After easing into things with a two-day event at Oulton Park for round one, the 2021 BMCRC kicked on at Snetterton for round two, with most classes enjoying a full programme of qualifying and four races.
Properlyprotected.co.uk MRO Minitwins
Dan Harris arrived at Snetterton following a cleansweep of victories at the opening round, and looked like he could add to his win tally after qualifying on pole. However, come the races it was John Reynolds - not that one - and Glynn Davies who split the victories, taking two apiece.
Reynolds set the second quickest time in qualifying - just over a hundredth of a second off Harris’ pole time - and raced to victory in the first outing. Matt Wetherell, who completed the front row, was the only other rider who could match Reynolds’ pace, and pushed him all the way. He finished runner-up by half a second though set the fastest lap of the race.
Pole-sitter and championship leader Harris completed the podium, just adrift of the battle for the win but out of reach of Davies in fourth.
Reynolds doubled-up in race two after another hotly-contested battle at the front. Aboard his Fins Motorcycles Suzuki SV650 he held off stiff competition from Cameron Harris, as well as pressure from Dan Harris and Wetherell, as all four riders took the chequered flag just over a second apart. Davies was only a couple of seconds further back in fifth.
Despite no visit to the podium on Saturday, Davies corrected that on Sunday, winning both races. But the racing was no less intense and hard fought at the front, and the pace even hotter than it was the day before.
Five hundredths of a second was the gap between Davies and pursuer Dan Harris at the chequered flag. Cameron Harris was also in the hunt, finishing less than a second off the win.
Away from the podium fight Keith Povah and Reynolds had a thrilling battle for fourth, a tenth the difference between them.
Davies’ win in the final race of the weekend was, by the time the chequered flag came out, taken in comparative ease. He finished over a second and a half ahead of Saturday winner Reynolds, with Povah taking his first podium finish of the weekend in third. He was just ahead of Cameron Harris, but the Harris Performance rider was handed a 10-second penalty for a jump start and demoted to fifth, behind Dan Harris.
EDIasia Formula 400
After two wins and a second at the season-opener, Richie Welsh extended his championship lead at Snetterton with a perfect weekend that saw him take pole and four race wins.
The 2013 EDIasia Formula 400 champion stormed to victory from the head of the grid in race one, with no one else able to get within three seconds a lap of the runaway leader.
Aboard his Yamaha FZR400RR SP he took the chequered flag some 13 and a half seconds ahead of James Seath, who took second. Kam Dixon was third.
In seventh place, on a two-stroke Yamaha TZR250, Alan Cooper took the Sub-64bhp class win, while 15th gave Conor Murray the Rookie class win.
After the dominance of race one, Welsh’s victory in race two was a closer-run affair, with Dixon able to get closer to the series leader’s lap times. However, closer was not close enough and Welsh took the win by a second and a half.
Dixon crossed the line 17 seconds up on the duel for the final podium spot, with Seath, Joe Farragher, and Elliot Dufton covered by a little over a second.
Sam Digby-Baker pipped Cooper to the Sub-64bhp win, with Murray taking another Rookie win.
Sunday’s races were fairly processional for the 400s; Welsh won twice, with the top-six identical in both outings.
Dixon bagged a brace of seconds with Seath finishing third on both outings, ahead of Farragher, Dufton, and James Robinson.
A seventh and an eighth gave Cooper two more Sub-64bhp wins, as Murray secured another pair of Rookie wins.
Reactive Parts MRO Powerbikes and MSS Performance Clubman 1000
The Reactive Parts MRO Powerbikes was the only class to have three races instead of four over the weekend - due to a longer, feature race on the Saturday - and all three were won by Aiden Patmore on his TBR Performance BMW S1000RR.
However, despite the winner remaining the same, the show was anything but boring.
Reigning champion Michael O’Brien set the fastest time in qualifying, with Peter Baker and Patmore completing the front row.
