Two very different days at Thruxton with Saturday bright and sunny, but wet and wild on Sunday was maybe not the best time to climb onboard a new bike that you had only seen the day previous…..no testing…no set up time. But that is what was happened to Cirencester’s Josh Day. Since Josh won the 2010 National 600 Superstock series (…beating Danny Buchan to the crown) things have not exactly gone as per the script. A couple of years with Be Wiser Kawasaki on a Superbike did not work out, and then this year the new Ruby Racing Team and he parted company, leaving the 27 year old without a ride. The loyal team around him scraped enough together to buy an old R6 and scrounge some part worn tyres to get on the grid for this meeting. Josh repaid them with wins in both 600 finals, beating Sean Montgomery and Max Symonds on Saturday, and Max and Alistair Haynes on Sunday. Montgomery had to settle for fourth on Sunday after a bad rear tyre disintegrated during the 7-lap race leaving him with an almost impossible to ride bike. However his determination to finish was rewarded with the championship lead at the end of the day. Josh also used the ex-Dale Thomas R6 in the Phoenix open and took a third and a seventh, both times being first 600 home. The only blot on the result sheets was in Saturday’s Open final where the rear brake bound on, on the warm-up lap. As the weekend drew to a close the Dayo Racing team once more had smiles on their faces…..but are left hunting for money to finish off the season on the R6……offers please to Dayo Racing…. Just Google it….other search engines are available !!!!!
Rain master Hampton leaves everyone in his wake. After mechanical issues in qualifying that saw him only post four laps Phil Atkinson made a cautious start in the 250GP ACU National championship final on Saturday on his Declans Racing TZ250. He soon worked his way into the leading bunch though, and soon picked off former champs Daniel Jackson and Ant Hodson as well as Dave Hampton. However none of the quartet was able to make a break from the group and at the flag all four were within a second of each other with Atkinson the victor. Come Sundays race though the heavens had opened and the 2.35mile track was awash. Dave Hampton seemed to find grip where no one else could on his J & R B Racing TZ as he consistently lapped at over a full second quicker than anyone, eventually taking the win by an astonishing 15 seconds from Atkinson with Hodson in third. With the BSB Moto 3 runners on the same grid Taz Taylor took wins on both days harrying the TZ’s all the way on his KTM, with Liam Delves top 125GP on his RS125 Honda.
“Taz-tastic”…. Taylor triumphs all weekend.
Taz Taylor showed exactly why he is leading the British Moto3 championship on the Ryan Saxelby RS Racing 250 KTM as he swept to wins in both Moto 3 races and both 500cc open finals setting new lap records in both classes on Saturday. The 17-year-old has been racing since he was 6 years old and is on target for the British Moto3 Championship title. Taz was only headed once all weekend, and that was by his team-mate Gorgina Polden!. Behind Taz though the battle for the remaining podium steps was frantic with Thomas Lawlor on his TZ250 GP Yamaha, Dave Hampton riding the Dave Pearce home-built Enigma Tigcraft 450 and Gorgina Polden (Kalex Moto3 KTM) all looking up to the dominant Taylor.
Lap records tumble in the Sidecars.
With more than a hand-full of top crews in the paddock from the Hyundai Heavy Industries BSB series we knew the racing would be quick. We didn’t realise quite how quick on Saturday until Ricky Stevens and Ryan Charlwood set about the race, stamping their authority over Sean Hegarty/James Neave, Andy Peach/Charlie Richardson, Ben Holland/Lee Watson and the rest. On their way to the win they lowered the lap record three times on the Assured Office Solutions/Be Wiser Kawasaki eventually lowering it by over 1.7 seconds to take a ten second win averaging over 106mph. Sundays wet conditions saw many teams head off home but Ian Drowne and Jed Pilmoor-Brady were looking for a good wet set up for the upcoming British round at Thruxton so used the track time and took the race win on the Mick Robson Racing Kawasaki. John and James Saunders on the Debbie S Racing Shelbourne Honda and Andy king with Sam Tilley in the chair of the Natures Flame Ireson Honda shared the spoils in the CSC F2 Sidecar finals.
