The Race of the Year lived up to its title with a race-long battle for victory between Charlie Nesbitt and Richard Cooper, which was won by Nesbitt by a margin of less than half a second.
After constant rain had held up the beginning of qualifying by more than an hour, the prospects of any dry racing looked dim, but the weather improved in the afternoon and by the time the ROTY grid lined up the track was dry and the collection of BSB and Superstock riders were ready to provide some top-class racing. Christian Iddon led in the early stages but when he went out on lap five it was Charlie Nesbitt who took over at the front with Richard Cooper some two seconds in arrears with Rhys Forrest third. By lap seven the gap was down to half a second, and for lap after lap Cooper pursued Nesbitt and at last on lap 14 he was ahead, but it was not to last. Nesbitt was back in front next time round and that was how it remained, but the result was always in doubt until the chequered flag came out at the end of twenty laps. Further back there was an equally intense battle for third place between Danny Kent and Leon Jeacock, with the former world champion snatching the lead on the very last lap to take the last rostrum place by a third of a second. Rhys Irwin brought the Supersport Triumph home in fifth ahead of Luke Hedger.
The Mallory Trophy and the Allcomers championships have seen a series of battles between Ashley King and Mikey Leeson, and the two have been so very evenly matched that it seems right that they have ended up with one title each. The first allcomers race saw Ashley lead from the start with Mikey staying within half a second for the first half of the race but then dropping slowly back to finish three seconds down. Race two saw Leeson take the lead and hold on four three laps, but King took over on lap four and edged away to win by two seconds. Ashley came into the final day just one point down, but two wins brought him the championship title.
In the Mallory Trophy Leeson started the day thirty five points ahead, so could have settled for a steady ride for points and still be champion. That wasn’t the way it worked out as Rhys Forrest took off on his 765 Triumph leaving Leeson and King to battle every inch of the eight lap race with never more than half a second between them. King came out just ahead, but Leeson takes the Trophy. Ricky Tarren takes the 600 Mallory Trophy but Jed Bird is the Open 600 champion.
The CB500 championship has been notable for close racing ever since the series began, and the tradition was upheld in the final two races. Championship leader Owen Monaghan led from the start but Wayne Sutton, who in contrast to previous years has been a steady points scorer rather than a winner, took the lead on the second lap and very sensibly got away from the second place battle which featured Terry Allsopp, Kyle Jenkins, Darren Faulkner and Monaghan, who finished in that order with three-quarters of a second covering all four of them, having never crossed the line in the same order on any two consecutive laps. Race two saw Kyle Jenkins and Sutton scrapping all race long, Jenkins taking the win by a third of a second, while the title race was going on behind them in third place. Terry Allsopp came to the last race one point ahead of Owen Monaghan, and the two of them raced wheel to wheel changing position over and over for six laps, but on the final lap Owen came round alone, and thus won the title.
George Bedford had won ten 450cc class races in succession, but he hadn’t come up against any European Talent Cup race winners. Casey O’Gorman was having a rare visit to English shores after a season of racing in Europe, his last result being a win at Aragon, but the different nature of Mallory and Aragon didn’t put him off, and it was Casey who took the win in race one from Alan Moreton’s 500 Suzuki (a result which ensured Alan taking the Sounds of Music two-stroke title), with Bedford third. Race two saw Bedford lead, but never far ahead of Morton, while Harrison Desoy took third ahead of O’Gorman.
George also took the open 500 class title with a win from Harrison Desoy and Casey O’Gorman, John Maclaren clinching runner-up spot with seventh.
The expected battle between Kyle Abell and Liam Price for the 600 Rookies title came to a very early end when Price didn’t complete the first lap and Kyle took the class victory, second overall behind Chris Taylor whose race win was not enough to catch David Kortegas in the 1000 championship.
Aaron Staniforth’s race win confirmed him as champion of the pre-injection 600 class, while Darren Wakefield took Steve Brittain’s 1000 title, despite Steve scoring maximum points in the final race.
Jamie Ingham made it seven wins in a row to take the Mini twins title, George Davies taking the Super Twins title and Simon Cunliffe is the F400 champion. John Lea had already won the GP125 class with eleven race wins, which was good for him as he was unable to race following a recent road accident. Spencer Hunt took both race wins.