In Saturday’s feature race less than a second covered the podium finishers. Patmore came out of the scrap with Nicky Wilson and O’Brien on top, after 10 laps of the Snetterton 300 circuit. From the front row of the grid Baker finished fourth, four seconds further back on his Dodfrey Engineering Kawasaki.
In 13th Luke Dixon claimed the Clubman win on his BMW.
Though he completed his cleansweep of victories with a brace on Sunday, Patmore was still forced to race hard for his wins.
In the day’s opener he narrowly better O’Brien in the drag race to the line, his winning margin less than four hundredths of a second. The race for the win was also not only a two-horse one, with Wilson only a second and a half back, giving chase the entire way.
Peter Baker’s day ended early, after he crashed on the opening lap. He also wouldn’t make race three.
Three tenths of a second covered the podium in the final race, but it was again with Patmore on the top step. Behind him, Wilson and O’Brien reversed their positions from the morning’s race to finish second and third.
Dixon finished an impressive sixth, hanging onto the back of the battle for fourth between Phillip Baker and Ritchie Thornton, to take the Clubman win, adding it to his class victory in race two, in which he finished eighth overall.
Patmore’s trio of wins and all round exceptional performance saw him awarded the Champion of Snetterton trophy, a trophy born in 2012 to mark the opening of the new 300 layout.
Team Respro MRO 600 and DART Motorsport Clubman 600
There were three winners from four races in the Team Respro MRO 600s, while the championship leader - Dawid Krawiecki - could only manage a best finish of fifth over the course of the weekend.
Adam Hartgrove and Louis Valleley split the wins on Saturday, with Conor Wheeler collecting a brace of victories on Sunday.
In race one Hartgrove, along with Valleley and pole-sitter Wheeler battled all race long, with winner Hartgrove and Wheeler setting their fastest laps on the final circulation to finish first and second. Valleley claimed third, half a second covering the trio, with Owen Jenner just a second further back in fourth.
Krawiecki finished sixth, behind Shane Norval, while the first Clubman winner of the weekend was Tom Bensted in 14th.
Improving from his third in race one, Valleley was the victor in race two, chased home by Wheeler in second. The pair managed to pull a gap on the chasing field, with Jenner just over two and a half seconds back in third, after he narrowly beat Hartgrove to the final podium spot.
Claiming the final point in 15th, Bensted notched another Clubman win.
On Sunday Wheeler’s first win of the day came via a relatively comfortable margin of two and a half seconds, as he also set the fastest lap of the race. Valleley was second, while Jenner picked up another podium finish by again beating Hartgrove to the bronze medal position. Bensted was again the Clubman winner.
While Wheeler made it a perfect day by winning the fourth race of the weekend, it was to be a disappointing end to proceedings for Valleley and Jenner, as they both crashed out together on the final lap.
That allowed Wheeler to take victory by over four seconds in the end, with Hartgrove second.
A quarter of a minute behind him, Harry Rowlings completed the podium. In 11th, Alex Barker denied Bensted a perfect weekend in the Clubman class.
DFDS Yamaha Past Masters
After a dominant showing at Oulton Park, where he took three wins from three, Doug Edmondson was easily the post race favourite ahead of the weekend at Snetterton. However, it was Scott Carson - who took two seconds and a third at the opening round - who came away with the lion’s share of the points.
But, it wasn’t all plain sailing. Despite winning three races, a coming together with Edmondson in race four meant they both carded a DNF.
Carson set pole, qualifying ahead of Edmondson and Peter Branton. It was those usual suspects on the podium in race one, with Carson atop followed by Branton, with Edmondson 11 seconds back of the winner.
He found some pace in race two, however, but despite less than a second the difference at the line, it was Carson that made it two from two, with Branton, this time, third.
In the Clubman class, David Ball’s 15th and 13th finishes gave him two wins.
Carson was in imperious form on Sunday morning and secured his hat trick, winning by 16 seconds from Edmondson.
