The Wirral Hundred club is synonymous with early season race meetings at Anglesey and the meeting last Sunday (26th March) could hardly have been better with the club’s best-ever entry for a March meeting, dry, sunny weather with the stunning backdrop of snow on the tops of Snowdonia, only a handful of fallers, and some top-class close racing.
In the Powerbikes class, heat winners were Manxman Dan Kneen (BMW), getting in some valuable track-time ahead of his roads and national championships campaigns, and former national Superstock 1000 contender and circuit-specialist Johnny Blackshaw (Kawasaki), who is restricting his appearances this year to W100 and other selected events. In the final Blackshaw came out on top, ahead of Kneen, with Irishman Alastair Kirk third. In the newly-introduced Pre-2009 / Pre-Electronics Powerbikes category, the heat wins were taken by Chris Ganderton and Owen Hunt; in the final Anglesey-resident Ganderton won from John Jackson with Hunt third, whilst Steve Moss was the fastest of the Golden Era bikes aboard his 750 Suzuki.
The Paul Bland Motorsport Formula 600 class attracted 50 entries and the heat wins were taken by Chris Eden and Jamie Devine. Eden, starting only his third season of racing, did the front-running for much of the race, but a missed gear-change saw him relegated to third, with 2016 champion Jamie Devine taking the win just ahead of the ever-reliable all-rounder Adrian Kershaw. Excitement all round in the SSR Suspension Golden Era Supersport class where Ray Stevenson claimed his first victory and then did it again in the second race; Dave Marsden and Steven Beale each had a 2
nd and a 3
rd behind him.
Kershaw also showed his versatility by winning both 500cc Allcomers races aboard his now ageing 400 Kawasaki, both times ahead of Keith Jackson (450 Tigcraft). 2016 champion John Price (400 Kawasaki) fell in race 1, but recovered some of his pride with a 3
rd place in race 2, whilst Myles Wasley (250 Honda) claimed a 3
rd and a 4
th. Price made no mistakes in both of the Forgotten Era races with two comfortable wins ahead of Paul Tye. There was an international flavour to the 650 Twins races with Irishman Mark Hanna impressively winning both races from Angleseyman Barry Evans and Manxman Jamie Williams.
The Pre-Injection races saw two epic battles between Joe Ravenscroft and Chris Ganderton, split in that order by fractions of seconds in both races, ahead of. Dan Kneen on one of the Classic TT 750 Kawasaki’s in 3
rd place.
Unfortunately the Classic Bike and Sidecar races were poorly supported at this meeting, but for the record Hefyn Owen and Bob Owen each took a Classic victory, whilst Gary Knight & Dan Evanson were the best of the Sidecars.
Unfortunately a big oil spill resulted in the last two races of the day – the Senior Open and the Junior Open - being abandoned; the club has announced that these two races will be run at the club’s next Anglesey meeting on 24
th & 25
th June.
The club has also announced that, as part of the Anglesey circuit’s 25
th anniversary celebrations, it is planning to include its Formula 600 class in a combined car-bike meeting on Sunday 24
th September. Sponsors are being sought for this and the intention is to run a two-leg event, similar in nature to the club’s popular Anglesey Grand, held each year in October.