Wednesday August 22, 2018 at 12:39pm
The sixth round of the ACU/FSRA British Championship will be held over August 25th/26th alongside the Battle of Britain meeting at Croft. This is the second visit to the North East Circuit and was the first meeting of the 2018 calendar. It proved very fruitful for Team ARC Crawford/Hardie LCR Suzuki who took the plaudits at their local circuit with a brace of victories in the main championship and are currently in second place in the championship. This was the first meeting that Founds/Walmsley turned a wheel in anger on their 2018 Suzuki powered DDM chassis and recorded a couple of second place finishes. Since then the pair from Cheshire and Lincolnshire respectively have gone from strength to strength and recorded five championship wins with a double victory at the last round at Donington Park and hold a very healthy eighty five point lead in the Championship. In third place in the championship fifteen points behind second are Hegarty/Neave Baker Honda, although they didnt score a point at the last round due to an issue that plagued them all weekend they will be hoping they have found the issue before this meeting. After a podium at the last meeting in race one Team Ramsden LCR Honda with Tom Christie deputising for Matty will be looking to close the gap on those in front as they are just four points behind third in the championship. After a solid performance from Harrison/Winkle Bellas Honda at the last round where they achieved a second and fourth they now have moved up to fifth. Rounding off the top six is John Lowther/Jake Lowther. John had Sarah Stokoe deputising for Jake at the last round and recorded a fifth and brilliant third place and they sit on ninety-one points. Also returning to this meeting after missing from the last round, from the Isle of Man Mike Jackson with new passenger for the remainder of the season Ben Binns. On to the F2 Cup and the current leaders Gibson/Moore Shelbourne Suzuki had a brilliant start to 2018 here at Croft recording a double victory. The pair currently havent been beaten in the class when they have finished the race and have seven wins so far this season. They are top of the tree with 175 points. In second place and have amassed points at every round so far on 161 points Remnant/Tilley Lumley Kawasaki. With this round and just two others remaining I believe the championship winner will come from one of those teams. In third place on eighty-four points Lumley/Whitnell Lumley Kawasaki. The team did not feature at the last meeting so have it all to do to claw back any points on the teams ahead of them. Sitting fourth in the championship on seventy-eight points are Morgan/Morgan LCR Yamaha. Although they have only competed in two rounds so far, the last round they achieved their first championship win in the F2 class. The F2 Cup class has been hotly contested throughout the field this year so predicting who is going to come where is nigh on impossible. One special mention I would like to give is Wes Pettman/Sue Taylor, they are running a carburettor engine where everyone else is running injection engines. Not just that, that have scored points in nine out of ten races they have competed in. This is a testament to the preparation they put in to race. Everyone will have had a two week break with the exception of Founds/Walmsley as they were at Cadwell park last weekend to compete in the Hyundai Construction Equipment championship run alongside BSB. With another meeting next weekend for round seven at Castle Combe all the teams will be hoping for an incident free weekend. Preview by Mark Dennis - FSRA Press Officer