The Wirral Hundred club’s final race meeting of the year on 12th & 13
th October marked the 27
th anniversary of the Club’s first meeting at Anglesey, and incorporated its now iconic ‘Anglesey Grand’ run over two legs of the international circuit, with £2,000 of prize money on offer.
Deeside MotorCycle Centre Anglesey Grand
Before a wheel had been turned in Sunday morning’s qualifying practice it was clear that there were surprises in store. Hot favourite to record a fifth win in the Grand, Adam Jenkinson sat in the garage with an Aprilia that had developed a fuel injection problem overnight; he was out, as were two of the other likely winners – TT Specialist Jamie Coward and Scott Shand, who had sidelined himself with a fall on Saturday, having so far been the dominant factor in the W100 Powerbikes championship this year. The practice session was wet and regular Grand competitor Chris Barnes (1000 BMW) took pole position with two first-timers second and third. Second was Louis Dawson (1000 Aprilia), the 2019 EMRA Buildbase champion, usually a mechanic for the IN Developments Aprilia team in BSB, switching roles for this weekend with team rider Lewis Rollo who was assisting with the spanners here. Third was another Anglesey debutant, Irish roads specialist James Kelly (1000 Suzuki). There then followed the fastest of the 600’s – Simon Napier (Kawasaki) and Barry Dimelow (Triumph), both making returns to W100 action after a year of endurance racing.
Because of earlier rain delays, both Legs were reduced from 12 to 10 laps. In the 1
st Leg Dawson took full advantage of his front row start, but Dimelow, a specialist in wet weather racing, took the lead on the third lap and maintained that lead throughout, despite a last-lap effort from Dawson, which saw the margin reduced to 0.35 secs at the flag. Holyhead’s Joey Taylor was 15 secs back in 3
rd place, followed by Scott Darnton and Sonny Martin, all on BMW’s, with Napier and Adrian Kershaw the next best of the 600’s.
Dawson’s fastest lap in the 1st Leg brought him pole position for the 2
nd Leg, and this time, with his confidence increased and with the track drier, he was never headed, winning by 16 secs and comfortably securing the overall victory on aggregate. Behind him though there was a titanic battle for second place, with less than two seconds separating Dimelow, Napier, Ben Solheim and Taylor after the 10 laps.
The impressive Louis Dawson was therefore the winner on aggregate with Barry Dimelow second; Joey Taylor was 20 secs behind in third place, whilst Simon Napier in fifth, collected the special award for the best 600 outside of the top three.
Congratulations to all the riders for putting on a great show for the spectators in difficult conditions.
Championship races
Whilst the Anglesey Grand races were the main focus for the spectators, it was the other 28 races across the weekend that determined the finishing orders in the various club championships. In the
Carl Roberts / Emjess Racing Powerbikes class, Scott Shand’s practice accident sadly put paid to his chances, so all eyes were on the popular and experienced Graham Hornby to have a steady three races. Saturday’s two races were won by Adam Jenkinson before he hit his technical problems and Sonny Martin won Sunday’s race; meanwhile Hornby did all he had to do by having a 9
th, a 7
th and a 2
nd, and clinching the championship, 10 points ahead of the unfortunate Shand. The
Pre-Electronics Powerbikes run alongside their more-modern brothers and at the start of this meeting Jon Wright (R1) led Adrian Kershaw (ZR750) by just 1 point. But the final classification was reversed when Kershaw won the two races on Saturday and followed Wright home in Sunday’s race, winning the championship by just 2 points.
Chris Eden had a comfortable lead in the
Deeside Motorcycle Centre Formula 600 series but some technical woes and a heavy fall made for a somewhat disappointing weekend, but his 3
rd place in Saturday’s first race was enough to secure the title. The race wins were shared around with Max Wadsworth, Barry Dimelow and Adrian Kershaw taking the laurels, Kershaw’s win moving him up to second in the championship ahead of Carl Jones.
The
AS Racing Suspension Services Golden Era Supersport class has been popular this year and has seen some great racing. James Leatham and Simon Robins have tended to be the ones to beat but Leatham’s two DNF’s, a 2
nd and a 3
rd could not compare this weekend with Robins’ win, two 2
nd’s and a 3
rd, and it was he who clinched the title. Apart from Robins, the other race wins were taken by former champion Tim Bradley, now fully fit after injuring himself earlier in the season, and by Matt Stephenson, winning with W100 for the first time.