The pick of the NG action. Mike Hobbs, the defending NG 1300 Pre Injection champion has a real up and downer of a weekend…. Literally. Hobbs was spat out of the seat of his R1 as he succumbed to a massive high side out of the Club chicane, dumping him on the tarmac followed swiftly by getting thumped into the tyre wall, and then for good measure getting a clout from the bike. Undaunted the DCI team based just 20 minutes from Thruxton sent the team gopher to go fetch the spares to rebuild the bike. Come the final the battered and bruised Hobbs started from the back of the grid, and duly carved this way though to take the win, a feat he repeated on Sunday after he had to close down the fast starting Paul Harlington. To make it a good weekend for the DCI team Mike’s son Chris won the 700 Pre Injection final on Sunday after getting beaten in a stunning race on Saturday by Kai Masters and Phil Webber. The race saw the top two dead-heat….. The timekeeper eventually gave the win to Masters on his FZR600 by .01 second……and his Kai’s FZR was just about the oldest (…and possibly slowest in a straight line !!) machine on the grid, but boy did he use the brakes well.
Phil Bevan racked up more points in his bid for his eighth Open title with three podiums on his ZX10R only giving up 5 points all weekend as Billy Mellor took one round on his BMW 1000R. Greg Allsop, Jamie Loveday, Darren Rumley Nick Williamson, Dave Mackay and Forrest Dunn were all forced to play supporting cast to the Bevan title charge. It was a similar story in the Powerbikes as Bevan and Mellor had a win each with Allsop just a few tenths a lap off the pace needed to stay in touch. Darren Rumley upped his pace on Sunday in the wet on old tyres that had seen plenty of action at the NW200 to grab his best result on the new to him ZX10, taking an impressive second. Rumley’s previous class, The Sound of Thunder had series leader Peter Carr win Saturday, but he is never one to push things in the wet. Mark Walley stole Sunday’s win in a close run thing with Dave MacKay who was having his best weekend of the year on the 899 True Heroes Panigale.
Formula 125’s saw Caleb Smith win one before Josh Singh found his form at Thruxton to dominate in Sundays wet conditions. Steven Palmer took a double win in the 400’s with Ben Harrison and Simon Gates in close company. While the GP45’s had Karl Horton and Tony Bridgefoot battle out Saturday’s final but Horton took it and backed up that ride with a convincing win on Sunday. Super Twins honours were even with William Holland and Wayne Axon one-all, but Aaron Silvester took the double in the Mini Twins to extend his series lead over Paul Wardell, Richard Goode and Tom Blackwell. Paul “Potchy” Williams and Martin Lowe continued their 2015 head to head for the 1300 Streetstock title, with Williams having the upper hand this weekend despite the best efforts of Mark Compton to join the winners party. The smaller 700 Street bike has top man of 2015 Thomas Williams take Saturday’s race but had to take second best to Colin Wilson on Sunday as Wilson, the Royal Navy backed runner had his best ever race to head home Williams by less than a tenth at the line.
For the first time, with this being a two-day meeting NG ran the newcomers classes and Paul Williams took the Open, Mickey Daley the 500 and Alan Pearce the Mini Twins……with all three obviously setting new lap records in their respective classes
Performance gets rewarded.
Riding the wheels off his new CR Signs ZX10R Kawasaki in all weather condition Darren Rumley was an easy pick for the Clive and Pam Flood backed performance of the meeting. Darren has switched from his KTMRC8 that took him to multiple Sound of Thunder titles to the big K this year. This weekend showed he is really getting the hang of the new machine with a best of second place behind Phil Bevan in the Switchgear Systems Powerbike final in the wet on Sunday…. and all done on two year old tyres that have already done the NW200 !!!!!….well done Dazza #36.