Championship closes up with three rounds to go
Chester’s Jason Davis and Barnsley’s Mark Davies took a win each at Pembrey as the South Wales weather once again played it’s role in the action. Dave Hampton took over at the head of the NG Cup title hunt as Stamper failed to score following a high speed tumble, which halted Saturday’s race.
Timed qualifying was not quite as frantic as the last visit to Pembrey back in April, where high winds caused no less than 9 riders to slip off, in exactly the same spot. At the end of the 25 minute qualifying session, it was honors even as the Championship standings were matched on the grid. The BM Groundworks Yamaha of Jason Davis sat in pole position, with Mark Davies Andrew Sawford and Ant Hodson completing the front row.
The 14 lap round 11 battle started under clear skies as the ex Irish National Champion Chris McAloran took the lead at turn one, with Jason Davis and Mark Davies in close formation behind.
But on lap 6, the NG Cup Championship was turned on it’s head as title leader Jonathan Stamper was highsided from the Graham File Tuning TZ at the fastest part of the circuit, and the race was stopped immediately. With broken bones to his clutch hand and fingers, Stamper played no further part in the weekend’s action.
The grid for the restart was set as per the finishing order of the stopped race, and a 7 lap straight race kicked off with Jason Davis in no mood for taking prisoners and took the win by 3 seconds from championship rival Mark Davies. Andrew Sawford brought his St Neots Motorcycles TZ home in 3rd some 5 seconds further back.
Ant Hodson was 4th, once again just missing out on a podium visit and local man Tony Davies brought his Blue Bell Inn Yamaha home in 5th.
Chris McAloran could not get his Honda RS off the line as well as he did in part 1, and picked up 6th with Dave Hampton 7th on the road but more importantly collected the win in the NG Cup Championship, taking full advantage of Stamper’s earlier misfortune. Phil Guillou, Cheltenham’s John Lewis and Dan Jackson rounded out the top 10.
A delighted Peter Henry Cox was 11th home on the road, picking up a season best 2nd place in the Cup, and also the Dunlop Performance of the Day award for his efforts. Adrian Martin completed the Cup podium on board his J&RB Racing RS Honda.
Sunday’s 10 minute warm up session was an absolute wash out as one of the heavy passing storms hit just as the green flag was shown to start proceedings. With most riders in pit lane complaining that the fickle 2 strokes would not warm up to anything like a suitable operating temperature, the red flags were shown to let the worst of the storm blow through.
As storms came and went, the conditions changed every hour, from washed out to drying line within 20 minutes or so, which was always going to have an affect on the proceedings.
Normally, the slot for 250 Championship action follows the lunch break, but as the break approached, another brief downpour soaked the circuit, so it was decided to run the 250 Championship race before lunch, so the conditions were pretty guaranteed as wet – but drying!
Tyre choice for the start was definately wet, but that would almost certainly be the wrong choice as the laps counted down.
At the end of lap 1 Jason Davis lead the pack over the line, but this was not going to be as clear cut as the previous day’s race. Fast improving Tony Davies from just up the road in Llandovery looked really at home in 2nd and decided he had more pace in the bank, so took the lead on lap 2, quickly gapping Davis. Mark Davies also got the better of Jason Davis 2 laps later and put in some quick laps in an attempt to close the gap on the Welshman.
With 7 of the scheduled 18 laps gone, Tony lead the Davies show, with Mark and Jason 2nd and 3rd. Andrew Sawford was in 4th and once again, Dave Hampton was having the ride of his life in 5th, easily leading the NG Cup battle, and the dueling Rich Grinling and Chris McAloran 6th and 7th. That battle was to end on lap 8 as the Honda pairing came together at the tight turn one, Grinling was down but as quick as lightening, illegally picked the Honda up and took off after McAloran. A lap later he was in pit lane having been shown the black flag for remounting after a fall.
Ironically, McAloran did exactly the same all on his own just 4 laps later, again remounting and again being ordered out of the race with the black flag. Now Ant Hodson was the 3rd fastest man on circuit as he charged down Dave Hampton, and set off after Sawford.
With 3 to go, Mark Davies had reeled in Tony Davies, in a perfectly calculated race, and took over at the front which is how it ended. Jason Davis retained his lonely 3rd position but was disappointed not to have challenged for the win. Hodson’s MDJ Racing TSM Yamaha was 4th having got the better of the unsuspecting Andrew Sawford on the final lap who could not respond on destroyed wet tyres. Dave Hampton was an incredible 5th on the road and once again took the top step of the podium in the NG Cup, and also took the series lead by a slender 15 points with 3 rounds to go. Melksham’s Darrell Higgins was 7th on the Dennis Trollope Racing Yamaha. Daniel Jackson had a season best matching 8th place, supported by his Nan and Grandad this time out. John Lewis brought his Hick’s Heating TZ home in 9th and Adrian Martin had another strong ride to 10th, giving him 2nd in the NG Cup.
Taunton rider Richard Woollcott was 3rd in the NG Cup, his first podium of the year. Ant Hodson collected the complimentary rear GP tyre for the Dunlop Performance of the Day, awarded for his charge through the field from a poor start.
The next round will be very decisive as non of the Championship contenders have visited the picturesque Anglesey circuit before. Rounds 13 and 14 take place on 15th and 16th August with official testing on Friday 14th. Both Championship’s are now wide open with just 3 to go!!
Championship: Davis 234, Mark Davies 214, Sawford 175, Hodson 142, Grinling 108, Tony Davies 87, McAloran 72, Jackson 57, Guillou 54, Willshire 49.
Cup: Hampton 207, Stamper 192, Martin 152, Lou Goddard 122, McCullagh 119, Willshire 100, Woollcott 88, Henry Cox 58, Keogh 58, Ashcroft 34.