat 2 Tall, who had Laurie Sanders stepping into join Gaz Evans, in place of the injured Tom Robinson.
That gap would have been greater, but for the team collecting a sixty second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Just behind 2 Fat 2 Tall was National 600 squad, Team Army 2 (Wayne Morgan/Richard Spencer-Fleet), three seconds adrift. Sixth, seventh and eighth completed 158 laps.
Parish Brothers Racing (James and Chris Parish) were making their Endurance racing debut. They were ninth overall and winners of the Clubmans 600 class. In fact they led their class from start to finish. With quick pit stops and consistent lap times, they managed to take the class win by 3 laps.
AC Racing’s win, the second in succession, gives them a 29 point lead in the overall 1000 title chase. First Towergate Clubman 600 over the line was Liquidskinz Hydrographic (Stuart Fitton/Martin Tromans) giving them a 23 point lead in that series over Mild Hogs Racing (David Hall/Patrick Hurst), who were 13th overall.
T. Watson Bikes (Rick Dickinson/Tom Stephens) had a difficult meeting, including crashes. They completed only 14 laps, picking up seven points. That dropped them from second in the championship to joint third, with Team Army 1, on 33, 30 points behind the leaders.
Team Big Lads (Joe Connolly/Bob Barton), were again first Modern Classics home. That win kept TBL top of the Modern Classic class, ten points ahead of GRS Racing (Karl Smith/Glen Rixon), who were 24th overall and second in class.
Top 1000 Rookies was Team Leanangle.co.uk (Nigel Baldwin/Martyn Bollards), but G&M Racing still leads the championship. Gavin Bartlett stepped at the last minute to replace the injured John Kilcar in the Full On Racing team, alongside Terry Fuller.
Bartlett went out to qualify for the Endurance race, but track was wet and he was on slicks that had not been fitted with warmers. They started from 18th on grid and pulled through to 11th overall and third in the National 1000 class. By the two hour mark they had dropped to fourth, but they pushed hard and regained third place at the chequered flag, giving the team their first podium place of the season.