The final round of the 2011 250GP ACU National Championship and NG Cup took place at Thruxton in a stunning showdown where the title was decided in a final lap final corner last ditch move by Hodson to secure top honours by just two hundredths of a second!
Going into the final round of the Willis Developments, Dunlop and ACU backed Series, the crown was well and truly up for grabs with just 1 point separating the top 3 gunning for the National title. 2010 Champion Andrew Sawford, Daniel Jackson and Ant Hodson all had one hand on the trophy heading for the super fast Hampshire venue.
In front of a large crowd, Sawford set the tone with a blistering qualifying pace to set pole position on board the stun-ning St Neots TZ Yamaha. Along side Sawf, was Ant Hodson with his DJG Construction / TSM backed TZ. Potential spoiler for the title shootout was Darrell Higgins and his Dennis Trollope TZ who posted the third fastest time in qualifying to put Dan Jackson in 4th. With wins against Higgins’ record card this year, he could definitely have driven us to get the calculators out if he mixed it at the top.
Scott Pitchers was having a rare outing on his RS Honda going 5th fastest in qualifying after a season of competing on the vey different R6 Yamaha in the National Superstock 600 series.
With Sawford looking favourite to clear off and retain his title, he took the lead from the start of the 10 lap showdown.
But with good starts from all 3 title challengers they sat line astern at the end of lap 1 in favour of Sawford from Hod-son then Jackson, who was being dogged by the superfast Mark Linton enjoying good pace for the first time this sea-son. By lap 3, Linton passed Jackson for 3rd but at the front Sawford was gapping the desperate Hodson which is how things stayed until mid race.
Then, slowly but surely Hodson was pulling the trigger and the gap came down visibly as the laps ticked by, until lap 9 where they were together on the road and the entire season was down to the final lap of the year BSB Style!
The Thruxton chicane has been the decider of many races and has seen it’s fair share of incidents as a result so sure as Christmas will come – Hodson made his move on Sawford entering the tight right, left right and held his nerve, and the racing line to the flag to win by just a bike length to take the title.
Just behind in 3rd, Linton put pay to Jacksons chances by taking nicking 3rd closely followed by a great scrap for 5th won by Scott Pitchers, from Darrell Higgins, Lee Goddard, Nick Sansome, Rich Grinling and Bruce Dunn in 10th.
The NG Cup was also still up for grabs although with a healthy lead, it was Chippenham’s Paul McCullagh’s to lose. Garry Vines could have taken the se-ries on paper if McCullagh slipped up however, by mid race Vines was parked in pit lane with mechanical gremlins ending his title challenge, handing the se-ries to McCullagh, who backed his title winning performance up with a win. With Vines out of it, Chris Harrison took second in the Cup and stole 2nd in the series from Vines by just 1 point. Lou Goddard enjoyed an impressive ride to claim 3rd in the race and a taste of the podium refreshments!
Dunlop Performance of the Day Award
A brand new rear Dunlop GP tyre was awarded to Sian Brooks as a result of a superb effort in the race after a disap-pointing qualifying session.
National Championship final standings
Hodson 196, Sawford 192, Jackson 185, Higgins 115, Grinling 90, Lewis 84, Goddard 77, Hudson 68, Guillou 55, Brooks 51
NG Cup Championship final standings
McCullagh 190, Harrison 154, Vines 153, Keen 105, Barrett 87, Hunt 83, Cox 64, Metcalfe 61, Hudson 57, Morris 43.
News
Don’t miss the NG Road Racing Dinner Dance and Presentations on 19th November 2011 at Hatherley Manor, Gloucestershire GL2 9QA. Tickets are avail-able by completing the ticket booking form available at www.ngroadracing.org or by emailing [email protected].
The 2012 calendar is currently being worked through and will be available as quickly as possible. Watch www.ngroadracing.org for the announcement in the very near future. One thing for sure, we are delighted to announce 250GP Racing will enjoy it’s 5th season in the current, successful format. Who will join Ant Hodson, Andrew Sawford, Jason Davis and Ben Johnson as National Champions?