Step up those who want be crowned King (...of Combe). A Grand National with much more horse power !!
It’s Grand National time at Castle Combe. Two days of racing at what is acknowledged to de one of the biggest National racing events outside of a BSB meeting. However this year is a little different due to the ongoing restrictions, with limited numbers of spectators and running under the continued covid rules.
What has not changed though is the quality of the racing, with the focucs for many being the King of Combe where the defending champion Daniel Cooper will take on Max Symonds, Dave Mackay, Chris Pope and the rest of the superbikes. Cooper is also in the 600 open where Bradley Richman, Aaron Ridewood and Lewis Jones will be out for victory. Other stand out riders this year out for glory at Combe include Kurtis Butler in the Streetstocks….. Dan Harris in the Mini-Twins….. Simon Bastable in the Sound of Thunder and Harley Prebble in the Suzuki Bandit Challenge where he is still unbeaten in 2021. Jason Hill from the big Streetstock class is also in a good run of form this year, although Combe does not hold the best memories for him after crashing out of championship contention in 2019 (.. sorry to remind him!)….. he will be out to wipe any bad memories away this year on his ZX10 Kawasaki.
As at all NG Road Racing meeting we have timed qualifying on Saturday morning with the first of the weekends three championhsip races in the afternoon. Two more championship races for each class will take us through Sunday straight after the riders have had the regular morning warm-up sessions.
Each championship class carries twenty-five points for a win, going down the scale to one for fifteenth place and there are a total of sixteen rounds this year spread over the six meetings. The range of classes take in the full gamut of machines, from Formula 125 modified road bikes, all the way up to the tricked out 1000cc superbikes, with everthing catered for in between from 600cc to Mini-Twins and Streetstocks to Suzuki Bandits.
This 1.85-mile Castle Combe circuit was developed from the RAF base that was opened in 1941, but was decommissioned just 7 years later in 1948. 1952 saw the first bike race meeting take place with John Surtees taking the 500 race, just three years before becoming World 500cc champion.
The circuit has remained with pretty much the same layout over the last 66 year, but for the introduction of a couple of chicanes. It has seen all the greats race here on four and two wheels from Moss to Senna, and Surtees to Sheene. And remember is also the ONLY circuit in Europe that you can walk all the way round as a spectator and continue to watch the racing on track.
Daniel Cooper holds the outright NG lap record here, set in September 2019, circulating in 1 min 08.45sec on his BMW S1000RR, which equates to an average of 98.07mph. These figures are nudging ever closer and closer towards the 100mph mark that it used to be before the chicanes were added.
Adding extra interest to the weekend NG Road Racing are again running the British National series for 125cc and 250cc GP machinery with again Philip Atkinson heading the grid on his TZ Yamaha. This is the only place in the UK that you will see these full-blown ex-GP machines racing for a full British Championship title backed by the ACU (The sports governing body). We also have the Ducati Desmo Due Series, Formula Prostocks runners and for fans older machines we have the hugely popular Lansdowne Classic machines giving the sights and sounds years gone by.