The pattern for the weekend was set early in qualifying on a drying track from an early morning shower with the championship leader Bobby Varey posting 1.07.166 lap on his Fastline Superbike Preston TZ250 Yamaha with reigning champion Tommy Lawlor GTL Life & Pensions TZ250 in the no2 slot on a 1.07.857, front row completed by Michael Waring RS 250 Honda 1.07.896 the first of the cup runners,Mark Tyrrell was the leading 125 posting a 1.13.639.
Race 1 , Varey was in no mood to be messing about and hit the front leading the grid down to Hatchets for the first time and proceeded to open a gap over Lawlor with consistent 1.01 second laps over the 12-lap race, Lawlor was having his own problems from Nick Sansome, Double Take Motorcycles TSR 250 pressing him for second but both were losing time to Varey who powered to a win of over 22 seconds with Lawlor just holding off Sansome for second by just 1.04 seconds.
Race 2 , Sunday on a completely dry track was almost a carbon copy of day 1 , Varey again streaked into the lead only to have the race red flagged for a 3 bike pile up at Hatchets , Will Loader, Andrew Glasgow and Frank Swain ending their race there, all riders were ok.
At the restart Varey made the jump and it was business as usual with the Day-Glo yellow machine becoming a distant target for both Lawlor and Sansome trailing at the chequer by over 12 seconds
Race 3, Varey was almost plugged into a race programme on a loop as the lights changed and was the first to the tight hatchets hairpin and never looked like relinquishing the lead to the ever-present shadows of Lawlor and Sansome all be it getting distant as the 12 laps wore on, the winning margin being 17 seconds this time.
In the Cup class over the 3 races Michael Waring took 2 wins and a DNF to close the overall lead in the points to 7 behind James Seath.
125s the spoils went to Mark Tyrrell with 2 wins to James Chapmans 1, Tyrrell still leading the class overall.
Next round is at Castle Combe July 29/30th where the championship could well be decided, Varey having only dropped one score with a dnf the rest have been wins and one second place!
Words: Martin Bennett, race commentator mb07818@gmail.com
Pics: Colin Hill : hairybeastpix@hotmail.com