Cadwell. Oh Cadwell, what did you do to us? On Saturday we had all four seasons in one day. Sunshine, rain, a chilling breeze and once, hail! Notwithstanding all that, the 250 ACU and NG Cup racing was decidedly warmer.
An unfortunate absentee from proceedings was Ant Hodson, who had a bit of an incident at Barn corner on Friday’s test day and was sent home that day with a Pelvic fracture. Best wishes Ant and get well soon.
Saturday’s qualifying sprung the first surprise of the day. We’re very used to Phil Atkinson on his Declans Racing TZ getting pole position. This time, he was quite soundly trounced by Dan Jackson, his Autronics TZ a tad over two seconds ahead. Rich Grinling and his RG Carpentry Yamaha grabbed third on the grid. Gary Vines, Dave Hampton and Simon Hunt occupied the third row.
Come race time, Jackson got a great start, but Atkinson wasn’t very far behind. These two fled away from the following pack ably led by Grinling and Vines. Jackson and Atkinson had a fine time, with Atkinson stalking the leader, pestering Jackson time after time. And then it started to spit rain. Huh.
This was unfortunate as all riders were on slick tyres and that made keeping their bikes on the black stuff more than a little tricky. They all managed to cope with the dodgy conditions however, well done lads.
Across the line on the seventh lap, Jackson stuck his hand in the air to acknowledge the rain, but the race continued apace. At the end of the eighth lap, Atkinson was 0.06 seconds ahead, but it was soon apparent that the far reaches of the circuit were getting very wet indeed and as the leaders crested the Mountain, the race was red flagged and Atkinson pronounced the winner. In the NG Cup, Tom Snow bested John Hogg, both scoring useful points.
And so we came to Sunday. Remember the weather we briefly mentioned earlier? Sunday was yet another change. The day dawned bright and clear, blue skies, warm sunshine the whole English springtime shebang!
In the warm up, Atkinson bested Jackson’s pole sitting time by a couple of seconds, so we looked forward to the battle between the two resuming at a hot pace. Sadly for us spectators, Atkinson’s engine seized whilst warming it up before the race, and no amount of spanner twirling would get it fixed, so second spot on the grid was vacant come race time.
Grinling lead the first few laps but in no mood to mess about, Jackson stomped past and led the remainder of the race, eventual-ly coming home sixteen seconds ahead of second placed Grinling. Dave Hampton finished third, followed by Darryll Higgins, (who stayed upright for the entire race, having had a DNF on Satur-day!).
Gary Vines chucked his machine away on the opening lap and ended the day with a very second hand bike and some minor inju-ries. In the NG Cup, Tom Snow again came home first, a bit un-der a second faster than Henry Cox with John Hogg third.
A pretty interesting weekend’s racing, all in all. A few surprises and a serious mixture of weather. (Have we already told you about that?).
So onwards and upwards to Donington where we will be joined by the ACU 125 National Championship.
Championship standings after rounds 2 + 3 National Championship
1 - Phil Atkinson - 75
2 - Rich Grinling - 65
3 - Daniel Jackson - 61
4 - Dave Hampton - 49
5 - Ant Hodson – 40
NG Cup Championship
1 - Henry Cox - 65
2 - Tom Snow - 50
3 - John Hogg - 32
Images by EDP Photo News
www.edpphoto.co.uk
For up-to-date NGRRC results, lap times and general info please visit
www.ngroadracing.org
Championship coordinator Steve Bostock 01452 304804| 07967 681639 |
sbostock@ngroadracing.org