Tuesday April 2, 2019 at 2:41pm
Twenty-one today, twenty-one today, the East Midland Racing Association is starting off the new year at Mallory Park on Sunday 7th April with a packed programme of twenty one races which includes not only all the regular EMRA championships but also the first round of the ACU 50cc championship and the FSRA pre-injection sidecar championship.
EMRA’s major championship continues to be the Buildbase Mallory Trophy, as it has been for the past twelve years, and the entry for this race includes Brad Ray, Richard Cooper, Luke Stapleford, Leon Jeacock and Dan Stamper. Leon has started his season already with a triple victory at the Thundersport meeting at Brands Hatch, so will obviously be intending to keep that run going, but Richard Cooper finished 2018 with six wins in October, finishing with the Race of the Year at Mallory Park and will clearly try to start this year the way he finished last season. Brad Ray and Luke Stapleford are preparing for the new BSB season, while 2017 national Superstock 600 champion Dan Stamper from nearby Barwell is stepping up to a 1000 Suzuki for 2019. The same riders will also be out in the two Tamworth Yamaha Allcomers races.
Last year the EMRA 500 championship consistently provided brilliant racing with full entries and a number of races quite literally won on the last corner. More than half the races last year were won by margins of half a second or less, and six of them by less than a fifth of a second. The championship went to Wayne Sutton,(who is back for more of the same this year) but the result was very much in doubt until the end of the final race This year the Bridgestone 500/Fast Bike Magazine championship has even more entries – so many that we have had to put three races on to enable everyone to get their two rides in. Included in that large number are two dozen over-40 riders competing for the DJ Emanuele trophy. Life really does begin at 40 if you’ve got a CB500.
Reigning 50cc champion Kevin Burton heads the entry for the first round of the ACU 50cc championship, which features a greater variety of makes of bike than any other class – at least eight different manufacturers.
The WAS Autos sidecar championship entry includes last year’s champion Andy King, runner-up Shaun Chandler alongside TT Riders Association president Maria Costello with Julie Canipa in the chair. The FSRA pre-injection sidecar entries are headed by John and Doug Chandler – third in last year’s championship, Mark Burns and Steve Winfrow (Fourth) and Jody and Reece Sims (fifth in 2018), and two more female drivers – Hayley Christie and Marianne Walford.
With races for Open 600, minitwins, lightweight, the 450 class which includes GP125, Moto3, Supersport 300 bikes; Earlystocks,pre-injection solos and a large Rookies entry , it should be a very good day’s racing. Qualifying starts at 9.30, racing around 11am.