Wednesday August 8, 2018 at 4:44pm
With the scorching British summer extending into August, the British Motorcycle Racing Club headed to Lincolnshire’s glorious Cadwell Park for the second time this season, as the club’s championships start the run-in. Steve Jordan Motorcycles BMCRC Thunderbike Sport It was a perfect weekend for Steve Topping in the Steve Jordan Motorcycles Thunderbike Sport class, taking pole and all four race wins to wrap up the championship with a round to spare. Despite Jake Povah leading the opening lap of race one, Topping was past him by lap two, and led all the way to the flag to take his first win. Povah was second and Malvern May third. Race two was a slightly simpler affair, as he led from the off to take a dominant win by eight and a half seconds. Richard Branco led the fight for second finishing ahead of Povah, as five riders were covered by a little over a second in the battle for the runner-up spot. It was the same again for Topping in Sunday’s first race, as he bettered brothers and teammates Edward and Thomas Watson. Thomas Watson was back on the podium in second place in Sunday’s closing race, finishing ahead of Daniel Singleton, but the star of the show was Topping, as he took yet another win to seal the crown. ACU Team Green Junior Cup and Senior 300 With over 100 points already separating Team Green Senior 300 championship leader Jamie Kelman from the rest of the field, the championship favourite only furthered his claim for this year’s title by picking up four class and overall wins at Cadwell Park. In the Junior class Harry Fowle took all four class wins, and was second overall in each outing, unable to match the pace of Kelman at the front. However, not part of the championship chase, Owen Jenner’s three second in class finishes extended his series lead over rival James Dutton. Fowle started the opening race from pole, but couldn’t prevent Kelman from taking an early lead, a lead he extended to over a second in two laps. It hovered around the second mark until the closing stages, but with Fowle never able to bridge the gap. In the final two laps Fowle gave up the chase, and settled for a comfortable second place, with Kelman the victor. Kai Dickinson took third and second Senior finisher, narrowly holding off Nicky Wilson who completed the Senior 300 podium. Jenner and Dutton finished sixth and seventh overall, split by half a second. In race two Kelman took an even more commanding win, disappearing into the distance on lap one, going on to win by nearly seven seconds. The fight for second, however, was a far closer affair. Dickinson held the position for much of the race, but Fowle and Wilson were in hot pursuit. Starting the last lap there was nothing between them, but it was Dickinson who still held the advantage. Unfortunately for him he was passed by the pair of them, with Fowle taking second and the Junior Cup win, and Wilson third overall, second in the Senior class. It was fifth and sixth for Jenner and Dutton, again second and third in the Junior class, with Jenner extending his series lead by another four points. Sunday’s action yielded two more wins for Kelman. He again took off at the front in the first of the day’s races, but the fastest lap of the race for Fowle on the last lap meant he closed right in on the leader, but not close enough to snatch the win. Fowle took the Junior win and would start race four from pole, with Wilson third, leading a fiver-rider fight for the final podium spot. In that fight was Jenner and Dutton, the pair fifth and sixth overall. It was four from four for Kelman in the final race, as Fowle took his fourth second placed finish and fourth Junior class win. Wilson took another third, as Jenner bested Dutton for the fourth time to extend his championship lead to 39 points in the Junior class. EDIasia Formula 400 There are main protagonists fighting it out for the EDIasia Formula 400 title, with Andrew Gill and Gary Henning arriving at Cadwell Park split by 39 points. Four races and three wins later, however, Gill had extended that lead to 53 points, but there are still three rounds to go. Gill got things off on the right foot, setting pole while Henning qualified on the second row. He then went on to take a lights-to-flag win in race one, while Henning came through to take second place. Mark Thompson took third, ahead of the leading Sub-64bhp classified rider Hayden Wood. Championship leader Gill doubled up in race two, again leading every lap to take the chequered flag nearly five seconds to the good. Henning held second for every lap apart from the one that mattered, losing out to Matthew Scott on the final circulation, and with it giving away more precious championship points. Wood’s fourth gave him another Sub-64bhp class win, as he reduced his deficit to championship leader Harry Fowle to 23 points. Henning recovered some lost ground in race three, fighting Gill tooth and nail to take the win by half a second. Gill took the runner-up spot, with Fowle third and the Su-64 winner. There was bad new for Wood, too, who, after failing a post-race technical inspection for the Sub-64 class, gave away 25 points to Fowle in the championship chase. After missing out so narrowly in race three, Gill raced to another commanding win in the last race of the weekend to extend his championship lead to 53 points. Henning was second with Scott third. Wood was fourth and, changes made, back in the Sub-64 category to take the class win. Team Respro MRO 600 10 points covered the top four riders in the Team Respro MRO 600 championship, as they headed back to Lincolnshire and Cadwell Park for the second time this season, and the on-track action was equally close. Stephen Draper may have pulled away at the front in race one and