The Angelsey round of the NG Racing - Completely Motorbikes championship lived up to the spectacular nature of the coastal circuit with storm Betty wreaking havoc with the paddock on Friday night and Saturday morning with 60mph winds which still persisted during most of Saturday qualifying and race day until very late in the afternoon when some free practice was able to happen.
Sunday Raceday was the normal 2 race programme but with no qualifying the grids were drawn up on champion positions.
Bluebell Lakes Power bike grid was minus pole man Shane Faber who had an off in warm up and feeling decidedly second hand, leaving Chris Pope on the AFB R1 Yamaha to chase the points needed to overhaul Max Symonds from his early season wins, but it was Josh Day on his second race meeting of the year who grabbed and early lead to set a blistering pace the field could not match, 1.09 second laps, Pope was holding second but came off at the top part of the circuit putting a dent in his championship hopes and moving Garry Woodward to second and Mike Merritt to third, Josh taking the win easily with a lead of 21 seconds.
Race 2 with Day on pole and looking confident again he set off at a pace never to be headed leaving Woodward and Merritt to scrap over Second and third, Pope was out on Shaun Hennessy’s YZF 750 Yamaha to get some points on the board with the R1 out of action. Day stroked the R1 home to another good win of over 17seconds Woodward another 2nd from Merritt.
Phoenix Open was a Dan Cooper Motorsport front row with George Edwards and Ricky Elder 1 and 2 on their 600’s and the second row the bigger machines of Day, Pope and Mackay. At the lights Edwards led Day for 1 lap before the first of a row of stoppages. Chris Pope had an off at the fast Church corner, Lee Marks had a tumble on his Ducati at Peel and a fall on the start section had the race red flagged 3 times. At the third time of asking the race got away again Edwards led from the start with Day in tow and Elder behind, Day on lap 2 powered into the lead Edwards staying in touch but not able to get on terms and finishing 4 seconds behind Elder a further 6 seconds adrift.
Race 2 had some drama when Edwards was late for the grid and had to start from the back of the grid,
Day took the lead again with Elder and Mackay next up and a stunning lap saw Edwards up to 4th by the end of the first lap third by lap 3 and then setting off after Elder and getting past him on the last lap to get enough points to seal the Phoenix Open Championship, Josh Day taking yet another win.
IMS Open 600 was another Edwards and Elder show the pair of DCM riders scooting off to gap the field leaving Will Jones, Alexander Latham and Chris Jones to fight for the minor places, Edwards gradually pulled out a 4.7 second gap at the flag over Elder. It was a similar story in race two Edwards able to set the scene with blistering opening laps to set the tone, Elder just not quite on the same pace but not far away and Chris Jones, Will Jones and Alex Latham fighting it out again.
Edwards with maximum points to lead the championship going into the last round and still all to play for Elder some 22 points behind.
Words: Martin Bennett
Pics: Colin Hill :