Monday June 15, 2009 at 3:30pm
Davies chases Hodgson at Cadwell last weekend
A weekend of changeable weather played a large part in the action as rivals Jason Davis and Mark Davies took a win apiece at the stunning Lincolnshire venue.
The sunny, dry conditions of round 8 favored Jason Davis who lead from pole position to win the 10 lapper, but on Sunday, a rain hit round 9 saw Mark Davies take his first win of the season, as Jason crashed his BM Groundwork’s Yamaha out of second position early on in the 14 lap encounter.
Another packed field of 250’s including a selection of top Irish National Championship contenders and a very welcome series debut from Gertjan Van De Belt across from Europe, took to the track for qualifying on Saturday morning, with drama from the off. NG Cup contender Richard Woollcott dropped his TZ at the hairpin on lap 1, ruling him out of the session without posting a time on the chart.
It was the top 3 title contenders who packed out the front row with Jason Davis in P1 Mark Davies second and Andrew Sawford in 3rd. Ant Hodson Rich Grinling and Chris McAloran made up the second row. Dave Hampton’s Honda was the first of the NG Cup runners in a very creditable 14th on the grid, and equally impressive, Lou Goddard put her LLG Racing Honda one row back in 17th just ahead of series leader Jonathan Stamper in 18th.
Round 8 of the Fraser’s of Gloucester and Dunlop backed series got underway in good dry conditions and following his success at Donington Park just 2 weeks ago, Jason Davis headed the charge from pole. Ant Hodson headed the chasing pack which included Mark Davies, Rich Grinling’s Honda, Chris McAloran, Andrew Sawford and a very impressive Adam Hoare making his series debut.
With Davis controlling from the front, it was Sawford who was posting the consistent fast laps, as he tried to recover from a disastrous start. By lap 5, Davis was now being chased down by the F&G Wybone, Booker Racing TZ of Mark Davies, Ant Hodson, and the hard charging St Neot’s Yamaha of Andrew Sawford. Rich Grinling retired his ill handling Honda to pit lane, following one too many scary moments. The immediate diagnosis was a broken steering damper bracket, not ideal when you jump mountains on a 250 rocket for a hobby!
After 10 laps, it was a perfect, controlled victory for Chester’s Jason Davis, setting a new class lap record in the process. Andrew Sawford clawed back to 2nd and a disappointed Mark Davies completed the podium in 3rd. Ant Hodson was 4th and Chris McAloran brought his Honda home in 5th, a sign of the form we have been waiting for from the very fast 2007 Irish Short Circuit National Champion.
In the NG Cup, Southampton’s Dave Hampton took the win, but he didn’t have things all his own way. Poor starting Championship leader Jonathan Stamper took 3 laps to catch Hampton, but from then on, it was a battle royal until the flag, going Hampton’s way - just. The race times of 17:26.07 for Hampton and 17:26.24 for Stamper gives an accurate picture of the battle. A delighted Lou Goddard took the final podium step in 3rd.
What a difference a day makes! With 5 minutes to go before the pit lane opened for Sunday’s 14 lap round 9, the rain started to fall. For a while though, it was not enough to force the change to wet rubber. If the race started as scheduled, it would almost certainly not go the distance! The cautionary delay was worth it, as the heavens opened and the wet race was on!
This time Mark Davies was really in the mood to set his championship alight, especially following his 3rd the previous day. He took off with Jason Davis in hot pursuit, with Lee Goddard enjoying the wet conditions in 3rd, Chris McAloran 4th, Rich Grinling 5th.
Adam Hoare was the man on a mission and went from 8th on lap 1 to 2nd on lap 2 but the Championship took a twist as reports came in from the infamous Barn Corner that number 3 was down. Sure enough title leader, who has stood on the podium in every race so far this year, had slid from the Yamaha uninjured. He remounted and battled on for a further lap before being black flagged for remounting following a crash.
Davis was not the only rider to get caught by the conditions. One lap later, hard charging Adam Hoare was one of several riders to slide off at the hairpin. Rich Grinling took up the chase in a superb rain dance for 2nd including Lee Goddard, Grinling, McAloran and now - Sawford.
With the race reduced to 13 laps to allow for the extra warm up lap, a delighted Mark Davies took the win, from Andrew Sawford repeating his previous day result, and on the last lap, Chris McAloran squeezed the Honda past local man Rich Grinling to complete the podium. Lee Goddard had his best result of the year in 5th on his LLG Racing Honda. Tony Davies splashed his Cliff Robins TZ home in a season best 6th place, Ant Hodson’s MDJ Racing/TSM Yamaha in 7th, a personal best 8th for the CLV Racing Honda of Mike Wilson, 9th was Dan Jackson, who still has the bestest Mum and Dad in the world who fund his racing, and completing the top 10 was the NG Cup winner Jonathan Stamper.
In a repeat of Saturday’s race, Stamper and Dave Hampton were involved in another race long battle only this time they were joined by another NG Cup title hunter, Adrian Martin. The 3 were locked together for the second half of the race swapping places with scant regard for the conditions. The Stamper Hampton battle pulled away from Martin in the end, and at the flag once again the two at the top of the NG Cup Championship were absolutely together, with a transponder reading even less than the previous day! Adrian Martin held on to 3rd on board his J&RB Racing Honda.
The Dunlop Performance of the Day awards went the way of Richard Woollcott, who took a fine 5th in the NG despite starting from the back of the grid following his tumble on lap 1 of qualifying. Sunday’s award was picked up by Chris McAloran for his season best result and fastest lap of the race, on 3 year old wet tyres.
With the ultra fast curves of Thruxton next up on 20th June, both the National Championship and NG Cup are brewing up to be epic battles all the way. Cadwell showed that Jason Davis will not have exclusive rights to this title. If Sawford can get his Yamaha off the line, he will challenge for the title. Mark Davies has now tasted the winners Champagne, and always threatens. McAloran has improved each time he has finished, and has at last picked up podium silverware. The injured Alex Kenchington will return with a point to prove, and has already won a race this season, prior to his Snetterton injury. Rich Grinling and Ant Hodson both have the pace to win on their day.
Championship standings: Davis 177: Davies 144: Sawford 128: Grinling 108: Hodson 103: McAloran 62: Willshire 49: Russell 49: Kenchington 47: T Davies 45
NG Cup: Stamper 167: Hampton 137: Martin 116: Lou Goddard 112: McCullagh 106: Willshire 100: Woollcott 50: Keogh 49: Ashcroft 34: Henry Cox 22