Thursday August 21, 2014 at 11:20am
Adam Reeve’s lead in the Derby Phoenix Pre-Injection 600 ACU sponsored Clubman’s championship was cut from 105 points to 63 after an eventful weekend at Croft.
The 32-year-old from Rotherham had to work long and hard in the week to get his Fifth Avenue Limousines Yamaha repaired after a blow up.
But in race one the engine broke again, putting him out and forcing him to switch to the number two bike. It was not as good as the other machine, though, and the best he could do was third in the next two races and second place in the fourth. Gary Cooper (Yamaha) notched up three second places and a fourth to close the gap on Reeve.
Local star David McConnachy (Yamaha), was the star of the class. The 32-year-old from Newcastle was unbeaten, his only problem came in his final race when an already-old tyre was almost unrideable. His winning margin over Reeve was just four fifths of a second.
Lee Wilson (MSG Racing Suzuki 1000) tightened his grip on the two big bikes classes, but the weekend did not start well. Just before he was due to go out for practice, the 31-year-old Yorkshire man discovered a serious oil leak from the front forks. He had to switch to his “wet” bike for practice, qualifying and the first race where he finished second to Jamie Harrison (Honda 1000). After that he swapped the front forks and notched up five wins from his remaining five rides.
Unlucky John Robb, who put Wilson under so much pressure in the last round, crashed on the warm-up lap and broke the scaphoid bone in his right wrist putting out of this meeting and the rest of the season. Wilson now leads Julian Gaunt by 182 points in the Four-strokes class, with Stuart Martin third 23 behind Gaunt. Martin is second in the 700-1300cc Allcomers. Trailing Wilson by 126 points. Jamie Harrison crashed in his second ride, breaking his collar-bone and putting him out of the rest of the meeting.
Dave Weston (Yamaha 600) tops the 175-675cc Allcomers on 141 points, 15 ahead of Andy Taylor (Suzuki 600).Just five points separate the top two now in the Formula 600 class.
Ross Walker (Yamaha) tops the points table on 194, but Sunni Wilson (Yamaha) is hard on his heels with 189. Sunni Wilson leads the Superstock 600 championship with 258 points, 103 ahead of Stephen Tweddle. Jamie Harris is third, five points behind Tweddle.
Four wins from four races lifted Lee Crawford and Stuart Ramsey (Yamaha 600) to the top of the club sidecar championship. Crawford, the 23-year-old from Durham now leads Gary and Daryl Gibson (Suzuki 600) by 11 points.