At last a round of the British Clubman Sidecar teams went ahead without rain threatening to cancel the event! The teams headed for Landrake, near Plymouth, for the first time and the first round since Easter. The track was wide, flowing and in perfect condition and produced some excellent racing. Thanks must go to Cornwall MX and Landrake Moto Parc for staging a brilliant weekend.
Race 1 looked like service had resumed for Seemond Stephens and Mike Curnow has they got the holeshot. Stephens/Curnow, unlike the other teams, had been pleased with the unplanned break to the championship following injury, and they stormed off into the lead but they hadn’t bargained for Tony Grahame making his debut in the championship. Grahame, with Ryan Humphrey in the chair, although registered for the Clubmans hadn’t competed so far. They soon took over at the front but only for Stephens/Curnow to repay the compliment with Nick Bowers/Michael Franks, Wayne Delves/Darren Elcocks and Ross Bowers/Guy Eastman following the front two crews. Stephens/Curnow then disappeared as did Delves/Elcocks, the former with engine problems and the latter with a broken clutch. This left Grahame/Humphrey able to pull away and take the win with Bowers/Eastman crossing the line second. Luke Peters/Marc Cooper who had stalled on the start came through the field to take an excellent third.
With Delves/Elcocks seemingly having sorted their clutch problems they took the holeshot for race 2 followed by Tim/Richard Carter, Bowers/Eastman and Steve/Chris Pannell. An incident on the start straight left Stephens/Curnow, now on his Zabel, Peters/Cooper, Bowers/Franks and Grahame/Humphrey with work to do. Before the end of lap 1 Pannell/Pannell came through into second and it wasn’t long before Bowers/Eastman took over at the front relegating Delves/Elcocks back to third. Luck however wasn’t on Delves/Elcocks side as once again they were forced to retire with clutch problems. Bowers/Eastman pulled out a gap back to Pannell/Pannell who in turn pulled away from Richard Penhaligon/Dave Lanyon who had moved up to third. With places changing all the way down the field racing was good but no-one bothered Bowers/Eastman out front. Peters/Cooper once again stormed their way through and by the last lap had managed to bump the Pannell brothers down to third. Grahame/Humphrey and Stephens/Curnow also made their way through the finish fourth and fifth.
As the outfits came to line for race 3 it was obvious that Stephens/Curnow were still having bike problems as they were on a borrowed bike. They had unfortunately arrived late and had to go off the back row and were unable to get to the first corner in the lead. The holeshot was taken by Bowers/Franks but with Bowers/Eastman close behind in no time at all they took over at the front taking Pannell/Pannell with them. Peters/Cooper repeated their moves of the previous two races and got themselves up to second and then into the lead. The battle for the win was on and behind them another battle had developed for third between Pannell/Pannell and Grahame/Humphrey. Peters/Cooper took the win followed by Bowers/Eastman, Grahame/Humphrey and Pannell/Pannell.
This gave the day overall to Bowers/Eastman and Peters/Cooper now head the Championship.
The next round is on 23rd September at Wattisfield Hall near Diss.
Overall Day Results:
1 Ross Bowers/Guy Eastman
2 Luke Peters/Marc Cooper
3 Tony Grahame/Ryan Humphrey
4 Steve Pannell/Chris Pannell
5 Nick Bowers/Michael Franks
6 Shane Horton/Paul Horton
Championship Standings:
1 Luke Peters/Marc Cooper 188
2 Seemond Stephens/Mike Curnow 168
3 Nick Bowers/Pete Batt 136
4 Ross Bowers/Guy Eastman 128
5 Scott Williams/Simon Rogers 125
6 Steve Pannell/Chris Pannell 117
7 Arthur Walton/James Georges 107
8 Richard Penhaligon/Dave Lanyon 101
9 Tim Carter/Richard Carter 94
Report and photos Ann Reynolds