Derby Phoenix Croft Race Report

Lee Wilson (BMW 1000) leads Matt Stevenson (BMW 1000) by just a single point in the Derby Phoenix club’s 1300cc Four-stroke championship, after round three of the series at Croft.

The Yorkshire pair clashed four times over the weekend, with Stevenson, from Ripon, who led the series by five points coming into the meeting, winning one race and Barnsley’s Wilson two of the others.

It was Paul Rogers (Kawasaki 1000), the highly experienced racer from Morpeth, Northumberland, who won the first big bike race, beating Cumbria’s Stephen Parsons (Kawasaki 1000) by just over three seconds in poor conditions.

Hard on Parsons’ heels were Lee Longstaff (Kawasaki 1000) and Gary Hutchinson (Kawasaki 1000), with just four fifths of a second covering all three.

Wilson, struggling to get a good set up in the wet, was fifth, nearly seven seconds down on the winner and just over two seconds in front of Stevenson, in sixth place.

It was raining again in race two, but this time Stevenson, lapping almost two and a half seconds faster than he had in the earlier race, ran home a comfortable winner, over seven seconds in front of Rogers.

Hutchinson was third, Parsons fourth and Wilson fifth, over 20 seconds down on the winner.

With conditions better on the Sunday, Wilson came into his own. He beat Parsons by over 10 seconds in the first, red flagged after five laps, setting the fastest lap.

Stevenson was third, half a second behind Parsons.

It was the same result in the next race, with Parsons finishing second, just over four seconds adrift after eight laps. Wilson set the fastest lap of the weekend.

Stevenson was third, beaten home by just under six seconds.

Two rounds to go Wilson is on 199 and Stevenson has 198 points, 75 ahead of Hutchinson, who climbed to third in the standings.

Wilson was the star of the three Allcomers’ races.

He ran out a clear cut winner in the first on Saturday afternoon, beating Lee Longstaff (Kawasaki 1000) by over 16 seconds in a five lap race, with Alan Naylor (Kawasaki 600) third.

Longstaff, the 37-year-old from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, won race two late on Saturday afternoon in damp conditions, a comfortable 20 seconds clear of Wilson, with Parsons five seconds further back.

Ian Lawton (Yamaha) stormed to the top of the ACU Pre-Injection championship after notching up two wins and a second place in his four rides.

The only time the talented Novice from Blyth failed to finish was in the first race of the weekend.

That was won comfortably by Gary Whitfield (Suzuki) from Robert Scarth (Yamaha) and Paul Drinkwater (Yamaha).

Ryan Cooper (Yamaha) won the next, well clear of Lawton, but from then on Lawton was unstoppable taking the next two races.

Cooper was less than two fifths of second back in race three, but Lawton was well over four seconds ahead in the next.

Justin Stevenson’s run of bad luck continued at this meeting. After being knocked off his bike in the last race at round two at Cadwell, the 40-year-old from Louth arrived at this meeting still leading the championship.

Despite the changeable track conditions Stevenson managed to score solid points in his first three rides. But then coming out the hairpin on lap seven of the fourth and final outing, holding seventh place, he had a big high side.

He was badly battered and bruised in the spill and broke his left ankle. The crash robbed of the nine points he was heading for and cost him the championship lead.

He has now slipped to second on 128 points, three behind Lawton.

To add to Stevenson’s misery the injury will put him out of action for six weeks so he will miss the next round at Rockingham.

Brandon Mallinder took full advantage of teenager Jordan Rushby’s enforced absence to climb to the top of the Formula 600 series.

Side-lined while he repairs the damage to his machine after a crash during practice at a recent meeting at Oulton Park, Rushby slipped to second in the standings, 33 points down on Mallinder.

Starting relatively slowly in Saturday’s miserable conditions, Mallinder notched a sixth and a third in the two races, won by Paul Mackey (Kawasaki) and Iain Barry (Kawasaki) respectively.

But the following day Mallinder was unbeatable, winning both his races to take his tally for the year to 157. He is the only rider in class to have scored points in all 11 races held so far.