raced unchallenged to the win, but in his wake he left a three-rider battle for the remaining podium spots, while behind them five more fought over fifth. Less than a second covered Charlie Farrer, Aaron Silvester, and Michael Mills at the flag, the trio finishing second, third, and fourth respectively. Just over two seconds covered the next five, with Josh Harvey at the front taking fifth place, ahead of Clubman winner Ben Wotton in sixth. Quick out of the blocks in race two, Farrer led the opening lap and, despite losing out to Draper on lap two, held the position until nearly half race distance. He was the passed by Silvester, who set about chasing down Draper, but was never able to bridge the gap. At the chequered flag Draper took another win with Silvester second and Michael Mills third after a last lap pass on Farrer. Philip Baker was the Clubman winner in fifth place. Farrer made another quick getaway in race three, and led the opening two laps before Draper found a way past. Silvester followed by a lap later, as Farrer was forced to retire down pit lane. The A&J Racing Yamaha of Silvester chased down the ZX-6R Kawasaki of Draper, but again couldn’t quite bridge the gap, the pair split by seven tenths of a second at the end of the race. They were joined on the podium by Clubman winner Wotton. Draper made it four from four in the last race, while Farrer came through from the third row to finish second, narrowly holding off Silvester, who took third. Wotton added another Clubman win to his haul in eighth. In the Rookie 600s Max Morgan took three wins to keep himself in championship contention, but a DNF in the third race of four cost him, as Michael White took the win. Reactive Parts MRO Powerbikes and BG Products Clubman 1000 Anthony Johnson extended his championship lead in the Reactive Parts MRO Powerbike series, the champion-elect taking all three wins, his lead now over 100 points. Setting pole, he won race one by a huge 16 seconds, with Colin Parker and Jason Byard on the podium in second and third. Kevin Silvain’s fifth gave him the BG Products Clubman win. While a lesser margin in race two, it was still another commanding win for Johnson, as he took victory on his Bexhill Gearboxes BMW S1000RR by over nine seconds. Parker was again second, as Taryn Skinner claimed third. The Clubman spoils again went to Silvain. Johnson cemented his dominance in the final race, taking the third win as Parker crashed out of second on the 10th lap, bringing out the red flags. The runner-up spot was inherited by Silvain, as he took another Clubman win, with third also going to the Clubman class runner-up, Daniel Johnson. Daniel Johnson, also racing as a Rookie in 2018, took all four Rookie 1000 wins on his BMW S1000RR. ProperlyProtected.co.uk MRO Minitwins The championship feud between current leader Mason Williams and rival Daniel Singleton was reignited at Cadwell Park, with Singleton recovering ground thanks to three wins and an unfortunate DNF for Williams in the final race. Williams held a 24-point lead coming into the weekend, but it was Singleton who came out on top in the opening exchange, taking victory just ahead of the championship leader to reduce the deficit to 19 points, as Williams finished second. Third went to Michael Yates. The pendulum swung the other way in race two, Williams taking his championship lead back out to 24 points, narrowly bettering Singleton by half a second to take the win, with Yates again third. Singleton took nine points out of the series leader in the first of Sunday’s two races, taking the win ahead of Glynn Davies, as Williams could only manage third. But disaster struck in the final race, Williams and Davies going down together on the seventh lap, handing Singleton the win, as he overturned a now 15-point deficit into a 10-point lead. Yates was second and Keith Povah third. In the Rookie Minitwin class Charlie Crawt arrived having already sealed the championship, but a heavy fall on Saturday put a downer on his end to the season, resulting in a broken leg. However, he will be looking to stamp his authority on the main championship in 2019. Charlie Downes Snr took all four class wins over the weekend at Cadwell. Steve Jordan Motorcycles BMCRC Thunderbike Extreme There were three winners from the four races at Cadwell Park for the Steve Jordan Motorcycles Thunderbike Extreme class, with Jason Byard doubling up as David Abraham and Barry Chamberlain took a win apiece. Abraham was the first to chalk a win, taking victory in the opening race Matt Hinnells and Ben Doolan, Hinnells taking a good number of championship points out of Chamberlain, who nursed it home in 11th after developing an issue with two laps to go. Chamberlain recovered in the second race, starting from the front row thanks to his fastest lap in race one to take the win, as Abraham took second and Richard Willsher finished third. Come Sunday and Byard took his brace of victories, his first ahead of Willsher and Abraham, his second ahead of Chamberlain, with Abraham taking another third. Chilton Motors BMZRC Chris Rogers and Chris Kent took two wins each in the Chilton Motors-sponsored BMZRC championship, taking a win each on Saturday and a further victory apiece on Sunday. Kent won the opening race, four and a half seconds ahead of the squabbling Graham Garriques and Mark Taylor, who finished second and third and were split by a tenth of a second at the line. Race two and Rogers was the victor, with Kent second and Taylor third. He then won race three by just two hundredths of a second from Kent, with Taylor again third. In the final race it was Kent on the top step of the podium as Taylor managed to improve to second and avoid another bronze medal, with Garriques third. Report By James Sharpe