Everyone at EMRA was looking forward to the first race meeting under the new ownership of Real Motorsport, there was a massive entry, including quite a few national championship contenders, and although the pandemic had caused the meeting to be postponed until the first weekend of May, that was a plus point because it meant that it would be run on a sunny spring day in May instead of showery April. Sadly, the weather gods didn’t read the script, and a meeting which promised such a great day of racing ended up with races being shortened and bikes going in vans early as many riders started to worry if they’d get their leathers dry in time for the June meeting
The meeting began with the JHP Ducati Allcomers race, while it was just drizzling, and this saw multiple EMRA champion John Ingram lead the race for the first seven laps before exceeding the limit of adhesion at the Devil’s elbow on lap eight and ploughing into the gravel trap, fortunately without much damage to bike or rider. Harry Jackson took over for two laps but it was Luke Hedger who took the chequered flag with Brent Harran second and Louis Dawson third. It is a measure of the weather conditions that in this race Ingram and Hedger were the only two riders to record a lap time under a minute all day. The second Allcomers race began with Louis Dawson at the front but Ash Beech took over on lap three with Andrew Fisher closing in as the race reached its conclusion, Dawson taking third again.
The Mallory Trophy has new sponsors this year, Chase Accident repairs, King Dick tools and Dunlop, and the first winner under the new title was Brent Harran who led throughout race one with Ash Beech taking second ahead of Louis Dawson. The second race was run when the rain had got heavier, and only seven riders were brave/foolhardy enough to arrive on the grid; Andrew Fisher took the win from Dawson.
The most amazing performance of the day was that of Sam Leach in the Midland Superbikes Performance Rookies race, winning by 39 seconds from Kyle Abell and Mark Meakin. To show it was no fluke, he won the second race by 36 seconds, and that in a race cut from ten to five laps. Did he even notice it was raining??? Simon Taylor took second just ahead of Joe Higham.
The Tamworth Yamaha 600 race was won by Douglas Edmondson, who led throughout. Sam Leach was in sixth place on lap one, took half the race to get into second place, at which point he was nearly seven seconds behind the leader, but he closed that to two seconds by the finish
The best races of the day were the Binley Woods Carsales Minitwins events, in which John Bolsover and Darren Corkett fought every inch of the way . Bolsover led for the first three laps in race one, Corkett taking over for the next two, then giving way on lap six, retaking the lead on lap seven, Bolsover getting back ahead for the next two laps only for Corkett to snatch the win on the final lap by just one-fifteenth of a second. In race two Bolsover held the lead all through, but it was only on the final lap that he was able to open any sort of gap.
The CB500s usually provide multiple winners, but Richard Blunt made a clean sweep of both the Dunlop CB500 races, and the DJ Emmanuelle 500 race (the second race was a casualty of the weather). The first race saw a massive battle between Sam Palfreyman, Roger Neep and Jamie Page behind Blunt, which probably helped him to establish a small lead which grew to three seconds by the end. In the second race Blunt led throughout with Jamie Page taking second from Palfreyman halfway through. The DJ Emmanuelle race was another start to finish win with Wayne Sutton reducing the gap from four seconds at half-distance to one second at the flag.
Aaron Staniforth won both Pre-injection races with Stu Poulton winning both Earlystocks races on his 350LC.
The FSRA Pre-injection championship sidecar races both went to Rob Fisher and Steve Stokoe on the Baker Yamaha 600 outfit, with Horton and Forrest taking second on the Wintec Suzuki 1000. Bruce Moore won the EMRA championship races.