Sorrymate.com-Hottrax Motorsport 2012 Round Six at Donington Park, Leicestershire on 25th and 26th August 2012 – ACU/Sorrymate.com National and Clubman Endurance with Fuchs Silkolene, MICHELIN Power Cup, Parkitt MotoGrande 600 and SBK City MotoGrande 1000, Parkitt Modern Classics/Street Triple Cup/Maxitwin Ducati + Ducati Desmos – Race Preview - words by Alfonso Lygo
The endurance teams left Cadwell Park after too many incidents and accidents; some favourites walking away with no points to add to their tally; Splitlath Redmond 4 retired, Go Racing Developments made a costly schoolboy error. TANC made it two wins on the trot to win by a few seconds from stalwarts Sweatshop Racing on the road and in class.
Previous champions Pit Stop Racing are the boss outfit in National 600s, only a fourth place at Cadwell keeping them off the podium so far this season, but watch out as they come under increasing pressure from the next six teams, covered by only thirteen points.
Team Traction Control look unstoppable in Clubmans 1000 having posted four wins including three on the bob, JaCasely Ace of Harts and Team Avus Solutions are almost head to head scrapping over seconds spot.
That top step still eludes J & B Racing in Clubmans 600 but they are still table toppers by virtue of five runners up places, only 25 points away from Team XG Group who so far have scored three out of three.
In the 600 Michelin Power Cup, championship leader Richard Charlton came away from Brands out-pointing the opposition with a first, second and third, nearest rival Brett Carter was rewarded with two wins and a DNF. Other runners up included Wayne Humble plus a spanking ride from Rookie Lee Piercey whilst Ady Allsopp and Jamal Mahmood appeared on the bottom step of the podium. This allows the table to become a little closer at the top setting us up nicely for the weekend.
In the litre class we had three different winners with recent Cadwell winner Andy Rouse doing it again, Brighton wild card Simon Gardner won whilst prepping for the Manx Grand Prix. Another man who is very much enjoying his racing at the moment is Gaz Evans, doing well on the roads and on short circuits also won leaving table topper James Cox having a low key weekend losing some ground to the chasing Allsop, Tony Kielty and Rouse who are still in with a shout with nine races to go.
MotoGrande 600s have boasted huge grids throughout the season, Paul O’Connor comes to Donington after a steady weekend in Lincolnshire to top the table from Mark Trowell and Andy Lund with Jake Newstead and an absent from Cadwell Nick Green scrapping over fifth. Top rookie Paul Byron has a reasonably significant cushion over the rest.
Julian Hughes is really on fire at the moment and at the five races at Cadwell Park he was never off the podium in the MotoGrande thousands. Frustrating for main challenger Rhalf Lo Turco who now needs to start producing some wins to get back into contention. Michaels Vincent and Hogarth are topping the rookie table but separated by around 100 points.
One make racing comes to Donington in the form of the Ducatis who have the Cadwell races to thank for closing things up in the tables, runaway man Challis took the opening win so it looked ‘sane old, same old’ but then had a DNF in race two and a second place in the final encounter, Dallas Hornblow was the main beneficiary.
In Class B it was a good day at the office for Chris Clarke who now stands almost fifty points in front of Thomas Halifax with James Stevenson, Richard Spencer-Fleet and Dave Jenkins all still around and in contention.
For variety look no further than the Modern Classics; Chris Norris on his Ducati is dominating the Maxi Twins class from Simon Whenlock who is also second in the Superbikes although some way behind Mark Dicken who has gathered 11 wins and 3 DNFs in his 2012 journey so far. Although Dean Skipper has a century of points advantage over main rival Stuart Bayliss there are still 225 points on the table so watch this space.