Rushby also slipped to second in the SuperStock 600 class, overtaken by Alan Naylor (Kawasaki).

Naylor made the wrong choice of tyres in his first race of the weekend and conditions tricky could only finish fourth in the SuperStock class and ninth in the F600s.

Naylor, from Wakefield, was in great form for the next three races. He finished runner-up to Iain Barry in race two, first Superstock, home and then grabbed second overall and again first in his class behind Mallinder in Sunday’s races.

Those results took Naylor from seventh place into the championship lead on 132 points, eight more than the absent Rushby. Naylor also climbed to third in the F600s with 102 points.

Luke Addison-Doy (Honda) had a nightmare of a weekend, but it had little effect on his hopes of winning the Steel Frame 600 title.

In qualifying the racer from Kingston-upon-Hull had fuel pump problems with his Honda after just two laps.

In race one he made the wrong choice of tyres and pulled out. He crashed out at the hairpin, without injury, on lap three of race two, when leading his class.

The following day he was seventh overall and first in his class in the first race, but crashed out in the next race on lap five, again without injury, when leading the Steel frame class.

He has 205 points to Aaron Staniforth’s 100.

The absent Neil Schofield stayed top of the Stock Twins’ points’ table, but Stuart Szulczewski (Suzuki 650) moved to within five points of him after taking two thirds and two fifths.

Chris Richardson (Suzuki 650) took two wins and two second places in his first appearance of the season, to climb to fourth in the standings.

Daniel Taylor, who missed the meeting, still holds a 74 point lead in the Mini Thunderbikes class.  

The stage is set for a two-race showdown at Mallory Park in September in the Open sidecar championship, with just one point separating the top two and 20 points covering the top three.

John and Nigel Lowther (LCR Honda 600) lead the series after collecting 38 points with four solid performances.

Richard Hackney, with John Lowther’s son, Jake Lowther in the chair of the Suzuki 600 outfit, added 56 points to his season’s tally to move to 136, one less than the leaders.

There was a good line for the class, with a generous six races for the outfits over the weekend.

Things did not always work out well for everyone, though.

Lee Crawford with Patrick Farrance his passenger in the Suzuki 600 outfit qualified fastest, but only managed to finish in one race.

In race one Crawford pulled out with a throttle cable problem, leaving Rob Fisher/Rick Long (Baker 600) to take overall victory in the mixed class, beating Michael Jackson/Jason O’Connor (Windle 600) by over ten seconds.

John Lowther, with stand-in passenger Tony Belsey (LCR Honda 600) were third.

Crawford had switched to full wets for race two, beating Lowther/Belsey by almost 33 seconds in the eight lap event.

Jackson/O’Connor were third, over 34 seconds further back.

Track conditions were much better the following day, but Crawford was suffering with low oil pressure on his engine and though setting the fastest lap and holding a four seconds lead he pulled out on lap six with the engine getting progressively sluggish.

That left Lowther/Belsey easy winners, nearly 40 seconds in front of Fisher/Long. Sam and Tom Christie (Honda 600) were third less than a second ahead of Jackson/O’Connor.

Crawford did not want to risk any possible further damage to the motor pulled out of the meeting, letting Farrance head to the Isle of Man to join Tim Reeves for the Southern 100.

Fisher/Long won the fourth race by just six hundredths of a  second from the Christies, who had led the eight-lap race for six laps.

Lowther/Belsey were third over 15 seconds further back.

Lee Crawford won the Peter Minion Trophy qualifier on Saturday afternoon, 23 seconds in front of Lowther/Belsey, but with Crawford out Lowther went one better in Sunday’s final, heading home the Christies.

With the Derby Phoenix club forced to cancel their planned meeting at Cadwell Park, their championships will be decided at events hosted by other clubs.

Round 3 of the solo championship will be the Thundersport GB event at Rockingham on July 30. The sidecars wrap up their series at the EMRA meeting at Mallory on September 11.

The final of the solo championships will be at the Thundersport GB meeting at Donington Park on September 24.