Sorrymate.com-Hottrax Motorsport 2012 Round Seven at Cadwell Park, Lincolnshire on 15th and 16th September 2012 – ACU/Sorrymate.com National and Clubman Endurance with Fuchs Silkolene, MICHELIN Power Cup, Parkitt MotoGrande 600 and SBK City MotoGrande 1000, Parkitt Modern Classics/Street Triple Cup/Maxitwin Ducati + Ducati Desmos – Race Report - words by Alfonso Lygo
From pole TEC-Supplies.com (Tim Cripps/Westley Crozier) settled in behind Sweatshop (Mick Godfrey/Simon Gardner) and TANC (Chris Mason/James McBride), Brand Brothers (Martin & Peter), Go Developments (Andy Carpenter/James Edwards), Team Traction Control (Ben Neeves/John Coughlan) and Drury Engineering (Phil Drury/Liam Marchant).
TEC led from Sweatshop with TANC in third, after the one hour mark, just before they paid a time penalty, Go Racing were fourth before the first National 600 of AARD Racing (Richard Dilks/Ady Allsopp). In Clubmans 600 J & B (Jase & Brad Bradlaw) needed to finish ahead or just behind Team XG Group (Gavin Howell/Warren Verwey) to take the title and were only half a second up on their rivals. Pit Stop Racing (Marc/Peter Dilks) who could also take the National 600 title today but wanted a win and the title.
Half-way point and TEC were still at the sharp end, 53s ahead of Sweatshop with TANC a lap adrift - Godfrey reporting the big Kawasaki wasn't revving; Team Traction Control were leading the Clubmans 1000 in a championship winning position whilst Pit Stop and Brand were 20s apart with AARD nearby and in Clubmans 600 we still had XG leading by a lap with Triumph and J & B 36s apart.
New rubber for TANC with 45 minutes left, promoting Sweatshop up a place and pushing TANC to two laps down on the leader, Team Traction Control comfortably led their class with fourth on the road. Pit Stop and Brand were still at it less than a blink of the eye separating the two sets of brothers.
TEC took the win and 25 points with TANC trailing Sweatshop by 36s for second spot, the gap for Nat 600 went down to 0.2s on the penultimate tour but stretched again and starting the last lap a Brand was just ahead a Dilks but a lap later it was Pit Stop who crossed the line 0.084s sooner leading to a class win and another well earned title. Team Traction Control have had a brilliant season and deserve their championship win but we have to look forward to the final round to see if Sweatshop and J & B can keep their points lead intact.
MotoGrande 600
Dan Heyler had a profitable weekend with two wins, a second and one DNF, Matt Ogden and Tommy Mountain sharing the other two wins. Points leader Paul O’Connor had to be content with two fours and a third losing out to nearest rival Mark Trowell who makes it awfully close at the top with four races to go. Andrew Lund holds onto third in the table after posting a couple of sixths and an eighth; Stephen Bridle, Curtis Butler and Jack Bleakley all had good runs, will it be long before Jack makes it onto the podium?
MotoGrande 1000
Going into Cadwell 49 points separated leader Julian Hughes from a hungry Rhalf Lo Turco and it was the Brazilian who came away with a better haul than the leader; three wins and a second compared with Hughes who only managed to scrape a second place from the whole weekend, setting things up nicely for the final round. Third in the points Andy Fenton posted a fourth, fifth and a sixth on his new ZX10 plus a low side at the Hairpin. Endurance man James Edwards, only racing on the Sunday, came away with a much sought after win and a second whilst Andrew Haines was satisfied with two thirds, an achievement mirrored by newcomer Stephen Tiffen. Getting into the top six was Dominic De Leon and Tim Cornforth who has stepped up from 600s.
MotoGrande Rookies
600
No more could have been asked of Chris Bexon posting 4 wins in the 600s to go with two pole positions and four fastest laps, Paul Byron was a worthy contestant but didn’t come close to Bexon who leads the championship table. A good day at the races was also had by Steve ace Waugh, Arron Harte, Gavin Howell, Mark Walmsley and Kevin Bleasley. A rider with a brave heart was double amputee Murray Hambro who finished three races, having retired on the opener.
1000
Adrian Beevor and Pavels Steska saw Cadwell as an opportunity to catch series leader Michael Vincent. Occasional visitor Addison Gledhill won the opener with Vincent and Beevor almost side by side on the line, it was Beevor who took the second race with Vincent in P2. On the Sunday Vincent was best from Beevor on two occasions whilst over the whole weekend Steska, Justin Yates and Lee Clarke did their points tally no harm at all.
Modern Classics
Dean Skipper looked unstoppable for the whole weekend and was, taking three overall wins and Supercup class victories, Mark Hicken dominated the Superbikes on his R6 whilst being runner up to Skipper in all three encounters. Neil Appleby on his splendid Ducati is Dean’s nearest rival and he is joined by Stuart Bayliss on an Aprilia. Chris Norris took two wins on his MaxiTwins Aprilia; his nearest rival was Joe Connolly on a similar machine. Greg Roberts and Rick Owen arte the best of the rest Superbikers but will have to do better to get within challenging distance of Hicken. Robert Eagling posted three Megabike victories from a similarly mounted Christian Holt whilst the irrepressible Harvey Bowden took wins in the Triumph Triples.
Michelin Power Cup 600
Richard Charlton’s visit to the Manx Gran Prix cost him 70 points and the championship lead to nearest rival Brett Carter so Cadwell was the time to make amends. This was done in fine style with three wins, whilst Carter managed a couple of seconds and a DNF leaving the gap at 35 points going into the final three races. Wayne Humble visited the podium twice, William White and Sean Moore once, Adrian Allsopp and Adam Reeve also made the best of it to amass points from top six finishes. Lee Piercey was top rookie twice and Jarvis Adams bagging another win, not such a good weekend for Jamal Mahmood went back to London having let Daniel Ward-Clarke push him back into third in the reckoning.
Michelin Power Cup 1000
Can anyone stop James Cox in winning the 2012 MPC? Only Greg Allsop stood a mathematical chance and he did his upmost posting three seconds but this was not enough to deny the Psycho Racing man who was word perfect with pole, three wins and three fastest laps to become the 2012 Champion. Andy Rouse, Tony Kielty, Gaz Evans and Kevin Allen all divvied up the rest of the top six positions over the weekend. Claudinei Barbosa was unable to make up any real ground on the top of the rookie league, James Mack as Ashley Medhurst took two wins to Barbosa’s one.
Ducati Desmos
The brutal facts are that Andy Challis won all three races over the weekend, a feat already achieved at Snetterton and Donington – this posts him high above nearest challenger Dallas Hornblow who achieved two seconds and a third with James Gerrard being next successful at Cadwell, Phil Wilcock’s campaign benefitted from three fourth places and watch out for relatively new to Ducati racing, Mark Roxbrough with a sixth and two sevenths. Class B three times winner not only dominated his class but was looking for a top three place overall, this hoists Chris to the top of his table over Tom Halifax.