Wirral Hundred: David Jones and Richie Harrison are Top-Dogs at Oulton Park

The Wirral Hundred club’s season-opener at Anglesey in March was graced with dry, sunny weather and some top-class racing. Move on five weeks to Oulton Park (Saturday 28^th April) and it was even better still – with an entry of over 200 riders, a dry, sunny day, and some exceptionally fast racing, spoilt only by a few unwanted oil-spills.

 

There were two star of the day. David Jones from Colwyn Bay, who has had a few in-and-out years recently, was back to the form, which saw him win the Club’s Powerbikes championship in 2015 and finish fifth in the BSB Supersport Cup series in 2009. Competing in both the Formula 600 and Powerbikes classes on 600 and 1000cc Kawasakis he won each of his four races, a performance impressive enough for the marshals to decide that he should win the Paul Leonard Award as the ‘rider of the day’. However, having an equally successful day was W100 newcomer Richie Harrison, from Cumbria, second in the Golden Era Supersport class with Thundersport last year who took his fast but aging R6 to two wins apiece in the G/E Supersport and Pre-Injection races.

 

The Paul Bland Motorsport Formula 600 class attracted 49 entries, with the fastest 40 in qualifying practice seeded into the two championship races. David Jones was the fastest qualifier, a comfortable 2 seconds clear of top engine-builder Pete Jennings having a rare outing on track. In the two races, however, it was Jones and the Club’s five-times F600 champion, Jamie Harris, who dominated the proceedings, finishing more than 10 seconds clear the pack. In race 1 the pack was led by Sean Montgomery, Jonathan Perry and Jennings, whilst in race 2 Chris Eden took 3^rd place followed home by Perry and Adrian Kershaw. It is worth mentioning that despite the pace of the top two in the six-lap races, no riders were lapped. The two F600 consolation races were both won by Tom Airey with Martin Heaton second on both occasions.

 

In the Powerbikes class, the expectation was that championship favourite Johnny Blackshaw (Yamaha) would prevail but first he was out-gunned by Matt Waldron (BMW) in practice and then in race 1 David Jones came from 3^rd place, taking the lead on lap 4 and winning by a comfortable 3.2 seconds from the two Warrington residents, Blackshaw and Waldron, with Irishman Thomas O’Grady and the consistent Jamie Harris next. Race 2 was an absolute cracker: Blackshaw took the lead on lap 1 and held it narrowly throughout until Lodge Corner on the last lap, when Jones took the outside line, and the win by 0.6 seconds. The impressive O’Grady moved up to 3^rd spot in this race, followed by W100 debutant Michael Austin with Harris and Waldron completing the top six. This is the second year for the Pre-2009/Pre-Electronics Powerbikes category and there was an encouraging entry of 16 riders; another W100 debutant Jake Owen from Macclesfield took two impressive wins on his R1 - in the first race he was followed home by club championship leader John Jackson , whilst another newcomer Colin Mooney was the best of the Golden Era Suzuki 750’s; in the second race Adam Houghton and veteran John Jones, both on GSXR 750’s vied for 2^nd place, and were separated by only 0.2 seconds at the flag.

 

There was a wonderful hotch-potch of machines that came to the grid in the 500cc Allcomers races – ranging from 250cc Moto3 or GP bikes, 400cc proddie bikes, a Manx Norton, and a few others in-between. Teenager Liam Delves, a contender in the 2018 British Motostar series and Chris Moore, a winner on his 250 TZ at Oulton last year, were easily the pick of the crop and in both races Delves did just enough to secure two wins. Adrian Kershaw, the 2017 club champion and favourite again this year, was a comfortable third in race 1 but in race 2 he only stayed ahead of the returning Ian Perks by the narrowest of margins (0.004 seconds). Steven Howard had two good 5^th places, whilst another returning rider, Tim Kermode, had a 7^th and a 6^th and would have done better in the first race if he had not incurred a 10-second jump-start penalty.

 

Jonathan Perry had two fine wins in the 650 Twins races a year ago, and he repeated the achievement this time, winning both races by 10 seconds or so. Former Club champion and now a roads specialist Barry Furber had a second and a third whilst it was a delight to see Jim Hodson’s return to racing with a 3^rd place and a 4^th; so too his son Rob who was fastest in practice and 2^nd in race 1.

 

Paul Tye from Anglesey had won both Forgotten Era races in the Club’s first meeting of the season at Anglesey and he repeated the dose here, beating Adrian Morris into 2^nd place in both races, very narrowly in race 1 but by 9 seconds in race 2; both rode 250cc Yamahas. Paul Odlum and Tim Kermode shared the 3^rd places on their 400cc production Kawasakis.

 

In the SSR Suspension Golden Era Supersport races it was Richie Harrison, who dominated; he won the first race by 11 seconds and the second by 17 seconds. Jason Edwards was the best of the W100 regular riders with two 2^nd places. Dave Marsden and Geoff Lunn each took a 3^rd place, whilst for once the usual front-runners Tim Bradley and Ray Stevenson were very slightly off the pace this time.

 

Harrison won both Pre-Injection races from Jason Edwards, also on an R6, by a comfortable 9 seconds in the first race, but by only 3 seconds in race 2. It was somewhat surprising to see that none of the R1’s featured strongly in either race and that John Jones and Adam Houghton on their 750 G/E Superbikes were the main competition for the top two.

 

The David Swallow Memorial Race for classic bikes saw a start-to-finish victory for Wirral’s Steve Ferguson (500 Honda). In the battle of the single-cylinder machines Hefyn Owen (500 Seeley) led the way for 4 laps, but his retirement saw Clive Ling (500 Manx Norton), all the way from Norwich, take the lead and eventually win by 8 seconds from Bob Owen (500 Seeley).  It was fitting that Bill Swallow was aboard the 5^th single-cylinder to finish riding the 350 Ducati, that son David rode on his racing debut. The earlier classic bike race was also won by Steve Ferguson with Hefyn Owen second and Steve Elliott (500 Honda) third.

 

The Earlystocks Racing Club were guests at this meeting and shared track-time with the classic bikes. Matt Goodfield won both races on his 750 Honda but by the narrowest of margins – by 0.05 seconds from Alan Hoyland, and then by 0.8 seconds from Michael Hand.

 

29 hugely contrasting outfits featured in the two Sidecar races combined. In the W100 Open class Ben & Tom Birchall were running-in TT-spec engines, Sam & Adam Christie were preparing for their world championship efforts and Nev Jones & Rob Child were getting in some Oulton track-time ahead of the BSB meeting in a week’s time. When the dust settled the Christies were first across the line in race 1 and Jones & Child in race 2. Best of the rest were Kevin & Steve Morgan and John Shipley & Jon Saidi. The W100 teams shared the track with the pre-injection outfits competing in the FSRA Lane Building Services & PAGID Brake Pads races; this was the FSRA’s first championship round of the year and it attracted 18 entries, surely an indication of a great season ahead.  Both races were won by a brand-new one-day-old pairing John F Shipley & Milo Ward with John & Doug Chandler taking 2^nd place twice, albeit just 1.6 seconds behind in race 2. Series co-ordinator Dave Tibbles & Raitch Greenwood and Mark Burns & Steven Winfrow picked up the two 3^rd places.

 

The next Wirral Hundred meeting of the year will take place at Anglesey over the weekend of 23^rd & 24^th June. Saturday’s action will take place on the 1.55 mile Coastal Circuit, whilst it switches on Sunday to the 2.10 mile International Circuit. One weekend: two circuits.