The first of two scheduled visits to Snetterton this year hosted the third round of the 2025 British Motorcycle Racing Club’s season, with the L&W Contractors-backed Rookie 600 and 1000s getting the action underway.
In the first of four races Mindaugas Storpirstis converted pole position into a dominant victory in the 1000s class aboard his ANR tyres Honda, seeing the chequered flag a full 14 seconds before anyone else. A spread-out top three was completed by Jamie Green on his Suzuki GSX-R1000, and Daniel Holt, who was another 21 seconds back of Green on his Set Builds Southern Limited Aprilia.
Storpirstis’ win was the first of four across the weekend, as he dominated proceedings. Though, despite notching all four wins, his margin of victory shrank from race to race, winning the last race by the comparably small margin of a little over a second.
Green was again second in race two, ahead of Kawasaki ZX-10R-mounted Jack Driscoll, but after failing to complete a lap in race three and Sunday’s opener, Tommy Jones capitalised to take the runner-up spot, with Holt taking another third place finish. Green recovered to climb back onto the podium in race four, as he finished third behind Jones, who took his second silver medal finish of the weekend.
There was also dominance in the 600 class, as Sean Gosling banked all four wins on his DMG Construction Yamaha. Peter Cannons and Matthew Benton were second and third on three of the four occasions. However, in race three Benton claimed second place, ahead of Daniel Preston.
In the flagship Reactive Parts MRO Powerbike and Clubman 1000 races there were three wins for Maximus Hardy, the other going the way of Luke Wallington.
Wallington was victorious in race one on the Roxo Rodina Racing Honda, though only three hundredths of a second was all that split him and runner-up and fellow Honda pilot Hardy. Third and the Clubman winner was Aaron Daykin, and the Retro 1000 winner, Kieron Smith, was fourth.
A red-flagged race two saw Hardy and Wallington reverse positions. Hardy was four seconds to the good when the race was stopped, with the three riders battling over the remaining two podium spots covered by one and a half seconds. Wallington was half a second in front of Scott Halliday, who completed the podium. Daykin was fourth and again the Clubman winner. Smith, Retro 1000 winner, was sixth.
Hardy was a double winner on Sunday, twice ahead of Wallington - the gap in race four just four tenths of a second. Halliday and Daykin took a third each. Daykin was also again twice the Clubman winner. Smith and Tyler Donovan each took a Retro victory.
In the early laps of Saturday’s DART Motorsport MRO 600 and Clubman 600 10-lap spectacle there was a breakaway group of five riders, before pole-sitter Matt Pallett recovered from a poor start to get back to the front.
By the end of lap four Pallett had pulled a gap of one and a half seconds, but would crash out a lap later. That left James Dutton and Zack Weston to do battle for victory for a handful of laps, before a mistake saw Weston drop back into the group behind. Now unchallenged, Dutton continued on to take victory by seven seconds.
Less than two tenths of a second covered the three riders battling for the remaining two spots on the rostrum. Michael Mills was second, Henry Ross third, with Joey Lambden missing out in fourth. Weston was fifth. Rhys Forrest was the Clubman winner in eighth.
The first running of Sunday’s race was red-flagged, the re-run shortened to five laps. At the end the top four were covered by less than a second, with AMR Motorcycles Yamaha rider Dutton the winner, in front of Ross, Weston, and Pallett. In seventh, Forrest again took the Clubman spoils.
There were three overall winners from the four races in the Fyne Audio and SF Parts Thunderbike 500 Championship. The CB500 series saw just over two seconds cover the top five in race one. Luke MacRae was the overall victor and C2 class winner, less than a tenth up on Daniel North.
C1 weight class winner Jake Kourti was third, and in ninth Ian Carter was the C3 winner.
The close racing continued into race two, as Declan Reeve won by half a second. North and MacRae were second and third and just four hundredths was all that separated them at the chequered flag.
With the overall win Reeve took the C2 win, Kourti was fifth and the C1 winner, and Oliver MacRae’s sixth gave him the C3 win.
There was finally an overall podium for Kourti in race three, as second gave him another 25 points in the C1 category. He was a little under a second down on North, and a tenth up on Luke MacRae. Oliver MacRae was fifth, and the C3 winner.
After winning race one, Luke MacRae was back on top of the podium in the last race of the weekend, and again less than a tenth up on Noth. Oliver MacRae also finished the weekend with an overall podium, his third gave him another C3 win. Rookie Abigail Marshall was the C1 winner.
