The Wirral Hundred club is synonymous with early season race meetings at Oulton Park and the meeting last Saturday (23rd April) was deemed a great success with full grids, a good crowd of spectators, dry, sunny weather, only a small number of fallers and retirements, and some impressive, close racing.
The meeting incorporated the first round of the ACU/FSRA British F2 Sidecar Championships – see separate report. These two races saw double wins for Peter Founds & Jevan Walmsley in the Super category and also for Dwight Beere & Ben Binns in the Cup category.
Double wins were also a feature of the club races, but Barry Lee Evans, second in the 2015 Newcomers Manx Grand Prix, even managed to double that with double wins in both the Golden Era Supersport and the Pre-Injection races; this achievement won him the Paul Leonard Award as the marshals’ rider of the day. Not far behind though were circuit-specialist Kiaran Hankin who impressively won both the Formula 600 and Powerbikes finals, Jamie Coward who won both 650 Twins races, John Price who won both Forgotten Era races, Jon Wright who won a Golden Era Superbike heat and a final, and James Fisher who was top-dog in both of the Earlystocks races. With an entry of 200 solo riders though, there were many other noteworthy performances and many personal bests – Chris Moore and Adrian Kershaw with wins in the 500cc Allcomers, Jamie Devine and Simon Napier with heat wins in the Formula 600 races and podium places behind Hankin in the final, and Lee Hodge and Mike Hose sharing a win apiece on their Classic 500cc Seeley’s.
The two club Open Sidecar races had full grids and had something for everyone, including teams taking the opportunity for track-time ahead of the British F1 Sidecar championships and the TT. The first W100 race was won by former British F2 champions and TT winners John Holden & Andy Winkle and the second by the 2015 club champions Steve & Matty Ramsden. The 2015 British F1 champions Ricky Stevens & Ryan Charlwood retired from the lead in the first race, and came from a slow start at the back-of-the-grid in the second race up to second place. The FSRA Pre-Injection sidecars also featured with wins for Bruce & Ashley Moore and Rob Fisher & Rick Long.
Wirral Hundred’s next race meeting is at Anglesey over the weekend of 25th & 26
th June, when it will again feature the ACU/FSRA British F2 Sidecars; it will also incorporate the annual Anglesey Classic Parade, which will be switched to this date to avoid clashing with the 60
th Anniversary Bike Bonanza at Mallory Park. Regulations and entry forms for the Anglesey races and the Parade can be downloaded from the club’s website
www.wirral100.co.uk