Monday August 17, 2015 at 2:53pm
HOYL Insurance MRO Minitwins
Richard Hickling took a hat-trick of victories in the HOYL Insurance MRO Minitwin championship on the Brands Hatch GP circuit, keeping the fight for the championship interesting with five riders still in with a shout of winning the 2015 gong.
But it was Paul Wilby who made the brighter start to the weekend, the man who arrived as series leader qualified on the front row in third and raced to victory in the opening encounter, which saw four riders split by just over a second.
Despite leading the opening lap, Wilby was shuffled back to fourth place on the second circulation. Kurtis Butler assumed the race lead, and held off the attempts of the chasing trio until the final lap. As Wilby battled his way back to second place, he crossed the line less than a tenth behind Butler, lining up a move as they started the final lap.
After making the move, Wilby held onto the lead and took the win by just over half a second, with Butler second. Hickling finished on the podium in third, just half a second back again of Butler, with Mason Williams fourth.
Just two seconds also covered positions fifth to 12th, further highlighting the competitiveness and entertainment value of the popular class.
Race two saw an even tighter fight for the podium positions, with the top three riders covered by half a second at the chequered flag. But despite the closeness of the battle, Hickling remained in control for much of the race, leading every lap and taking the win, followed across the line by Williams and Wilby.
With an extra lap added to race distance on Sunday, Hickling took his second win in the morning's race, and eventually pulled a small but comfortable gap on his pursuers. The Lids By Wood sponsored rider set the fastest lap of the race on the final circulation and took victory by just over one and a half seconds.
Butler crossed the line in a lonely second place, while the fight for the remaining podium spot was decided by less than three hundredths of a second, Williams fending off Matt Last. Paul Wilby saw his championship lead dented as he crashed out on the third lap.
Hickling completed his hat-trick in the final race of the weekend, again pulling out a gap of over a second to take victory. Butler took another second place in what became another lonely ride, while Last and Williams reversed their positions from the previous race, but with the gap at the chequered flag remarkably again less than three hundredths of a second.
Wilby came through from the back of the grid to salvage 11th place and take some championship points away from a disappointing Sunday.
Thomas Eustace took all four wins in the Rookie Minitwin classification- his class win in the second race coming despite being penalised for a jump start and docked 10 seconds from his overall race time - and cemented the fact that he'll be one to watch progress in the main championship next season.
DFDS Seaways Yamaha Past Masters
Matt Barber extended his championship lead in the DFDS Seaways Yamaha Past Masters, taking three wins and a second place, while reigning champion Graham Higlett took the win in the final race.
Higlett's victory came in the final race of the weekend, but it was scant consolation, as he saw his championship aspirations slip further out of reach after a spark plug issue cost him the chance to fight for the win in race one.
Barber was left to cruise to victory with Pete Moore and Pete Fishwick second and third after a race long fight. Scott Grant took the Rookie win in fifth while Paul Whitby took the Clubman in sixth.
Race two and Barber took another win as Higlett came through from the back of the grid to claim second place. Moore, Grant and Fishwick diced it out for the remaining podium spot, with Moore coming out on top.
Grant was the lead Rookie in fourth with Clubman honours again going to Whitby, this time in sixth.
Sunday's opener saw Barber complete his hat-trick, with Higlett unable to do anything about the former Rookie champion's pace. Higlett spent the opening stages of the race battling with Rookie Grant, but as he pulled out a gap the youngster, who was awarded the Sir Ben Ball trophy as the club's 'tip for the top', crashed on the final lap in a bit to remain in touch.
That allowed Fishwick to take third, while the Rookie win went to Giles Harwood in ninth. Clubman class winner Sacha Gyte crossed the line in sixth.
Despite Higlett's title hopes slipping away, he came out swinging in the final race and showed why he's a two-time champion of the class. He set the fastest lap of the weekend on the final lap of the race to edge out Barber by a tenth of a second, with Fishwick third.
Fifth placed Paul Toland took the Clubman win with Harwood again taking the Rookie class trophy. Kawasaki Junior Cup / Senior 300s
Alex Murley took all four wins in the Kawasaki Junior Cup races at Brands Hatch, but they were far from comfortable with Harry Rowlings pushing him all the way.
Rowlings was just half a second back in the opening race, with Murley taking the win, while Luke O'Higgins finished third and Carl Mitchell fourth and lead Senior 300 rider.
That winning margin became just a tenth in race two, with a repeat podium and Mitchell again the leading Senior 300 finisher.
Sunday saw the gap increase, albeit to four tenths of a second this time around, with O'Higgins just five hundredths of a second further back in third, such was the competitiveness and closeness of the racing. Mitchell took the Senior 300 honours for a third time.
The final race saw Murley complete his clean-sweep of victories, this time edging Rowlings by two tenths of a second as O'Higgins again chased them all the way to the flag, missing out on the second placed spot by less than two hundredths of a second. Monica Isaac took the Senior 300 class win as Mitchell crashed out.
EDIasia Formula 400s
Dan Ruth and Chris Burrage took a brace of victories apiece in the EDIasia Formula 400s, but Ruth remains the champion-elect with just two rounds to go.
