With British Superbikes north of the border at Knockhill and influencers and PR lovies flocking to Silverstone to sip champagne and take selfies, real racing was taking place at Cadwell Park for round five of the British Motorcycle Racing Championship.
Brendan Mallinder was the standout performer across the MRO Powerbikes and Clubman 1000 races, sponsored by Reactive Parts, delivering two victories. Aboard his Team Mally Honda Fireblade, he qualified on pole and went on to win the first two races, leading from the front each time. In race one, he crossed the line eight and a half seconds ahead of Luke Wallington, also Fireblade-mounted for Roxo Rodina Racing. Connor Thomson claimed third, just a tenth off Wallington.
Race two saw Mallinder once again control the race, taking victory by a margin of three and a half seconds. Scott Stone took second on his Yamaha R1, with Dawid Krawiecki - also on a Yamaha - finishing just half a tenth of a second behind to secure third.
In the Retro 1000s Kieran Smith took a brace of fourths from the first two races on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 K1. In the Clubman 1000 results Sam Cranstone was the top runner in the first two races aboard his Honda Fireblade, twice finishing eighth.
A wet race three saw a thinned out field take to the grid. Tyler Donovan took a commanding overall win and the Retro 1000 victory over Clubman 1000 winner Luke Blackford on his Kawasaki ZX10-RR. Jamie Thomas, also in the Retro 1000 class and on a GSX-R, completed the podium.
DART Motorsport MRO 600 series leader Matt Pallett saw what would have been his fourth win of the season struck off when he was slapped with a one second time penalty for cutting the chicane in race one. Instead, he was classified as the runner-up, with Michael Mills the victor on his A51 Racing Yamaha R6.
Henry Ross completed the podium, just under a second further back, highlighting a tightly contested top three.
From the last step to the top step on the podium, Ross took victory in race two, two and a bit seconds up on Sam Hirst on the Team Valley Racing Kawasaki ZX-636, who started all the way down in 17th on thegrid. Mills managed a solid third.
In the final race of the weekend, Hirst capitalised on his momentum with a dominant ride, taking the win by a huge 13 seconds over Mills, while Weston returned to the podium in third after a brace of fourth place finishes.
Championship leader Pallett recovered well from a back-row start - after not being classified in the final results of race two - to finish sixth.
In the Clubman 600s Kirt Powell claimed the honours in race one in 12th overall. In races two and three Harry Gower took the spoils, finishing seventh and eighth overall on his Triumph Daytona 765.
The L&W Contractors Rookie 1000 class saw a thrilling back-and-forth between Tommy Jones and Mindaugas Storpirstis across the weekend’s four races. On his Honda Fireblade Jones took three wins out of four after finishing runner-up in the opener, where Storpirstis, piloting the ANR Tyres-backed Honda Fireblade, edged him out by just over a second.
Kevin Clinkscales, on his Suzuki GSX-R1000, completed a solid set of rides with four consecutive third-place finishes.
In the Rookie 600s the field was more varied. Jamie Bayliss, aboard his Honda CBR600RR, took a commanding class win in race one - winning ahead of Daniel Preston and Jake Taylor - but had to settle for a pair of seconds in races two and three, where he lost out to Stuart Roberts and Preston. Taylor and Dean Neal were third.
Neal then went on to win race four. He crossed the line in front of Marc Betts and Taylor.
Hudson Cooper began the weekend in dominant fashion in the ACU Team Green Junior Cup and Senior Ninja series, securing pole with a commanding advantage of over one and a half seconds over his nearest challenger. Carrying that momentum into rave one, he led from lights to flag, crossing the line over five seconds clear of the chasing pack. The closest pressure came from fellow junior runner, Arnie Carr, who carved through from sixth on the grid to finish runner-up, narrowly ahead of Travis Rooker on his Swedish Car Connection Kawasaki, who completed the podium just 0.209 seconds behind Carr.
Daryn Busa, in fifth, was top senior rider, 15 seconds behind his son, Kian, in fourth.
It was a repeat victory for Cooper in the second outing, but the margin of success was notably slimmer. Carr kept him honest throughout the red-flagged, four-lap dash, finishing just two seconds adrift, with Rooker again hot on his heels only and three tenths of a second further back. Daryn Busa maintained his class winning streak, finishing sixth overall.
In another red-flagged affair, race three gave Carr the chance to capitalise on Cooper’s DNF to claim victory in a thrilling, wet weather scrap that saw the top three separated by just over half a second. Archie Ormrod produced a standout ride from 11th on the grid to claim second, edging Rooker, who remained a constant podium presence.
Senior riders were again led by Daryn Busa in sixth overall.
Race provided a fitting conclusion to the weekend’s action, with Carr doubling up on victories in a tight five-lap finale. He edged out Cooper by just over a second, with Alfie Garrod storming through the field from 14th to secure a remarkable third, less than two seconds off the win.
