Heavy downpour of rain, flooding the start area and pits stopped the qualifying sessions on Saturday afternoon. Warm and sunny weather on Sunday and Monday saw some close races.
Funny Bike.
Phil Crossley continues to dominate Funny Bike and ran 7.288 with a personal best speed of 186.64. He was nearly half a second ahead of the second placed rider Allan Davies 7.641-176.60. Dave Buttery was having turbo-charger issues 7.799-168.75. Pete Le Gros ran his first ever seven-second pass during qualifying 7.827-174.34. Problems continue with Reigning ACU Funny Bike Champion Dave Peters when the teeth on the crankshaft broke, putting him out of the show.
Best race of the day saw Buttery beat Le Gros 7.383 to 7.911. But smoke came out of the engine of Buttery’s bike when he crossed the finish line and he was out of the show. Both Crossley and Davies had byes to the final, with Crossley running a personal et of 7.265. Davies red lit in the final and Crossley has increased his lead in the championship with two rounds to go.
Comp Bike.
Reigning ACU Comp Bike Champion Kevin Osman took number one spot in the final qualifying session 7.935-189.23 (top speed of the meet) edging out points leader Eddy Smiley 7.971-173.55. Sean Mills was in third spot 8.037-180.97. Martin Walker ran a personal best 8.251 to lead the field after day one of qualifying.
Come race day and nearly half the field was out with mechanical problems. The only race in round one saw Walker run another p/b 8.088-180.84 to knock out Mick Winyard. The semi-finals and Osman smoked the rear tyre at the 200ft mark and watched Walker take the win with another p/b 8.036-182.76 to 8.665-180.80. In the other semi Smiley beat Dave Batcheler who ran his best to date on the ex Crossley bike 8.381. The final turned out to be the best race of the day. Walker ran 8.076 with a p/b speed of 183.46 but Smiley took the win light 7.889 (low et) at 176.71.
Super Street Bike.
Steve Venables took top spot 7.519 just ahead of Graham Balchin 7.664 and Chris Reed 7.694. Best race of the day and very nearly a shock result in round one of the eliminations. Venables led Dave Thomas but at the1/8 mile mark, Venables had a problem and managed to just keep ahead of the hard charging Thomas to take the win light 8.247 to Thomas losing 8.373. Balchin beat Nigel Barker and Graham Dance ran his best of the weekend 7.821 to beat Reed.8.161. In the semi-final Balchin ran low et 7.364 to put Dance back on the trailer. In the final Venables put a big holeshot (rt030 to 443) over Balchin and was never headed and won the event 7.397 to Balchin losing 7.447 with top speed of the meet 193.90.
Report by Steven Moxley.