There was more close racing on display in the ACU Team Green Junior Cup and Senior Ninja series, which saw Hudson Cooper twice a victor in the Junior class. The other wins went to Henry McCartney and Senior runner Lewis Jones.
Cooper emerged victorious in race one, though only just, as half a tenth of a second was all that was between him and McCartney. The same gap again covered McCartney and third placed Jones.
Sadly for Jones he failed to finish race two, leaving Daryn Busa to take the Senior win in seventh overall. The outright win went to McCartney, with Cooper second and Lucas King third.
There was drama in race three when McCartney was disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct. Cooper took the 25 championship points, with Jones and King completing the top three.
Jones then went and secured the overall win in race four in relatively comfortable fashion, with Cooper second and Travis Rooker taking third.
The two main protagonists so far in the ProperlyProtected.co.uk MRO Minitwins continued their dominance of the class at Snetterton. David Twyford finally had his 100% record broken, only managing to take the win two of the weekend’s three races. Despite this he still extended his series lead as Darren Dowds - who had so far finished second in every race - endured an up-and-down weekend that saw him take his first win, but also a DNF and an eighth.
Twyford was the race one winner, the race in which Dowds relinquished his run of podium finishes. Mitch Ducran and Ronnie Harris joined the series leader on the podium.
Bouncing back, Dowds took his first win of the season and ended Twyford’s perfect start to the season with victory in race two. Twyford was third, the pair sandwiching Steve Costin.
Twyford was then back on top in race three, the 10-lap feature race, ahead of Harris and Ducran.
Four races and four winners was the result in the DFDS Yamaha Past Masters. On a grid populated by TZR250s, the solitary YPVS 350 Yamaha of Andrew Burscough took the chequered flag first in race one, ahead of David Ball and Paul Whitby.
Burscough went from first to second in race two, as Alan Cooper took his first podium finish of the weekend. Ball was third.
In race three Max MacRae took the spoils, with Whitby back on the podium in second and Cooper third, before Alan Bushell made it four winners from four races. He claimed victory ahead of Tom Ridley and Ball.
Sticking with the two-stroke theme, in the RevdCoin BMZRC 250 series Alexander Mann and Andrew Wales split the wins evenly, taking two each.
In the BMCRC F1 and F2 Sidecars Luke Williams and passenger Kevin Koelsch won three of the four races overall and in turn took three of the four F1 class wins available. The duo elected to sit out the final race of the weekend, which took place in damp conditions, allowing James Faiers and Mark Fox to scoop up the victory.
Ben Birchall and Patrick Rosney were second in the opening race and the F2 winners, before Pete Founds and Jevan Walmsley collected two second place finishes and with them a brace of F2 class wins. Ben Holland and Ricky Stevens were second in the final race.
The bottom step of the podium was occupied by Founds and Walmsley in race one, Faiers and Fox in race two, Brian Gray and Stuart Muldoon in race four. Race four’s F2 win was taken by Charlie Morphet and David Ryder.
The TBF Performance Thunderbike Ultra class saw four winners taste victory across the weekend, as Seamus McGlynn, Kieran Smith, Clinton Wood, and Tyler Donovan took turns standing on the top step of the podium.
James Fearn and Daryl Dance chased McGlynn home, while Wood was denied the win by Smith by just four hundredths of a second, with Donovan third.
On Sunday Connor Swyer was second with Donovan again third, before Wood again finished second, with McGlynn third.
In the TW Suspension Thunderbike Extreme class Tony Russo bookended the weekend with wins, the others going to Matt Hinnells and Andrew Firth.
The Clothing Kings-backed Thunderbike Sport category had Joe White bag a brace of victories, with Daniel Mercer and Logan Stone claiming a solitary win apiece. The TW Suspension Supertwins was dominated by Darren Dowds, and Luca Wilkinson was four times the winner in the BMCRC Formula 400 class.
Unfortunately, the weekend was marred by sad news from Oulton Park, where a multi-rider crash in the second British Supersport race claimed the life of former Bemsee racer and 2018 ACU Team Green Junior Cup champion, Owen Jenner. Everyone at the British Motorcycle Racing Club extends its deepest condolences to Owen’s family and friends, as well as those of Shane Richardson, who was also tragically killed in the incident.