A DNF for Branton on the opening lap left Rik Ballerini to take the final spot on the podium. Richard Haywood was the Clubman winner in 10th.
Branton was out of the running for the final race, and would be joined on the sidelines by both Carson and Edmondson, after the pair crashed out on lap two. With the three main protagonists out of the running, Billy Perkins, Ballerini, and Paul Whitby formed the leading trio of riders.
Perkins and Ballerini charged into the final turn together, but a backmarker baulked Ballerini, almost allowing Whitby to snatch second, as Perkins took the win.
In 10th, Damian Lee took 25 Clubman championship points.
Chilton Motors BMZRC 250
Peter Woodall secured three of the four wins available in the Chilton Motors BMZRC 250 races, but a DNF with a lap to go in the final race cost him the perfect score.
Starting from second on the grid, Woodall was out to close down Andrew Wales lead in the championship, following two seconds but also a DNF at Oulton Park.
On Saturday he twice bested Chris Rogers for the win, with Wales third, a feat he repeated again on Sunday morning.
In the final race of the weekend Rogers retired with two laps to go, which would have allowed Woodall to race unchallenged to the win, before his race ended a lap later.
Sadly for Wales, he was unable to capitalise, finishing second to Harrison Dessoy. Yamaha Past Masters regular, Scott Grant, was third.
ACU Team Green Junior Cup and Senior 300
Mikey Hardie’s two wins and a second from Oulton meant he arrived in Norfolk as the Junior Cup series leader, and he proceeded to qualify on pole position. However a crash in race one with both Owen and Dylan Mellor - which brought out the red flags - ended his weekend early.
With the series leader absent, it left Finn Smart-Weeden, who only scored a seventh and a fourth plus a DNF at round one, to take all four wins.
Starting from the front row after setting the third quickest time in qualifying, Smart-Weeden won the shortened opener by less than a tenth of a second. He finished ahead of Jack Kirsch and Fred McMullan, making it an all-Junior class podium.
In fourth and fifth Danny Huskinson and Phil Atkinson were split by two tenths of a second, as they raced for the Senior class spoils.
Smart-Weeden’s win in race two was a far simpler affair, the youngster running out victorious by five and a half seconds, leaving McMullan and Kirsch to duke it out for second position. McMullan took it by three tenths of a second.
A crash for Huskinson on lap two left Atkinson to race unchallenged to the Senior class win, as he finished fourth overall.
The usual suspects were on the podium again in the first of Sunday’s double-header, as Smart-Weeden crossed the line in front of Kirsch and McMullan.
In the final race Owen Mellor managed to break up the party at the front, keeping Smart-Weeden honest on his way to second place. McMullan, Kirsch, and Dylan Mellor squabbled over third place, half a second covering all three at the end of the race.
Senior 300 championship leader Atkinson extended his points lead with two more class wins, finishing fifth and sixth.
BMCRC Rookie 600
Just one point separated Dan Burnham and Matt Pallett in the Rookie 600 championship standings coming into the weekend at Snetterton, and they went at it from the off as racing got underway in Norfolk.
Nothing separated them at the chequered flag in race one, with Pallett crossing the line fractionally ahead of Burnham. However, a 10-second jump start penalty for Burnham relegated him to third, behind Ashley Coid.
Usual service was resumed for race two, a tenth of a second Pallett’s winning margin over Burnham, with Coid again on the rostrum in third place.
Burnham was able to undo some of the damage done by finishing behind Pallett in races one and two, by winning the other two outings over the weekend.
On each occasion Pallett finished second, with Coid twice third.
BMCRC Rookie 1000
All four Rookie 1000 races were two-horse affairs, between the same two riders on each occasion. Seamus McGlynn and Anthony Hunter were tied together, with McGlynn picking up three wins to Hunter’s single victory.