Rooker maintained his consistency though just missed the podium in fourth, while Ormrod backed up his race three result with a solid fifth. Daryn Busa remained the top senior in ninth overall, with fellow senior competitor Michael Stone following closely in tenth.
Championship leader David Twyford arrived with a commanding 100-point lead and wasted no time reinforcing his dominance in the Properly Protected MRO Minitwins. Twyford topped qualifying, over two seconds clear of Mitch Ducran and Kevin Lilley. He converted that into two emphatic wins in races one and two, cruising to victory by 12 and nearly 10 seconds respectively.
Del Dowds was twice second to Twyford, as Mitch Ducran and Ronnie Harris took a third place each.
A wet race three delivered the closest finish of the weekend, with Twyford narrowly edging Ducran by just half a tenth of a second, as Harris finished only a tenth of a second off the win to complete a thrilling three-way dash to the line. However, in the red-flag-shortened final race that saw Twyford card a DNF, Ducran finally broke through, taking his first win of the season over Jack Bettis, with Harris again right on the podium in third.
In the Rookie Minitwins class, William Howarth twice finished sixth overall in both of Saturday’s races. Robert Bryant then stole the rookie spotlight, claiming fifth overall and the rookie win in race three, before Howarth added another class win to his tally, again in sixth overall.
Zack Weston took three wins in the Supertwins class, after failing to make the start in race one. That allowed Del Dowds to take victory from Ben Brown and Harry Gower. Weston then won from Dowds and Brown Saturday afternoon, before twice taking wins ahead of Brown and Alex Tufnall.
Josh Harvey and Hayden Killworth were honours even in the Clothing Kings BMCRC Thunderbike Sport class, taking two wins apiece. Harvey took his on Saturday, fending off Adam Jamison and Daniel Mercer in race one, and Killworth and Jamison in race two. Killworth stood on the top of the podium alongside Harvey and Jamison in race three, followed by Logan Stone and Jamison in the final outing.
In Saturday’s dry conditions Kieran Smith secured back-to-back wins aboard his Kawasaki ZX7R in the TBR Performance Thunderbike Ultra class. Smith dominated race one with a commanding nine-second victory over Tyler Donovan, who fended off a close challenge from Daryl Dance; less than a second separated the pair. Race two was a similar story up front, though this time Dance closed the gap to just under five seconds behind Smith, with Donovan finishing third, on a tenth and a half in front of James Fearn in fourth.
In the damp and wet conditions of Sunday, momentum shifted, with Donovan winning races three and four. He beat Smith by seven seconds with Dance completing the podium again in race three, before Donovan doubled up in race four, cruising to another comfortable victory, this time 14 seconds ahead of Clinton Wood. Jamie Thomas was in third, while early front-runner Smith claimed fourth, half a second off the rostrum.
Ian Ashby was a four-time winner in the TW Suspension Thunderbike Extreme category. Mark Biswell finished second three times, the other silver medal spot going to Darren Corkett. Corkett also bagged a brace of third place finishes, in races two and four, with Tony Russo third in race one and David Abraham third in race three.
In the Formula 400s Jake Donkersley and Ollie Sims shared the wins evenly.
Daniel North opened the Fyne Audio and SF Parts BMCRC Thunderbike 500 weekend with a commanding display in race one, narrowly edging out Adrian Kershaw by only a tenth of a second after four closely contested laps, before the red flags came out. Luke MacRae completed the overall and C2-class podium just half a second further back.
Jake Kourti claimed the C1 class honours in fifth overall, fending off the chasing pack by a modest margin. In C3, Colt Dwyer made up three grid positions to secure class victory, finishing ninth overall.
Race two saw North continue his strong form, taking his second victory of the day, again over Kershaw, and again with MacRae in close pursuit in third. Shaun O’Hara came home in fourth overall, narrowly missing a podium by less than a second. Kourti once again won in the C1 category, crossing the line in fifth overall, and Ian Carter took C3 honours.
Kershaw went one better in race three, beating North by over three seconds in the wet conditions. Robert Carver stood on the overall and C2 podium with a strong ride to third. Dwyer claimed the C3 class victory in sixth overall, and Jake Kourti retained C1 class honours in seventh overall.
Kershaw then closed out the event with another win in the final race of the event, this time with a comfortable five and a half-second cushion over MacRae. Mark Sugdon rounded out the C2 top three and the overall podium, while North slipped to fourth. Kourti remained unbeaten in C1 across all four races, and Dwyer again held firm in C3, edging out Dean Carver.
Andrew Wales cleaned up in both the dry and the wet in the REVD Coin MZ races. Winning all four races, he beat Alexander Mann on three occasions, with Peter Woodall second in race four. Chris Kent, Gordan Ryan, Woodall, and Mann also took a third each.
The next round of the British Motorcycle Club’s 2025 season sees the club return to Cadwell Park on 2-3 August for the Sidecar Revival Festival.