After the cancellation of the intended first meeting of the year at Brands Hatch due to the “Beast of the East” that blanketed the Kent circuit in thick snow and blowing in –9 degree winds, the NG ranks headed up to Anglesey. It was the first opportunity for many to get their 2018 season on track. As well as the usual NG runners we had an influx of big names as the Scarborough meeting was called off. Also as the 2018 season has been slow to get underway due to inclement weather a number of Pure-Roads teams turned up to get some valuable testing under the belt. This spiced up many of the NG classes and gave the crowds a real treat.
Saturday saw clear skies and sunshine bathing Anglesey, which is a very pleasant sight in mid-April. Things turned a little sour on Sunday morning as the wind, rain and mist rolled in off the Irish Sea. As everyone headed for their various garages, caravans and motorhomes (…. presumably to put the kettle on for a brew!) the circuit was hit by a power cut, meaning no PA…no timing system and no radio comms. The circuit staff isolated the overload and fed power to the more vital areas so that racing could get underway.
In a packed weekend, the stand out races of the weekend was almost defiantly The Black Widow Bandit Challenges. They got the year off to a great start as reigning champ James McHardy, John Warwick, Matthew Baker and class new boy Harley Prebble had four elbow banging competitions on the Suzuki’s 600 commuter tool !
Saturday’s first race saw the four drag away with McHardy leading the way. There was literally the preverbal fag-paper separating them corner on corner and lap on lap. Warwick was mounting a late challenge when he ran wide at Church putting him on the grass and dropping him to fourth. Scrabbling his was back on track he set about making up the lost ground, in doing so he set a new Bandit lap record but could not quite catch McHardy and had to settle for second. Warwick won the next two races but again the top four were almost inseparable. For their final race with conditions almost perfect it was the turn of Matthew Baker to take his first class win as he came out on top after a last lap of the Anglesey circuit that saw four changes of lead. Warwick leads the title chase so far, but this title chase is one that is not going to be easily won…… roll on Cadwell.
Dymag 250GP and Hartsmere Logistics 125GP ACU National.
2015/2016 250 National GP champ Philip Atkinson was back on the grids on his Declans Racing TZ for the start of 2018 after his 2017 campaign was curtailed due to injury. The versatile South African rider set pole and looked set for a dominant first final of three for the two stroke runners. However as he set off Thomas Lawlor stuck with him as the duo pulled away in the early stages leaving Bruce Dunn, Paul Metcalfe and Simon Hunt in their wake. By mid race distance Atkinson started to pull away and Lawlor just could not hold on to the pace any longer, but came through to a fine podium.
Race two for the GP runners is their sprint race on Sunday, and to many onlookers surprise in the wet early morning conditions it was Phil Stead who set the pace with Lawlor and Atkinson in close company. With just one lap to go disaster struck Stead as he put a wheel on the painted rumble strips at the bottom of the corkscrew and he was flicked over the bars of his Premier Motorhomes TZ. Lawlor went one side but Atkinson was forced onto the grass. The incident drew out the red flag and Lawlor was handed his first National win. As the track dried out during the day it meant that the third outing was dry and normal-service resumed with Atkinson taking the win over Bruce Dunn and Thomas Lawlor.
The 125 GP class had two convincing wins for Gavin Mills and one to Darren Jones who had more than his fair share of bike issues over the weekend and will be glad to draw a line under Anglesey.
Travis Vince took his first win in the NG Cup on Saturday with Don Gilbert and Gareth Mills having their first taste of glory as honours were shared amongst the non-National licence holders. Reigning Cup champ Simon Hunt had a meeting to forget with two crashes and one non-start over what can only be called a troubled weekend.
Kneen Keen for track time.
