NG Road Racing... Oulton Park Race Report

Tuesday October 9, 2018 at 4:46pm

Cirencester’s Josh Day has been the rider to beat on the Kendrick and Spalding ZX10 in 2018, but since the last round the big Kawasaki has been sold to make way for an all-new ZX10 for 2019. That meant that Josh and the team rolled out his old R6 in the open. Now the Open is the domain of the big superbikes, but in damp conditions Josh set a qualifying time 2.7seconds faster that the rest on the 600 who were headed by Ricky Elder and Chris Pope.

By the time the race came to the line the track was dry and the sky was bright. Everyone expected the bigger bikes to now have the grip, pace and speed to better Josh on the little R6….. Josh had other ideas taking out a four second lead after just one lap !!! The win was by nearly ten seconds over John Dean on his BMW and Allister Haynes who got the better of Gary Stevens meaning that Haynes and Stevens ended equal on point for third in the Phoenix Open championship.

With no newly crowned 2018 Powerbike champ on the grid (…the R6 is not eligible for the Powerbike) Dean was hoping to get revenge but he fell from his BM in the early stages…. As did AFB’s Chris Pope who normally revels in the wet conditions showing how slippery Oulton was this weekend. Ricky Elder took up the running on his R1, returning to the grids six years after his last race when he was 600cc champ. Elder was being pressured by Allister Haynes who in turn had Gary Stevens for company. Haynes needed the points to take runner-up spot in the championship but was not aware that his rival for championship position Pope was already out. Haynes almost lost the plot on the last lap with a trip onto the grass loosing second on the road and 15 seconds in time. He breathed a huge sigh as he got back into pit lane to be given the news that Popey was out and second in the points table was his.

Day was expected to have an easy ride in the 600 after being on lap record pace in the Open, but Joe Sheldon Shaw on the Viamoto ZX6R had other ideas. JSS lead from the lights with Josh in his wheel tracks. Josh the former National Superstock champion tried all the tricks he knew and dug deep but Sheldon-Shaw did not put a wheel out of line and covered all of Josh’s attempts. When Josh had a big slide on the penultimate lap he rolled it off giving Joe the fine win. Liam Delves is getting used to his new R6 after switching from the Moto 3 mid season and took third ahead of outgoing 600 champ Max Symonds who has been out of action almost the full season after a testing accident at Donington pre-season. Sean Montgomery rode with his head after two crashes in practice to nurse his Preston Power steering ZX6R to the 600 title with a fifth place to grabbing the points needed to keep Kayla Barrington at bay.

250GP and 125GP ACU National Championship.

Philip Atkinson was in his usual confident form for this the final round at Oulton Park on the Declans TZ250 Yamaha setting a time 1.2 seconds quicker than the rest in qualifying. Come the race he made his usual cautious start sitting back in sixth for the first couple of laps to see who did what. Chris Moore and Jamie O’Brien set the early pace before O’Brien hit bike problems retiring in pit lane. By mid race distance Thomas Lawlor hit the front, looking for his second win of the year, but as is his way Atkinson just got quicker and quicker picking his moment to hit the front. He and the Declans TZ took their eleventh win of the year to head Lawlor and Moore across the line. In the NG Cup it was to be a straight fight between long time championship leader Peter Basile and young Travis Vince. Vince did all he could but Basile knew that a finish inside the top five would be enough. Vince took second behind Simon Hunt and Basile took the place and points he needed to lift the title.

Gavin Mills had already secured the 125GP title and sat the round out giving Bryn Owen on his Bryn Taff Racing RS125 an easy looking first win of the year. He headed home Dean Hobson and Gary Arden. Arden’s third saw him grab third in the season long title chase meaning that the Mills Racing team took the top three spots in the championship (Jake Hopper had already secured second)

All the Oulton NG action.

The top six in the main season of the Suzuki Bandit Challenge were put forward for a BSB style showdown. After the first four rounds at Castle Combe it looked like it was going to be a straight fight for the title between reigning champ James McHardy and Harley Prebble. However it was wild card rider Peter Bardell that set the pace before he was forced out on lap two. That left Prebble to take up the running, stretching out over 10 seconds on the rest headed by Matthew Baker and McHardy. In their final decider race it was a disaster for Prebble on lap one as he went onto the wet grass, rejoining in 12^th. Bardell on the SmithStix Suzuki this time lead from the lights and set a new Bandit record to take the win from McHardy who had secured the class win and Baker. Prebble recovered to fourth but the title was gone.

