Louis Dawson was the star of the EMRA championship races at Mallory Park once again, winning all four races he contested, one from the back of the grid.
The Pallett Bros memorial race, which was also the first Mallory Trophy race began as a tremendous scrap with Louis Dawson holding off Ashley King and John Ingram (who had started his day off well by winning the first Allcomers race), and three laps in Ingram had closed to less than half a second behind Dawson, but on lap four rider and machine were taking separate high speed paths through the gravel trap at the bottom of the Devil’s Elbow, and from that point on Dawson was clear while Ashley King spent the rest of the race in a furious battle with Ricky Tarren for second place. The race was red-flagged after nine laps when Tom Hodge crashed at the hairpin, with Dawson’s Aprilia five seconds ahead of King with Tarren a close third (and first 600). As co-sponsor, with Des Fleetwod of the Pallet Bros Memorial Trophy, and having benefitted from the support of Dennis Pallet in his early racing career, John was keen to be on the startline to present the trophy and was out of his scraped leathers and ready when the three riders returned for their presentation with just a mangled finger to show for his high speed crash.
The second Mallory Trophy was a repeat of the 1-2-3 order, but with the Twins race following immediately, having to switch to the 660 Aprilia meant Louis had to join the grid for the Twins race at the back, one row behind championship leader Jamie Kelman, who had tipped off at the hairpin while lying second to Dawson in race one. After one lap Kelman was seventh and Dawson ninth, having each passed nineteen riders in one lap; next time round they were fifth and sixth, then on lap three Dawson was second and breathing down the neck of Richard Saunders with Kelman up to fourth. Lap four saw Louis take the lead and then it was just a matter of holding on while Jamie came through to second. Eight consecutive wins have brought Louis up to 35 points behind Jamie with double points on the final two races on 24th October – difficult but not impossible.
Richard Blunt was the other star performer with four wins from four starts on his CB500 Honda. The first of the CB500 races began with Blunt shadowing Darren Faulkner but at half distance it was time to take the lead and then Blunt pulled away with Faulkner joining the crashers club at the hairpin on lap nine. Second place went to Terry Allsopp who managed to hold off the battling trio of Dan Brett, Liam Sylvain and Daniel Love all of whom were less than half a second behind him. In the second CB500 race Blunt had an easier ride as Faulkner had to start from the back and although he passed ten riders on lap one it gets harder as you catch the faster ones and in a six lap race there was only time to get up to fourth behind Blunt, Silvain and Love. Both of the Marine Fabrications open 500 races showed the same top four – Blunt, Faulkner, Sylvain and Love.
Alex Pearson and Reece Cashman shared the results in the Midland Superbike Performance Rookies championship races. .In the Richard Moreton trophy race Reece held off the challenge of Alex right up to the last lap, but then narrowly avoiding someone else’s accident he lost the lead, at which point the race was red-flagged after eight laps with Alex taking the win. The second race saw David Kortegas take the early lead with Cashman moving into the lead on lap three while Pearson gave himself a mountain to climb with a slow start, down in sixth on lap one, taking second on lap four, but yet another red flag brought that race to a premature end Reece winning from Alex. The results bring Alex to within 19 points of championship leader Sam Leach.
Ricky Tarren won both Tamworth Yamaha open 600 races with Kurtis Butler narrowly beating Jed Bird for second in both events while Reece Cashman followed up his Rookie rave victory with a fourth in race two.
Aaron Staniforth spent six laps chasing Steve Brittain in the first Pre-injection, took the lead on lap seven then on the final lap crashed at the hairpin (as did so many others on the day) leaving Brittain to take yet another win, which he then repeated in the second race
John Lea achieved his customary runaway victory in the Alamo Racing Sound of Music two-stroke races, turning in lap times on his TZ250 that would have put him fourth in the Mallory Trophy races. Alan Moreton was second in both races, with Allan Hoyland taking the Earlystocks honours both times. Gary Arden won the 125 category twice but Sam Ward’s second places give him the championship, while Shane Hodgkinson won the 450 class on his 300 Yamaha.