Tim Sayers had a 29 point lead ahead of this meeting in the
650 Twins class,
but all was sadly to go wrong, with a succession of falls. On the other hand 2018 champion Mike Bampton had two wins, one 3
rd and one 5
th, enough to bag him the championship again. After the first four race meetings Jon Wright had all but secured the
Pre-Injection championship on his R1 and he was able to watch Sunday’s races after having a win and a 2
nd on Saturday; the other race winners were the roads star Jamie Coward and two promising riders, who have come to the fore this season – Matt Stephenson and Josh Potts, the latter clinching second place in the championship in his first season, the best of the 600’s.
Andy Jackson had clinched the
100-500cc Allcomers championship at the previous meeting, and his dominance continued here with four wins aboard his 250 Honda. Stephen Kennedy was the best of the production 400 riders and his consistency across the season gave him a deserved second place in the series. In the
Forgotten Era races for machines up to 500cc, Ian Riley had looked destined to win the championship by a comfortable margin, but his 27 point lead was whittled away to just 7, as a charging Phil Millard, with two wins, got within striking distance. The other race wins went to Craig Newton and Dan Hanby.
In the
W100 Open Sidecar class the main issue was whether Steve Markland & Owen Rigby, with a 12 point advantage over reigning champions John Shipley and Andy Haynes, could hang on to that lead when they were only able to compete in the two races on Sunday. Regular W100 competitors in the past and now a top national pairing Lewis Blackstock & Pat Rosney comfortably won the first three races and then sat out the fourth; Charlie Morphet & Lee Woodward were the best of the rest, moving up to third place in the series. The championship itself would go down to the last race and, fair enough, this was won by the Markland / Rigby duo from Shipley & Haynes, winning their first W100 championship by just 2 points. The W100 Sidecars were joined on track by the teams competing in the final round of the nationwide
FSRA Pre-Injection Sidecar championship. Ten times TT winner Rob Fisher with Rick Long alongside him has dominated the F2 class this year, and they again recorded four impressive wins. In the F1 class the series co-ordinator Dave Tibbles with passenger Raitch Greenwood were tied on points with Wes Pettman and stand-in passenger Ben Robinson. Both crews had to play second-best this time to Joe Heys & Garry Wheeler on their 500cc two-stroke, but the Tibbles / Greenwood pairing had their weekend seriously spoiled by some technical issues, enabling Pettman & Robinson to take the title.
At the end of Saturday
Senior and Junior Open races took place, but Sunday’s two races were to be cancelled, because of an extended rain delay. In the Senior on Saturday Barry Dimelow took the win from Chris Eden and although we did not know it at the time, this would be sufficient for Eden to clinch the championship ahead of Joey Taylor. In the Junior Andy Jackson could not be caught and did not start. The race gave a first win to a delighted Liam Thornton, no doubt cheering dad Kev up, still in hospital after his serious accident at Scarborough a few weeks ago. It was also good to see two other riders new to W100, Alun Brooks and Marcus Simpson, finish second and third.
Finally, there were two non-championship ‘Frolic Races’ for those not competing in the Anglesey Grand and these saw wins for two from across the Irish Sea - Glenn Walker (F600) and Derek Wilson (Powerbikes). The intention of these races was to give an opportunity for those not likely to pick up awards to do so, and it was good to see Liam Weston, Stephen Magill and Marc Colvin so rewarded.
W100 Club Champions 2019
100-500cc Allcomers - Andy Jackson
Forgotten Era - Ian Riley
650 Twins - Mike Bampton
AS Racing Golden Era Supersport - Simon Robins
Pre-Injection - Jon Wright
Deeside Formula 600 - Chris Eden
Pre-Electronic Powerbikes - Adrian Kershaw
Carl Roberts / Emjess Powerbikes - Graham Hornby
Open Sidecars - Steve Markland & Owen Rigby
Anglesey Junior Open - Andy Jackson
Anglesey Senior Open - Chris Eden