John Thatham and Nick Allison stared a win each in the FP1 pre 1981 1300’s with Mark Carels-Watson taking two wins over Rob Pragnell, but it was not enough to stop Pragnell taking the pre 1987 Production FP2 class. Lewis Rees took the FP3 Classic Superbikes.

The 500cc series saw JL Exhausts/Silverstar TZ350 runner Chris Moore take a clear over Nick Brown and newcomer Bradley Richman, but Brown won the year long fight for the class title.

Christopher Sinanan had a great win in the Mini Twins on his CS Racing SV650 heading home reigning champ Paul Wardell by…..wait for it….. 0.001 of a second to gain his first open class win. Wardell got revenge in the Super Twins on his Bee Lighting SV with a win over early race leader Michael Bampton and Tim Hawkins. Champion elect William Holland took no risks in the wet to grab a fifth place to take the championship. The Sound of Thunder had Dave Mackay take another win on the True Heroes Panigale after fending off an early race challenge from Tom Cook on his KTM RC8. John Dudman had his best race of the year to third after Antony White crashed out of a podium position.

Andy Blomfield was again the man to beat in the Desmo Dues on his BB Racing Ducati but Dan James kept him honest right up to the flag. It was business as usual in the Desmo B Class with Rodney King racing up his fifteenth win of the year for Team 44.

Tim Bradley is another fifteen time winner with a 100% podium record. He took the red-flag affected F400 final on his A and Z Taylor FZR over Michael Rees and Nick Brown.

James Chapman took a narrow win in the Formula 125’s on his Chapman Racing Aprilia to hold off Calum Beach by just a couple of bike lengths.

Two-time 700cc Pre Injection champion Jon Wright wheeled out his Control and Safety R6 for a one off race this year after concentrating on the 1300cc class, and took the win over Daniel Nelmes and Michael Bates. Wright was pleased with the win as he crashed out of the 1300cc pre-injections on his main mount, an R1 despite a tough year has taken him to second in the title chase behind Owen Hunt. Hunt had a steady meeting here safe that the title was his as Lukasz Gaslawski took a great win in the wet conditions that the pre injections suffered.

Richard Hughes took another impressive win in the 1300 Streetstocks on his BMW over season long rival Jason Hill with David Irons finally getting the better of Alex Jones to secure top spot in the 700 Streetstock series.

That drew to a close 2018…. A troubled year in many ways with weather, but great racing eventually prevailed.

ACU / FSRA F2 British Sidecar.

This meeting saw the final rounds of the ACU FSRA F2 British Sidecar championship…..wet it should have been rounds…. it ended up being round, singular.

Their first race set off without the newly crowned champions Peter Founds and Jevan Walmsley as they suffered machine issues for the first time in 2018. Lee Crawford and Scott Hardie set off like men possessed as the lights changed taking the win by over sixteen seconds at the flag on the ARC LCR Suzuki with Sean Hegarty/James Neave second and Guest riders for the weekend Dave Molyneux/Harry Payne in third. John and Jake Lowther recovered brilliantly to fourth after the close battle for the podium saw them spin out onto the grass early on at Old Hall.

The second race got underway but after just two laps there was an incident at Knickerbrook that saw an outfit flip. Both rider and passenger got out safely but the time to recover and clear the incident put the organisers in a tight spot with time and the circuit curfew and the race was not restarted.

For full FSRA reports and standing check out www.fsra.org.uk

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.

This meeting saw the award go to Ricky Elder who returned to the grids after a six-year layoff. He took a pair of front rows in qualifying in the Open and Powerbike and won the Powerbike final setting the fastest lap on his way to the win on his RE Performance R1.

www.wizkneesliders.com... Wiz Sliders are made to be used and abused. Ride like you want to win them!

All the 2018 Champions

Phoenix Motorcycles of Trowbridge Open - Josh Day

125GP Hartsmere / Love Life and Ride - Gavin Mills

250GP Dymag ACU National - Philip Atkinson

NG Cup - Peter Basile

Steve Lynham Motorcycles F125 - Mike Wilson

A and R Racing F400 - Tim Bradley

EDP Photo News 500 - Nick Brown

Inlay Management Services 600 - Sean Montgomery

Bluebell Lakes Powerbike - Josh Day

Neatafan Supermono - Dave Hampton