The NGRRC meeting at Brands arrived later in the year as normally one of the first on the calendar with the normal Kent /East coast March /April winds and showers so it was fingers crossed for the summer to turn up which for once it did with temperatures in the mid to high 20s and a perfect track.
Expectations for the racing was high with as expected Brands specialist Bob Collins entered and Max Symonds to get the Yamaha up to speed for BSB Snetterton also James Hind from a very successful TT as well as NG regulars George Edwards, Daniel Nelmes and Ricky Elder.
Slippery Sunday!!
The whole meeting was spun on its head with the last free practice session Sunday morning with a multiple bike off at Clearways and a huge amount of oil on the circuit, all riders were attended to and then the clear up began with more cement and brushes used that the circuit changed colour in that section, and at times with the blowers clearing up resembled Desert Storm. The first race on track was the Open 600 after 2 warm up laps the grid was full of riders waving the racing line being unrideable, so clean up team was out again to wash the track and allow to dry!
This did the trick with the warm weather, but hours had been lost so the program was reduced to 1 /12 lap race for all classes to complete the day.
Massive thanks to all Marshalls and officials plus the Brands Hatch track staff for the enormous work and effort to enable the meeting to carry on.
Phoenix Open, Qualifying
Was a high-speed affair with half the field getting under the 50second barrier! Edwards was the pace setter pushing the DCM Honda to a pole lap of 47.422 from the Symonds racing R1 AT 47.505 Hind on the front row at 48.219 with his 750 Suzuki. Collins, Nelmes and McLaren-Wood were sitting just behind them.
Race 1:
Edwards is now proving to be the master of the fast start and killer first lap as he streaked away to 51 second standing start lap and had 1.2 seconds over Hind as they completed lap 1, Symonds got past Hind on lap 2 but the gap was up to 1.8 seconds and lap times dropping to record setting pace which went on lap 4 to Edwards 47.333 beating Peter Baker’s 2014 mark of 47.380. away from the leaders there were all manner of battles for the top ten places with the packed grid and short laps it was always going to be the run through the backmarkers would make or break your race.
Collins had his hands full of the Josh Davis Motorsport 600 Yamaha with Morgan McLaren-Wood the young Kiwi red hot on the brakes but Bob a little bit to wise on the fireblade to let him past with Scott Halliday also involved, Ricky Elder was having an odd race caught in other peoples battles and backmarkers had him down in 8th place. By half race distance Edwards had the race under control with a gap of over 2 seconds from Symonds so was watching his pit board to ease home by 1.380 seconds to win from Symonds, Hind some 9 seconds adrift.
Sunday, Race 2:
As per the rest of the programme this was just the one race due to the oil delay on the last practice session of the morning.
No Edwards as they had a test day at Snetterton on Tuesday so needed to get away to get the bikes prepped for another run in BSB in Stock 1000 leaving Hind and Nelmes on the front row.
At the lights Hinds shot off leaving Nelmes and Collins to have a race long battle for the podium while Hind disappeared who in the space had gone from laps of over 37miles at the Isle of Man to 1.2 miles this weekend! McLaren-Wood was the lead 600 pushing the edge of late braking into Paddock Hill from Elder and Dave Mackay. Nelmes after trying every traditional passing place stuck the R1 underneath Collins at Graham Hill bend and hung on by 0.538 for second and 3.917 behind winner Hind.
IMS OPEN 600 and HM Racing Clubman 600
The first group to hit the track for qualifying were the 600’s and the surprise package was Morgan McLaren-Wood from Josh Davis Motorsport a team in the BSB 600 class being run by Dan Cooper looking for useful track time prior to Snetterton and found the Brands track to his liking.
Qualifying
McLaren-Wood was setting the pace from the off with a 48.559 from Ricky Elder at 49.239 and still improving Gareth Roberts 49.269, Michael Goodfellow top clubman with 50.196.
Race 1:
McLaren-wood took full advantage of pole and hit the first turn alone then proceeded to put time into second place Elder almost a second on the first lap! Then proceeded to run a series of 48 second laps with only Elder running the same times just to keep him in sight, only towards the end of the 12 laps with backmarkers did he pace drop off allowing Edler to close down to 2.216 seconds at the flag, Harry Ross 3rd a further 7 seconds behind Michael Goodfellow was leading club rider
Race 2:
After a delayed start with the large amount of cement dust on the race line at the second time of asking the grid lined up with Elder knowing he had to get off the line first which he did up to Paddock Hill only to be passed by McLaren-Wood who quickly started to blitz each lap with sub 50 second times to leave the pack in his wake lapping backmarkers by lap 3 of 12 another dominant performance lights to flag victory by over 9 seconds from Elder and Ross, Goodfellow top club rider again.
RE Performance Powerbike and NL Motor Services Sound of Thunder
Qualifying:
Max Symonds came into qualifying looking for a time and found a 47.782 for pole just in front of Edwards on 47.945 and Scott Halliday at 48.512 this was Max wanted on his only day at the meeting to check the Symonds racing R1 out prior to the next BSB event. Charlie White and The True Heroes Ducati was Sound of Thunder top qualifier at 50.300 from Jay Able 675 Able Racing Triumph51.403
Race 1:
Edwards laid down the now normal rocket start to lead with Symonds right on the Hondas exhaust up to the entrance of Clearways when the front end broke away sending Max and machine sliding into the scenery and Bob Collins to second for a lap until Scott Halliday passed him and dropped him into the path of Dan Nelmes for a couple of laps then Nelmes also got pass the off-par Collins suffering with bike problems. Edwards was clocking off 47 and 48 second laps to take the win from Halliday by just under 7 seconds with Nelmes 0.174 behind in 3rd
Sound of Thunder was all Charlie White in 11th place from Ben Varley in 16th, Former SoT champion Chris Lavisher 3rd in 18th.
Race 2:
With Edwards on the road home Halliday and Nelmes were the front row with Collins looking for a better run this time on row 2 which he did from the start and got into the lead with Nelmes all over him for six laps both riders matching times lap on lap until the constant pressure from Nelmes paid off and squeezed past Collins but that just reignited the battle both riders trying to use the backmarkers to their advantage. Nelmes was on a high after his wins at Pembrey and in no mood to give up a win taking the Checkered Flag by 0.284 of a second from Collins in all the excitement up the sharp end Ross Dunning had worked his way up to 3rd.
Charlie White took SoT honours again from Ben Varley and Leon Wilton 3rd .
Other class wins over the weekend were in the JCR Motorsport Super Twins a win and 2nd place each for Ross Banham and Sam Green, TW Suspension Tech Mini Twins saw Joe Woodward keep his 100% win streak going with 2 wins 250 points and counting!
Tyler Smith and Annabel Thomas shared wins and 2nd places in the Love Life & ride PI 600
Points standings on the downhill run to the end of the season 3 venues to visit
Phoenix Open
1 Daniel Nelmes – 134: 2 George Edwards – 127: 3 Dave Mackay 124
RE Performance Powerbikes
1 Daniel Nelmes – 176: 2 George Edwards – 132 :3 Howard Burchnall – 89
IMS Open 600
1 Ricky Elder – 192: 2 Gareth Roberts – 129 : 3 Will Jones
HM Racing Clubman 600
1 Harry Hinchcliffe – 163: 2 William Fowler – 140 : 3 Mike Knorr – 135
NL Motor Services Sound of Thunder
1 Charlie White -187: 2 Chase Collymore -139 : 3 Ben Varley – 121
Words: Martin Bennett, Race Commentator
Pictures , Colin Hill hairybeastpix@hotmail.com