Ben Blitzes ‘em on new Beemer.
Ben Godfrey the 20 year old Engineer from Long Eaton, is just a 20 minute drive from Donington certainly felt at home on his new LED Solutions by the end of the weekend. After splitting with his Morrello team just a few days before Godfrey picked up his new Buildbase prepared BM on Friday night. He swung his leg over it for the first time on Saturday morning. Despite taking time to figure out how to launch the big beemer off the line he was soon revelling in the power of the Bavarian missile eventually setting a new outright NG lap record for the 1.95 National circuit at 101.54mph (1min 09.38) in the in the third outing of the Phoenix Open. Josh Day on his Crank ZX10 had previously been the man in the open heading home Billy Mellor who on his new Able Engineering BMW in the first two Open outings, but by no more than a bike length or two. Godfrey though was still leaning how to get the best out of his new mount, and when the time was right the team threw in a new rear tyre and the 101.54 lap was the result.
Mellor was the man to beat in the Powerbikes though heading Series leader Roo Cotton and Jamie Harrison on Saturday setting a new Powerbike lap record on Saturday at over 101mph. Whilst on Sunday Cotton made his trademark fast start and was right with Mellor and Godfrey, but lost the front at Roberts…..it looked like a straight forward front ender. That was until his DTR R1 him the high curbing. The R1 barrel-rolled itself to near destruction. Roo walked away but the parts bill has been estimated at about three grand !!!. He still leads the Powerbike championship but has his fingers crossed that the funds can be found and the work can be done to get him on the grid at Oulton in just 5 weeks time.
125 and 250GP ACU National Championship.
NG Road Racing have stepped in with the help of the ACU / DTR Racing and Watchwood to give a new home to the 125GP two strokes after being replaced at BSB meetings with the all 250 four stroke Moto Star series as they run alongside the 250’s. There were over 30 two strokes ring-dinging on the grid under a haze of two stroke smoke….(…insert smiley face here !!). Experienced 125-runner Arnie Shelton took first blood in the series with a double win on the Rusteze Bumper RS125 Honda. In both races Louis Valleley made the early running on the Nykos racing 125 only to she Shelton close him down. Valleley took the runner up spot on Saturday but after leading Sunday’s race he dnf’d the little Nykos leaving the way open for Jamie Edwards to follow Shelton Home.
The 250’s saw another dominant double win for series leader Philip Atkinson on the Declans TZ. Saturday’s race had Atkinson, Ant Hodson and 2012/13 champ Chris Martin out front. Martin though was a little race rusty…. as was his RS250 Honda and he slipped a little off the pace as the race went on finishing just ahead of another former champ Dan Jackson. Dave Hampton made a spirited ride through after running through the gravel at the Roberts Esses to grab sixth behind “Two Stroke Tommy” Lawlor. Sunday saw Atkinson again head Martin, who was much closer this time, with Bruce Dunn having his best ride for some time heading Jackson and Hampton to get on the podium. Ant Hodson was a non-started due to clipping the curb in warm-up, wrenching his knee and his already damaged pelvis from his Cadwell tumble.
ACU / FSRA Formula 2 British Championship.
There was more National racing as NG RR hosted the third and fourth rounds of the popular 600cc sidecar series. Alan Founds the 2015 champion has stepped aside from the FSRA series this year, but the Founds name still sits atop the table as brother Peter with Jevan Walmsley are setting the pace this season......
See the full report and results on…
www.fsra.org.uk/2016-championship-rounds
Hampered Hampton still takes maximum points haul.
Southampton’s Dave Hampton the former 250 GP NG Cup winner splits his racing weekend between the 250 National series on his TZ250 J and RB Racing Yamaha and Dave Pearce built 450 Single Cell Enigma Tigcraft that is backed by Jim Doll from Rhode Island in the USA, where big is usually better, but the Tigcraft is tiny…and quick !. The little Tigcraft is a real race engineers delight, a bike built for the job intended and Dave is now on a roll after the disappointment of a broken cam chain at Cadwell. Saturdays 500 Open final was run in horrible wet conditions, but Dave hit the front by mid race after starting from the back of the grid after missing the warm up lap. He stretched an astonishing 25-second lead before the chequered flag came out. It was a feat made even impressing when you hear that for the last there laps the bike was stuck in third gear. Dave backed it up with a win on Sunday to now head the EDP Open 500 championship over Greg Maden who revelled in the wet conditions on Saturday, but struggled for pace in the 25 degree sunshine on Sunday. Hampton was a unanimous pick for the Performance of the Meeting award.