McGlynn won the weekend’s opener aboard his Yamaha R1, beating Kawasaki-mounted Hunter by a tenth of a second. Lee Grant finished third.
The margin of victory in race two was upped to two tenths, while Michael Clarke and Grant were split by less than a tenth after a drag race to the line for third, just ahead of Daniel McFadden.
It was another McGlynn-Hunter one-two in race three, with Clarke again third. The race for fourth provided some of the greatest action, with less than half a second covering Andrew Williams, Grant, and James Vincer.
Hunter finally broke through to take victory in the fourth race, setting the fastest lap on the final lap to beat McGlynn by a second. Clarke picked up another third place finish.
Steve Jordan Motorcycles Thunderbike Extreme and Ultra
No one was able to get within striking distance of Josh Harvey over the course of the weekend at Snetterton in the Thunderbike Extreme and Thunderbike Ultra races, as he collected four overall wins, and therefore four in the Ultra category.
He ran out a 10-second winner in race one, while the only other ride who looked like he could have challenged him - Steve Palmer - crashed out on lap two.
Stacey Killworth finished a comfortable second, Cecil Dinsmore claimed third, all completing the Ultra class podium. Jack Sim in ninth was the Extreme class winner on his Platform Lift Engineers Yamaha R6.
Harvey won race two, with Palmer recovering to get as close as he ever would over the weekend. Palmer crossed the line two tenths down on the winner, with Killworth third.
Dinsmore was demoted from fourth to sixth for jumping the start.
Sim finished 11th, but was part of a seven rider train in the fight for seventh, and picked up 25 points in the Extreme class.
On his NR Racing Yamaha R1, Harvey was in dominant form again in race three, winning by nearly 15 seconds from Palmer and Dinsmore.
In the Extreme class the winners were battling on track for 12th position, with James Reveley and Sim finishing first and second in class.
Harvey completed his dominant weekend with victory in race four, while Sim took another Extreme class win in 10th. Palmer and Killworth completed the overall podium.
Steve Jordan Motorcycles Thunderbike Sport
Jack Sim, who took three wins in the Thunderbike Extreme class races, was in action again in the Thunderbike Sport category, bagging himself three more victories in the process. He finished second in the fourth race, behind Elliot Fricker.
There was little to split Sim and Fricker all weekend. Sim, aboard his 600 Yamaha won the weekend’s opening race by less than two tenths of a second from Honda CBR600-mounted Fricker. The result and margin were the same in race two.
Matthew Fedrick and Adam Jamison took a third place finish apiece.
Sim and Fricker again finished one-two in the first of Sunday’s double-header, with Fedrick a lonely third.
In the final race Fricker managed to score that first win of the season and deny Sim the foursome, though Sim was in close pursuit to the chequered flag.
The pair were a class apart from the rest of the field, with Fedrick half a minute down in third.
Blue Haze GP and GPF
With the Yamaha Past Masters and MZ running with Bemsee, the Blue Haze GP and GPF races ensure a healthy contingent of two-stroke action over the weekend.
In the GPF class - for production-based machines - Rik Ballerini ran out a four-time winner on a Suzuki RGV250. He was a half a minute ahead of Yamaha pilot Michael Stanley and Aprilia-mounted James Seath.
It was a repeat podium in race two, but the story was very different, this time with a little over half a second covering all three riders.
Ballerini collected his third win in the third race, before making it a cleansweep in the final outing.
Seath and Stanley finished second and third in race three, before Denis Halil got in on the podium action in the final race, pipping Seath to second.
In the GP class races Kevin Wholey and Ballerini - this time in action on a Spondon-framed TZ250 Yamaha - split the wins, taking two each.
Wholey won both of Saturday’s races, with Ballerini twice second and Phil Atkinson, on a TZ350, picking up two third place finishes.
On Sunday Atkinson secured another brace of thirds, while Ballerini and Wholey switched places; Ballerini taking two wins and 50 championship points to Wholey’s brace of seconds.