Manxman Dan Kneen and the Jackson Racing Team rocked up at Anglesey keen on some much needed track time ahead of the upcoming pure roads season. Kneen and team-mate Craig Neve headed the mornings time sheets to sit on the front row ahead of the regular NG Runners in the 600 class. Kneen won all three finals over the weekend, as the team fettled the CBR600 prior to the NW200 and TT. Kneen headed Neve and Aaron Ridewood on Saturday, but Ridewood ruled himself out of Sunday’s first race after a massive high-side at Church. So that one went Kneen, Chris Mort and Sean Montgomery. The order was the same for the third outing for the 600 class with Mort a little closer this time, but with Kneen the only rider to get into the 1min 9 bracket. Aaron Ridewood came through to finish fifth just adrift of Craig Neve after fighting though from a back row grid start !
To get as much track time as possible Kneen also pitted his CBR600 against the Superbikes in the Open. Josh Day the defending champ set pole after just two flying laps in practice, but as he came to the line after the warm up lap for the first final it was obvious something was wrong as Day fumbled with the dash on the ZX10. His machine had a blip in the ECU and sent the bike into limp-home mode !!! (…not ideal for racing!!). Dan Cooper on his new Impcross Engineering BMW1000R took the opportunity in both hands and took the win. Day with a machine that was intermittently giving him the power clawed his way back from eighth on lap one to grab a hard-earned second at the flag just ahead of Kneen. Sundays wet race was as per the form book with Day taking it from Kneen and Dave Macaky on his Panigale. Race three was again Day from Kneen but James Kiff took a fine third ahead of Jamie Coward and the storming Jonathan Lodge.
Josh Day put his troubles behind him in the Powerbike races as he set pole took a hat trick of wins and set a new NG lap record for Anglesey at 1mim 07.73sec. Heading the supporting cast were Dan Cooper, James Kiff and Jonathan Lodge who all grabbed a runner-up spot each. Chris Pope revelled in the wet on Sunday morning to mix it with the front runners, and picking up some decent early season point on his R1 in the dry too.
Teenager Jay Able took a hat trick of wins in the F125 on his Aprilia. Another hat trick man was Tim Bradley who returned to his favoured FZR400 after a frustrating year on a CBR600 in 2017. He was soon back to winning ways. Defending Desmo Due champ Andy Blomfield, Duncan Baillie and Scott Wilson shared the wins in the 620cc category whilst in the 600 carby class in saw Rodney King take all three finals after pressure from James Robinson and Peter Cooper, with Cooper especially revelling in Sunday mornings wet race.
Dave MacKay was another triple winner taking all three Sound of Thunder finals on his True Heroes Panigale over the screaming 675 Daytona of Tom Weeden. Neil Appleton was more than happy with three podiums over the weekend on his KTM RC8.
Dave Hampton started his 2018 Supermono challenge well with wins on Saturday Afternoon and Sunday morning on the Single Cell 450 Tigcraft. He had to give second best to Matt Barber Sunday afternoon though, in a close fought thing that had them just a third of a second apart at the line. Hampton uses the little 450 in the 500 Open too at took all three victories to kick the year of with 75 points. Nick Brown was his nearest challenger on his F400 spec Kawasaki.
Ivan Lintin, Rob Hodson and William Holland shared Super Twin Honours. Lintin could have easily won Sundays wet race but for a trip onto the rumble strips at the corkscrew…followed by a rodeo ride across the grass on his Z650 Dafabet Devitt Kawasaki dropping him down to fifteenth. In a blistering ride through he managed to get up to third at the flag, just five seconds off the Winner Hodson as he was lapping almost 2 seconds quicker than the rest. William Holland also uses his JHS SFV Gladius in the Mini Twins where he bagged a season opening hat trick heading home 2017 champ Paul Wardell on each outing.
2017 Formula Prostock champ Phil Webber is back for more in 2018 and bagged three wins to start the year. Lewis Rees, Antony Hart and John Tatham also picked up good points for the older Supersport and Superbikes. Webber also used a CBR 900 in the pre Injection class and took race one and race two with wins over Paul Harlington and Owen Hunt, but whilst leading the third final by a handsome margin the trackside marshals reported smoke from the elderly Fireblade. Webber noted the black flag and pulled in…… as it turned out it was the mudguard rubbing on the tyre but unfortunately was already gone and Jon Wright who has moved onto an R1 for 2018 took his first win on the new bike. The 700 Pre Injection saw two wins first time out on his CBR6 for ex-F400 runner Will Bryant. The one he didn't take went to Daniel Jones who bounced back after crashing out of the lead of Saturdays race!