Josh Singh took another fine pair of wins on his still battered F125 Aprilia that still has the Cadwell Park crash scars evident. Greg Maden shone in the wet taking the GP45 win by over a minute from series leader Tony Bridgefoot, but Tony won in the sun on Sunday. Donald Hendrey on his 600 Bandit and Jonathan Howarth on his 1985 GSXR 750 Ebay buy were the front runners in the Prostocks. Alan Russell got his Mini Twins championship charge back on track with a win and a second as Paul Wardell took a fine win on Sunday, whilst Daniel Harrison took two fine wins in the Super Twins using Donington as preparation for the TT on his JHS Racing SV650. Tom Blackwell still leads the series though despite writing off one of his SV’s. Liam Turberfield took his first win in the 700 pre injection class on Saturday, but series leader Jon Wright was back on farm for Sunday to tale the flag, whilst in the bigger 1300 Pre injection it was a double win for former champ Adam Jeffery. The 50 points now see him top the 2016 listings. Another first time winner came in the 1300 Streetstocks as Mark Dangerfield took the win. It was a race that saw Richard Hughes and Jim Walker crash heavily. Hughes bounced back for some points on Sunday in a race that saw Paul Jeffery return to winning ways on his now totally sorted R1.
Josh Day’s preparations for his first trip to the North West 200 continued well as he took both wins in the 600 Open class taking a stunning win on Saturday over championship rival Max Symonds, Louis Dawson and impressive new charger Dylan Roberts. He didn’t have it all his own way though as Louis Dawson and Joe Sheldon-Shaw upped their games. Josh use the back markers perfectly on the final run to the flag, but his 2 and a half-second win was doesn’t reflect how close the race was. Max struggled will ill health and a bike that was not working with his all weekend and had to settle for sixth place on Sunday behind Josh, Louis, Joe Dylan and Sean Montgomery who had his first outing of the year as reigning 600 champ.
A new format for the Desmo Due’s see four points scoring races for the middleweight Ducati’s. So far Martin Cox has been all dominant and to form took race one over Andy Blomfield. Race two saw Andy Challis enjoying his first outing of the year on the ex Dallas Hornblow 620. Challis hit the front just as a puff of smoke came from Cox’s machine. Two laps later Cox pulled in with oil all over his left boot. That was the last we saw of him. Challis took the next three races, but Blomfield with four runners up spots over the meeting swept to the series lead to change the face of the series. Peter Pritchard is still unbeaten in the 600 class on his Bay Studio 600SS, and to be honest it’s difficult to see who can challenge his and the immaculate little Desmo.
On a weekend that was generally hot and sunny the newcomers race went off during a thunderstorm, with Michael Rees taking the 500, John Rutherford the Mini Twin and new-found rain master Simon Bastable the open on his Robin Bastable Race Support R6 theOpen
Passenger swap pays off for Founds
Sidecars have always featured strongly in the NG race programme, so it was great to see another good grid of three wheelers on Donington, as many crews are in the final preparation stages for the Isle of Man TT. Manxman Dave Molyneux and Dan Sayle rocked up for a final test on the DMR Honda but his preparation took a know as his bike expired in a cloud of oily smoke…. Better here than on the Island I guess. Their demise meant that John and Jake Lowther had a fairly untroubled second half of the race to head home reigning British F2 champ Alan Founds with Dean Kilkenny in the chair. Sunday though had a change of passenger for Founds, as Sam Christie stepped in on the Trustland LCR. There was early pressure from the Lowther's until they were forced out, leaving Founds and Christie to take the win over the hard charging Scottish crew of NG reigning champs Jim Hamilton and Mick Fairhurst on the Jebs Engineering LCR1000. Jim and Mick went one better than their third place on Saturday to have one of their best weekends against some quality opposition.
Words: Russ Gardner - NG Road Racing Media Officer
Images: EDP Photo News -
www.edpphotonews.co.uk Web Info: www.ngroadracing.org