And it was Ruth who started on top in the races despite qualifying second, taking the win in the opener ahead of Emma Jarman and MRO 600 front runner Burrage, who were split by less than three hundredths of a second.
Ruth took the win in the second race too, with the front four split by just half a second. Burrage finished second with Mark Thompson bettering Jarman for third.
Dave Harviek took both Sub-64 class wins on Saturday with Matty Whelan claiming both Rookie wins.
On Sunday Burrage scored his brace of victories, his first coming ahead of Thompson with Jarman third, despite suffering a 10-second jump-start penalty, with Ruth off the podium in fourth.
Whelan was the lead Rookie, inside the top 10 in ninth place, while Carl Johnstone took the Sub-64 class win in 12th place.
Burrage took his second win the final race, pulling out a comfortable gap of three seconds on Jarman, who finished second. Ruth was awarded third place after Thompson was penalised for a jump-start.
A DNF for Whelan let Tham Evans take the Rookie class win with Johnstone taking the Sub-64 trophy.
ePayMe MRO Powerbikes
Peter Baker assumed the championship lead in the ePayMe MRO Powerbike series, taking a brace of wins at Brands Hatch.
Baker took both of the available wins on Saturday, his first from Daryl Dance who finished second, while third went to the man who arrived heading the championship, Colin Parker. Parker was second in race two with Jason Byard third, but both unable to get close to Baker.
Ramone Durrani and Mark Sykes took a Clubman win apiece.
Despite not taking a win on Sunday, Baker still managed to finish ahead of Parker in both races.
He finished second in the first race on Sunday as Billy Mellor took the win, with Dance keeping Parker off the podium by taking third.
Mellor again took the win in the final race with Baker second by less than two tenths of a second. Dance was again third as Parker crashed out at the halfway stage. Sykes took a brace of Clubman wins.
In the Rookie 1000 class Shane Herbert took three of the four wins, with Matthew Streeter taking the other.
FreshDrop BMZRC 250s
Three different winners and extremely close racing was the order of the weekend in the FreshDrop sponsored 250 MZ series.
Less than a second split the podium in race one as former champion Chris Rogers took the win in a bid to keep his title hopes alive. Peter Woodall and Mark Taylor were second and third.
Race two however saw championship leader Taylor take the win, as less than a second covered the top five and less than a tenth covered the podium.
Rogers and Woodall were second and third, with Greg Wright and Andrew Wales fourth and fifth.
Woodall took a brace of victories on Sunday, his first coming ahead of Rogers and Wright, with Taylor down in ninth. Woodall then fended off Rogers again in the final race with Wales third, as Taylor endured another torrid race and finished 13th.
RKB F1 and F2 Sidecars
In the RKB-F1 and BMCRC F2 sidecars Gary Smith and Ryan Anderson qualified on pole and stormed to victory in race one, the F1 outfit crossing the line nearly 20 seconds ahead of the F2 duo Sean Reeves and Mark Wilkes and Gordon Pottinger and David Dodd on the Yamaha powered F1 machine.
The duo then took maximum points in race two, with Pottinger and Dodd this time second, with Reeves and Wilkes third and leading F2 runners.
Sunday’s races saw Smith and Anderson again take two overall wins, the first ahead of Reeves and Wilkes on the F2 class Suzuki, with the third spot on the podium going to the F1 pairing of Kev Cable and Adrian Hope.
The final race saw Smith and Anderson get the better of Pottinger and Dodd, who took another second place, while the F2 win again went the way of Reeves and Wilkes, the pair third overall.
Team Respro MRO 600s
Chris Burrage's enjoyed a dominant weekend in the Team Respro MRO 600 championship, taking all four wins to go with his two wins in the 400 class.
David Tinkler and Korie McGreevy finished second and third in race one, with Tinkler also the leading Clubman, before they reversed positions in race two, with Tinkler again the Clubman winner.
Stephen Draper and Arnie Shelton then took second and third in Sunday's opening race as Burrage took the win by one and a half seconds, before Joe Morphett took his only podium finish of the weekend in the final race, finishing second ahead of Shelton.
Draper and Morphett took the wins in the Clubman classification in Sunday's races.
Dominic Pettit took three wins from four in the Rookie class, with the other victory going the way of Benjamin Cotgrove.
Steve Jordan / ELP Racing Thunderbike Sport & Thunderbike Extreme
Seb Kelly put one hand on the Thunderbike Extreme championship crown at Brands Hatch, taking another four wins on his Go Racing Developments Suzuki.
Kelly took a comfortable win in the opening race, crossing the line some 10 seconds ahead of Chris Matthews and David Shelvey. Shelvey and Matthews then swapped podium positions in race two, but were still unable to do anything about Kelly's pace, as he posted a best lap one second quicker than anyone else.
Kelly was on the top step of the podium in both of Sunday's races, and was again flanked by Shelvey and Matthews on each occasion.
In the Sport class Emma Jarman took all four wins, with Byron Kirk second three times to Colin Walkey's solitary runner-up spot.
Adam Jamison was third in both of Saturday's races behind Jarman and Kirk, with Kirk third in Sunday's opener behind Jarman and Walkey.
The final race saw Jarman complete a successful weekend's racing with Kirk second and Walkey third.