After setting a stunning lap time to set pole position for the Phoenix Open at a circuit he openly loves, Darren Rumley tumbled from his CR Signs KTM RC8 on the very next lap at the fast sweeping right-hander of Church. Rumley sat on the side of the circuit with an injured elbow, thigh and ankle. After a trip to the medical centre Rumley emerged on crutches, but luckily with no broken bones. However he sat out all three Open finals so that he could keep himself rested for his main focus, the Sound of Thunder where he manfully wrestled the KTM to third place, defending his series lead.
With Rumley out of the Open though, it looked like it may well be a huge points haul for current series leader and defending champion Phil Bevan and his Phil Bevan Track Days ZX10. However Corey Lewis on his Moto Engineering /Refined Recruitment R6 had other ideas. Phil and Corey scrapped out race one with Phil just getting the better of Corey, but their pace dragged them almost 20 seconds clear of third placed Max Symonds. Race two and Corey was out for revenge, and set a blistering early race pace as Bevan fought through from slightly below par start seeing him down in 5
th into turn one. Corey had stretched out a lead, but once Phil was in second he closed lap on lap until with one lap to go Corey lost the front end at the Corkscrew….he saved the slide but that allowed Bevan to be close enough to now make a pass. When the leading pair appeared at the Corkscrew on the final lap they were side by side…. some one had to give way….. neither did, and they both went straight on, onto the grass. Corey kept the bike upright, but Phil had to lay his ZX10 down. With just one corner left Corey had enough of a lead to rejoin and take the win, once more with Symonds next man through.
After a heavy downpour many of the grid chose not to take to the track for the third outing for the Open’s. Corey once more set of at pace but with a 5 second lead he lost his R6 at the Banking allowing Bevan to sweep through a grab the 25 points ahead of David Lewis and Max Symonds who bagged his third podium.
Adam feels deflated in Pre-Injection.
Former two-time Pre Injection champion Adam Jeffery was aiming to put himself back in the championship hunt at Anglesey after closing in on series leader Mike Hobbs last time out at Donington. In the past Hobbs has had a reputation of being a bit-of-a-crasher (…..even the team is called Bin Club Racing !!!), but this year Hobbs has stayed on and 5 wins have come his way. Saturday’s race had Adam leading the way on his AFB R1 Yamaha, but as the race went on Hobbsie closed in as Adam’s pace curiously dropped off. Hobbs swept through half way down the corkscrew, and Jeffery simply had no response. It turned out that Adam’s R1 had a cracked front rim resulting in a slow puncture.
More issues for Adam on Sunday saw him start from the back of the grid in very wet conditions, and was in no mod to give away any points. Adam is a real rain-master and was soon up with race leaders Hobbs and Phil Hacker. After getting to the front he dragged clear from Hacker in second and Hobbs who had to settle for third with a bike not giving him the grip he needed. In the 700cc category Phil Webber took the win in Saturdays dry race but struggled in 7
th in Sundays rain as series leader Chris Hobbs took the big points on his DCI Refrigeration R6.
Corey bags maximum points.
Corey Lewis not only had a field day in the Open up against the superbikes, he dominated the 600cc class taking a pair of wins over James Harrison and Rhodri Owen on Saturday and Max Symonds on again Rhodri on Sunday.
Corey needed the points as he had a no score weekend at Castle Combe two rounds ago, and that allowed Max Symonds on his Adam and Haylee Jeffery backed ZX6 R to build a lead. Max at 18 and Corey at 19 years old will fight this one out to the end of the year. There are now just 7 points between them with three races to go. Both riders are proven championship winners and are past winners of the NG Road Racing F125 Championship.
The rest of the action in brief.
Daniel Booth took a pair of wins in the F125’s earning him the Barhdal newcomers award, he beat series leader Liam Delves on Saturday, but Delves suffered a start line collision on Sunday that saw his Aprilia plough onto the back of a stricken machine. Delves walked away but his machine is a write off.
Mark Clayton continued his winning ways in the GP125 class with another pair, Sam Wilford did the same on his GP45.
Anthony Van Looy took Saturdays F400 win but the bike stalled on the line in the final resulting in a race stoppage, Daniel Tilley took the rerun over Owen Hunt.
Phil Atkinson and Wilford took a win apiece in the 500 Open as they shared the grid with the Mini Twins where Richard Goode took a maximum points haul.
Phil Bevan was unbeaten in the Powerbike to secure the title for a seventh time, he had attention from Colin Thompson, Leigh Crofield, Roo Cotton and Mark Jones though. James Harrison won both Sound of Thunder races ahead of Dave Mackay.
The Simon O’Donnell vs Richard Hughes show continued in the 1300 Steetstocks. Cairan Bligh joined the party this weekend splitting the season long rivals on Sunday, whilst in the 700 street series Thomas Williams bagged a fine pair of wins on his refreshed R6 Yamaha, heading home Eddie Whitehurst in both races.
Daniel Booth, Aaron Silvester and Stuart Hallam were all winners in the respective newcomer’s classes
Performance of the meeting.... James Harrison
James Harrison was awarded the Performance of the Meeting Award after bagging a pair of wins in the Sound of Thunder and also a podium in the 600 final on his SMW Ltd 675 Triumph. It could have been two podiums in the 600 but the 22 year-old from Cardiff misjudged the huge slipstream he got from Dave Manley and Max Symonds up to the Rocket section and lost the front. But it was a great weekend for James and the team, at a circuit that 12 months saw min struggle.
Moto E European Championship Cup.
All electric racing series took to the grid for the first time ever in the UK at the Anglesey circuit this weekend with rounds of the Moto E series.
Electric racing has been in the world since 2009 when the first race took place in 2009 in the Isle of Man TT. Moto E is a new five round European championship cup that provides a platform for the team and riders to continue to develop cutting edge technology that powers this innovative motor sport. They have all built very interesting machines designed to technical specifications developed in conjunction with the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
After the series was launched at Goodwood earlier this year there was huge interest in the season. But there was disappointment at round one in Assen as the heavens opened and a flooded track meant no racing, so this weekend at Anglesey the teams were keen to impress. Agni Inventor Cedric Lynch brought out his own bike that Bob Barber had used back in 2009 for the TTxGP Electric race. Young NG rider Max Symonds was offered the ride on Cedric’s bike, hoping that his track knowledge would make up for the fact that the bike was the oldest on the grid.
Both races though were dominated by Zongshen Racing’s 5 time Chinese road race champ and defending electric bike champ Ho Chi Fung, taking wins over Martin Cooper on Saturday and Ho Chi’s Zongshen Team mate Tang Yu in Sundays longer race.
Max Symonds vindicated the Agni Team decision to put him onboard by taking a podium position on Sunday grabbing third after a battle with American Jeremiah Johnson.
The series now moves on to Hockenheim, before the final at Donington Park in September
Moto E European Championship Cup
Race 1 Race 2
1
st Ho Chi Fung – Zongshen 1
st Ho Chi Fung – Zongshen
2
nd Martin Cooper – Racing Blue 2
nd Tang Yu – Zongshen
3
rd Tang Yu – Zongshen 3
rd Max Symonds – Agni Racing
This meetings special award winners…
Performance of the meeting James Harrison
Bardahl Newcomer of the meeting Daniel Booth
250 GP Dunlop performance tyre winner Paul Metcalfe
Streetstock Metzeler performance tyre winners Ciaran Bligh – Rob Starkey
Report by Russ Gardner Images by EDP –www.edpphoto.com