2017 Streetstock champ Richard Hughes is back on the short circuits after having a taste of the real-roads and is now on a BMW S1000. Hughes took the first two races over Jason Hill but Hill got one back on the ex-champ in the final outing on his ZX10. These two were well clear of the rest of the big stockers. The smaller 700 Streetstock class saw reigning champ Simon Bastable take two closed and hard fought wins over class new-boy (!) Dave Irons on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, but in the third outing it was Dave Irons who took his first win on the new Tom Warner Racing R6 after switching to the 600 after 9 years with TWR Ducatis in the Sound of Thunder class. Alex Jones got quicker as the weekend went on as he chases Irons to the flag
NG Sidecars.
Gary Knight and Dan Evanson were on form for the Sidecars finals after setting a dominant pole position. The Redline Superbikes pairing took their GSXR 1000 Suzuki to a 22-second victory on Saturday ahead of a squabbling trio of F2 outfits. Simon Robinson/Phil Gravel, Gary /Daryl Gibson and John Shipley /Andy Hayes all had turns at the front but no one could dominate. Eventually it was Robinson and Gravell that took the advantage. Sunday’s first final saw Knight and Evanson again take a convincing win with this time Shipley and Haynes taking top F2 spot. The Redline crew did not turn out for the final sidecar outing of the weekend so that left the F2’s to fight it out for the win. It looked like Robinson might add to Saturday’s good result but just as he pushed though into second place his LCR600 cried enough. Shipley and Haynes grabbed a well deserved victory on the Team Shipley Suzuki over the all new True Heroes Racing sidecar crew of Michael Russell and Shaun Parker who were having their first outing.
The Protect my Income.com Newcomers.
As ever NG are strong supporters of the Newcomers, with the focus on bringing new riders into the sport. It looks like this season we have a very fast crop of newcomers, especially in the Open class. Four riders battled it out for the win, with first James Welsh leading the way before Darren Wilson and Blake Shaw got in touch. Despite Shaw on his ZX6R Kawasaki taking a well deserved first win of the year, all eyes were on the Orange R6 of Aaron Hughes, who despite not getting the best start set about closing down the leaders. With two laps to go he was 2.5 seconds off the leading bunch, but he took chunks out of the deficit at each corner. By the time the chequered flag came out he had set the fastest lap of the race (…a full half a second quicker that anyone else!) and had closed to within 0.4 of a second of race winner Blake Shaw…. wishing that there was one more lap to go.
21 year old Cameron Corfield took the Mini Twins newcomers win on his AFB/Ballard Racing SV650 after dispensing with Christopher Sinanan and Darren Savage and Steven Founds had a dominant ride to the 25 points on the 500 class on his Team Founds VFR Honda
Wiz Sliders Performance of the Meeting.
At every NG round one lucky rider is selected for the Wiz Sliders Performance award. The chosen one gets a special set of one-off sliders made by the Wiz guy's in Somerset.
As we had no Brands meeting in March due to the “Beast-of-the-East” we had an award for both days here. Saturdays pick was 13 year on Lincolnshire schoolboy Oliver Upton, who is his first full season and his first visit to Anglesey. He caught the eye as he is obviously a fast learner on his Compact Car Corner RS125 Aprilia. He dropped his lap time by over of 30 seconds during the weekend making the young man stand out. Sundays award went to Suzuki Bandit runner John Warwick for his four stunning races winning two of them and setting a new class lap record on his way to kicking off this season in style
www.wizkneesliders.com... Wiz Sliders are made to be used and abused. Ride like you want to win them !
Words : Russ Gardner - NG Road Racing Media Officer
Images : EDP Photo News - www.edpphoto.co.uk